What’s the Mindset Behind Golden Moments? With Jessica Ennis-Hill (and Nicola Adams)

0:28Watch it early on the High Performance App.

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1:24And that's where Opera Air comes in. It's a lightweight, fast, secure browser built not just for productivity, but for your well-being. With Opera Air, mindfulness is built right in. You'll find free breathing exercises, guided meditations, and soundscapes with ambient sounds, lo-fi music, and binaural beats, all designed to help you focus, relax, and even spark creativity while you browse. Welcome along to another episode of High Performance. This is one of our lovely, slightly shorter Friday episodes where Damien and I just get to break the mould a bit and we do something a little bit different.

2:00How are you, mate? I'm good, mate. How are you? Yeah, I'm well, actually. I've had an enjoyable week, but I've had a busy week. How's yours been? Yeah, really nice. I've taken a couple of days off, actually. What? You never do that? I know. Yeah, a real privilege. Maybe you're learning. It was my wife's birthday, so I was pressing it. I was pressing it. I loved that. Begrudgingly, had to have two days off. well I was going to say maybe you've learned from some of the wonderful guests we've had on this show who try and extol the virtues of getting balance right in their lives and we're about to meet a former guest and the reason why we're about to chat to this person is something very exciting that she has created her own podcast with us called Gold Mines so welcome to our conversation Jess Ennis Hill how are you?

2:42I'm good thank you it's great to see you guys again and you although do we have to call you Dame? Like Dame Jess? Do you demand that? Well, yeah, I think you should really. It's only polite and very formal. Yeah, you must call me Dame all the time. We Jess, but some people actually do act like that. Oh, yeah, yeah. So, Dame Jess, first of all, tell us why you wanted to create a podcast of your own. It's something that I've thought about for a while. And I think, you know, when you're a sports person, you're kind of, you're always pushing boundaries, aren't you? You're always trying something new and trying to, yeah, push yourself out of your comfort zone.

3:18and this is very much out of my comfort zone but something that I was really excited to kind of delve into I think you know as a sports person you you kind of face lots of challenges and you've been through your own journey but one thing that always fascinated me was you know that relationship between different sports and different athletes and you know the the kind of events that they go through and the things that have a massive impact on those you know big performances and it was a fantastic opportunity to team up with you guys and yeah go a little bit deeper into those amazing golden moments.

3:53See one of the things that I think makes you unique Dame Jess is that we're not gonna let this lie. Honestly stop no no no you've got to stop. Just call me Jess. One of the things that I think makes you unique Jess is that you were studying psychology while you were actually at the apex of your own sport and this podcast that you've launched now seems to combine both of those passions. Would you tell us a bit more about that? Yeah, absolutely. I think psychology is something that's always massively fascinated me. And, you know, even in the midst of my career, I said, I'd love to go back to studying psychology and understanding a little bit deeper.

4:34And I think that sports psychology has played a huge part in my own career. And this has been a great way for me to, you know, have those conversations with sporting individuals and non-sporting individuals, but to understand, you know, how do you get to these incredible moments in your life? What are those turning points that you might not see as significant at the time, but do have a, you know, a massive psychological advantage or benefit on the way you move forward? And, you know, for me, it's about mindset. It's how do you adapt? How do you change that mindset to achieve something really unique in your life?

5:10And to be able to, yeah, couple sport and psychology is a great way for me to kind of, yeah, understand that a little bit further. And talking of unique, there's something nice about your show that is very different, where you've asked your guests to bring in things that mean something to them from their career. Tell us a bit more about that. Yeah, so I've got each guest bringing in three items. And these three items have been so different for every guest has had something slightly different. So we've had, you know, medals, which have been incredible, but we've also had some really unique items that you wouldn't perhaps expect to see, but have played such a significant part in their journey.

5:47And I think it's just been a really nice way to kind of, you know, have those items physically there to, you know, cast your mind back to what they mean, whether they've been pictures, we've had someone that brought in a wig, we've had all sorts. And it's just been a really unique way to kind of delve into that journey. And yeah, understand the journey that it takes to get to that golden moment but also what the aftermath of that was as well and how those items have been represented in that way too which has been great. And has there been anything that surprised you in in the series? Yeah I think I kind of I've gone into every conversation you know really open-minded and perhaps with the expectation that you know it might be one particular gold moment that is you know a very common gold moment for that person but actually they've all been quite different.

6:37And, you know, some of the stories and journeys that individuals have been on have been, you know, really challenging, whether that's been, you know, going through the, like a cancer journey. I spoke to one, I don't know if I should say names or not, I give too much away. But I had a fantastic woman, Erin Kennedy on, and she'd been through the most inspiring journey of battling cancer, coming out the other side, winning gold medals and her positivity and energy around that journey just just blew me away I was literally sat there just thinking how have you managed to stay so positive not only to get through your treatment and come out the other side but get through it inspire others and go on to win again at the you know the biggest stage possible it's been brilliant and they've all been so different as well and that's what I've really enjoyed about it wonderful well I'll tell you Let's share a clip then with people listening to this conversation.

7:34The show is called Gold Mines. Jess Ennis-Hill is the host. And here is a clip of Jess talking to Nicola Adams, the first double Olympic champion in women's boxing history, about the sacrifices that she made leading up to her golden moment at London 2012. Where do you think that drive came from, though? If you look back at you as a child, and I know I listened to your book recently recently and you spoke about you know challenges that you faced whether that was at home or you know allergies and eczema and all those things you know that we face as kids that often people think oh you're Olympic champion you don't have any of those stresses to deal with as a child but actually you did have quite a lot of challenges as a child yeah do you think they helped you to you know to create the woman that you've become in the ring yeah definitely when I was when I was kid I was um I was diagnosed with asthma and I was told that it was exercise induced so I wasn't allowed to run about and um and as a kid when you told that it's like and I just had enough of standing by at the playground and watching everybody play bulldog and I was like I'm gonna play oh bulldog is the best yeah right and uh and I was like yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna play and have have fun my my determination I guess just came from growing up in a council estate single parent mum you know didn't have a lot growing up it was difficult and I was like you know I want I want this Olympic gold medal because I want to change my future I want to change my my family's future I was fighting for more than a gold medal the gold medal was a nice bit of icing on the cake but it was what came with that that was more important to me.

9:21Yeah, and you weren't just, like you say, you were not just fighting for you to change your life and your circumstances, but you were literally fighting for women's sport and women's boxing and changing the face of that. Did you feel that pressure as well? Yeah, do you know? There was so much pressure, so much pressure. I was always the best female boxer we had, so I was always almost guaranteed to to get a medal so I always knew that it'd be good if one of the other girls step up and like take the pressure off me but I always know the pressure is going to end up being on me at the end of at the end of it and I think it wasn't until I think the turning point for me was um the after after I won the semi-finals in the 2012 Olympics and I was talking to my coach Rob McCracken and you were saying you know Nick the other two girls have have gone out and for women's boxing in the UK to keep on going you know we need we need a gold medal wow yeah I know right no pressure that is some serious pressure I know right but I mean it's like I guess I'm like I'm a straight talker in a straight suit and I like the same back and I know there's a lot of boxers he could have never said that to because they'd have just fallen to peace.

10:39Yeah, that would have been it. It's over. Yeah. But for me, it was more, it just gave me more motivation. I've been there a million times before. I know what this pressure is like. When I was, I went back to the village and I was just laid down in my bed and I was just like, wow. And I was thinking about all the young girls that will be watching this, wanting to be a boxer one day and needing me to win and then it was like at that moment it became more more than just me winning a gold medal it became I'm actually doing this for everybody else as well and it just gave me so much more like motivation and just passion and just fuel it just I don't know it just um it just really did really changed my my mindset and just it just gave me this feeling of nobody is going to beat me in this finals no matter what like you'd have had to have taken my arm off to to beat me that day that's incredible though because so many people in that situation would have that would have been all consuming and that would have been almost too much but for you it's always seemed like you've had that really good that like kind of thought feeling process where those thoughts can really translate into the right feeling the right performance and you know how to harness that so let's go to that moment in 2012 what what kind of place were you in heading into that like olympic games like i know was it like 10 weeks before you'd done the world championships yeah and the girls at rencancan yeah you ultimately beat in the Olympics in the final um you lost to her 10 weeks before how how was your mindset then because that's one of those defeats that it can change you know your whole thought process very very very quickly going into into that tournament um it was the it was the qualifiers yeah for for the Olympics I was like talk about cutting it close like the the guys qualified I think it was a year before so they were just chilling out we were like we don't I was already tipped for gold and one of the ones to watch and I hadn't even qualified for the Olympics yet wow I was like and so you had to qualify in that world championship yeah yeah 10 weeks before yeah I know right that would have stressed me out I was so stressed I was so stressed so stressed and literally the whole way through I boxed because there was only three weight divisions at the time as well you had women coming up and coming down in weight to try and make that division so it was like literally every fight you were boxing a world champion or Pan Ams game champion or European champion, it was crazy and my qualifying fight I boxed a woman called Mary Com from India and she's a sensation over there.

13:38She's had a Bollywood movie made of a life story. Like she's huge. She was like four-time world champion, you know, Asian game champion. I was like, great, this is all I need for my qualifying fight. But I managed to get through it and I was boxing my nemesis, Renkankan, in the finals. And I thought, I mean, I thought I did enough to win, but you know home advantage okay you know but I wasn't I wasn't happy with the silver I really I really it really upset me because I thought this is this is gonna be my chance to get a gold medal in the world championships because I hadn't had one yet yeah I'd had three silvers and I hadn't had a gold yet and I was like this is this is it and yeah I got the silver I didn't even want the silver medal like I the coaches had to stop me from throwing it out of the window that's how annoyed you were I honestly I was so annoyed I can relate to that though because for me it was the world championships was the year before the olympics and I came away with the silver there like you did and I almost had to just put that face of like yeah I'm really happy this is part of the plan but deep down you are raging and you're so angry because you're so close to the big one and if you can't quite get it right that close to the olympics then you start thinking well am I in the right shape have I done everything right can I make those changes in the right amount of time to win that gold medal but you were able to do that though what did you go away and do like what did you have to change in training to to be able to turn that silver into a gold I literally as soon as as soon as we got back I was straight in the gym the next day and we we went through we did video analysis went through the fight where I went wrong so I tidied up tidied up my defense I was working with my coach and my home coach Alwyn Belcher he's 86 now and is like still doing the most still training people and we were just working on little little little things that just helped just minor minor minor adjustments and literally what we found was from watching the videos I was following her around the ring instead of cutting her off so not giving her any space because she's a she's a she she boxes like I do she's really really good thinker fast on her feet and she's always thinking two or three four moves ahead so I always like fights like that because it's a game of chess you literally almost close your eyes and you know exactly where they're gonna be but when you when you have a boxer that thinks on the feet like like she does you've got to be thinking two or three moves moves ahead and literally it was just getting the the step across and I think it was the the second round of the Olympic finals I got the step across right right hand down the middle boom and she was on the canvas I was like yes this is it what a feeling so actually in a way you probably I know you probably still want that gold medal from that world championships and there's that frustration but actually do you think it worked in a way to to help you clinch the gold and it really mattered in London.

16:50Yeah, definitely. It gave me that extra motivation. Like I didn't even care about the other fighters. I'd beaten them five or six times already. Like they weren't even in my peripheral vision. Like I was just focused on Can Can. She was my main, main person because she, for me, she was the only person that had potential to beat me. And I remember in the rounds as well, I'd come back after every round and my coach would be like, like, oh, you're just one point up, just, you know, keep focused. And I was like, I know I'm more than one point up here. Also, he was telling you. Yeah, that was. Ah. So because of my ADHD, even under pressure, like in the fight of your life, I can still be thinking about, I wonder what I'm going to have to eat tonight.

17:38Really? That was punch that nearly at me. And then you're back in the game. Yeah, yeah. And so because they only said that I was one point up, meant I had to stay. Really focused. Yeah, laser focused the whole way through. And then when it got to the last round, actually, and I was like, I know I've won this. I'm going to do a little alley shuffling. I did a little alley shuffle and I nearly got caught. Oh, did you? Can you imagine? You got caught and gone down. I know, man. Well, there you go. that's a clip from the new show Goldmines. The host is Jess Ennis-Hill who's with us for this conversation today.

18:18Listen Jess before we let you go if there are people thinking well my life's busy there's already 468 ,945 ,000 podcasts that I can choose from out there tell them why they should choose Goldmines and listen to your new show. Oh I think you've got to tune in. I think it's something that is very unique. I love the idea that we bring in items so each person on the show brings something really special something really different and I think think, you know, you have those really expected golden moments, but I've kind of uncovered these moments are a little bit different and tell a story that not everyone's heard.

18:53And they're all unique in their own way, but they've got that common ground of, you know, inspiration, perseverance. And I think there's something that we can all learn from these stories. And also, it's been really nice for me to kind of relate to these journeys as well. It's, you know, I've been through my own journey through sport and had my highs and lows and moments that have gone well moments that haven't gone so well. And I found it really interesting to be able to relate to each of those individuals along their journey as well. Brilliant. Well, look, Jess, thank you so much for joining us.

19:22Congratulations on creating your new show. And if you would like to listen to Goldmines, then you can get it wherever you get your podcast. If you want to watch it, you can also watch it on YouTube. So hit follow there. Jess, thank you very much. Thank you so much for having me, guys. Can I ask you quickly, though? Yeah. What is your one golden moment? Do you have one? Ooh, that's a brilliant question. Too many to choose from. Yeah, I wish. So does it have to be a great moment or can it be an interesting moment that's led to something? Yeah, I think an interesting moment that's been really significant in your life that, you know, has changed your trajectory.

19:57Well, I would say my golden moment was when I got invited to go and watch Norwich City play. Damien had been invited by the director of football at Norwich City to go to the same thing. We sat there, had dinner together, we met each other. And from that, High Performance was born. And that was in the summer of 2019. So we're going back a long time. We're going back, is that six years? Six years, yes. So that is a golden moment for me. What about you? I got expelled from school. Yeah. And a teacher came knocking on my door at my mum and dad's that night and offered to go and speak up for the school and get the decision reversed as long as I agreed to behave myself and knuckle down.

20:39and I always think of that moment because that did change the trajectory that there was somebody that stood up for me that believed in me and saw potential when it wasn't obvious and the fact that he was willing to do that I always think back and feel quite humbled at that moment that there was an adult that offered to pay a bit of kindness forward And I love that because you kind of, in those moments you don't realise how significant they're going to be but actually the path that it then sends you on is something quite unique, isn't it? And yeah, it has a massive positive effect on your life.

21:13So good golden moments, I would say there, boys. Good golden moments. Brilliant. Jess, thank you very much. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Make sure you follow Goldmines with Jess Ennis Hill right now, wherever you get your podcasts. And I need to find out how I ended up employing a professor who was expelled from school on this podcast. That's something I should have thought about more closely back in Carrow Road in 2019. Thanks, Damien. Thank you, mate.

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