Nine months ago, Oskars Vientiess said two things were holding him back:

No processes and no acceptance.

He wanted to become “Oskars 2.0”, a player who was courageous, trusted his instincts and stopped hiding when things went wrong.

Since then, he has moved abroad, stepped up from the Czech second tier to the top flight and made his senior debut for Latvia.

Three international appearances in eleven days.

And his strongest match scores came while representing his country.

Comparing the score Oskars gave his starting point with his latest self-assessment, his Inner Game Index moved from 54% to 75%.

That is an increase of 21 percentage points and an overall improvement of 39%.

Some of his biggest changes were:

• Dealing with judgement: 29% → 82% (+53 points)
• Reset speed after mistakes: 38% → 86% (+48 points)
• Trusting his instincts: 35% → 76% (+41 points)
• Handling stress: 44% → 83% (+39 points)
• Enjoyment: 54% → 89% (+35 points)

His three international match reviews averaged 84%, compared with 78% across his previous three club matches.

But the real change cannot be explained by a score.

Previously, one mistake could make Oskars hide for the rest of a game and affect him the following day.

Against Slavia Prague, he scored an own goal in front of 13,000 people.

Five seconds later, he was back on his feet, demanding the ball and refusing to hide.

That is the work of showing up when it matters.

In this conversation, Oskars explains:

• Why he decided to start training his mentality
• How he stopped fearing other people’s judgement
• The processes he now uses before every match
• Why accepting mistakes helped him play with greater freedom
• How he responds immediately when something goes wrong
• What it felt like to make his senior international debut
• Why working alongside other professional players has helped him
• What he is working on as he moves from “Oskars 2.0” to “Oskars 3.0”

Most players have coaches for their technical, tactical and physical performance.

Very few have anybody helping them with the part that affects all three.

Their mentality.

If you are a professional footballer and know your mind is stopping you from showing your best game consistently, apply to work with Rob, Luke and the team inside Elite XI:

https://www.elitexiapply.com

Subscribe for more honest conversations about the inner game of professional football.

One player was drinking every night.

But every morning, he walked into training with a smile on his face, and nobody had a clue that he was struggling.

That is football.

Players learn very quickly how to put on a mask. They tell everyone they’re fine, hide what they’re really feeling and carry on because they’re terrified that admitting they’re struggling will make them look weak.

In this episode, Luke O’Nien speaks honestly about the masks he wore throughout his career, losing his identity and reaching a point where he didn’t know who he was anymore.

We talk about:

• Why football becomes a player’s entire identity
• Why asking for help can feel like weakness
• The pressure to fit into a new dressing room
• Reading criticism and opinions on social media
• What happens when emotions are continually pushed down
• How Luke now uses emotions as information
• Why journaling changed his life
• The support network every professional player needs

After analysing 107 conversations with professional footballers, we found that 106 of them had suffered in silence or hidden what they were genuinely experiencing.

That should tell you everything.

Struggling doesn’t make you weak. Pretending you’re fine doesn’t make the struggle disappear.

The lone wolf starves. You are stronger in a pack.

If you’re a professional footballer and want support from people who understand what the game is really like, apply to join Elite XI:

https://www.elitexiapply.com

One mistake shouldn't cost you the whole game. For most footballers, it does.

In this episode, Elite XI's Rob Blackburne and Sunderland captain Luke O'Nien break down "mistake looping": the mental spiral where one error glazes your eyes over, drags you out of the present, and quietly pulls you into a second mistake and a third.

Luke is brutally honest about the years he spent trapped in it. Hearing 35,000 people groan. Replaying the mistake on a loop while the game carried on without him. Hiding it by playing safe and passing the buck.

Then he breaks down exactly how he got out.

We get into:

▸ What mistake looping actually is, and why it leads to more mistakes
▸ Why it's never the mistake, it's what the mistake means about you
▸ How overthinking before a game makes the mistake come true
▸ The reframe elite players use: if you're not making mistakes, you're not making things happen
▸ Why telling yourself "don't make a mistake" guarantees more of them
▸ Finding your baseline, and the Three A's framework: awareness, acceptance, action
▸ Turning judgment into feedback, with a boxing analogy that makes it click
▸ Why 107 out of 107 players we analysed struggled with the same thing

If mistakes wreck your head and your game, this is the one to watch.

🏆 APPLY TO WORK WITH ROB & LUKE

Elite XI is our inner-game programme for footballers serious about the mental side. If you want help dealing with mistakes,

Apply here 👉 https://elitexiapply.com

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes on the psychology of elite football. Next up: why so many players suffer in silence.

Rob Blackburne (co-founder of Elite XI) and Sunderland captain Luke O'Nien break down the psychological side of pro football almost no one talks about: the fear, overthinking and pressure that quietly control most players.

Luke opens up on how football went from play to prison, the years stuck in "survival mode," and how he rebuilt his confidence mid-match, after a penalty and an own goal in the same game.

We get into:
▸ The four fears: judgment, expectations, the unknown, failure
▸ Why form is a thinking problem, not a skill problem
▸ Confidence as a belief system you build, not something you wait to feel
▸ "Survival mode" vs "thrive mode", and why 107 of 107 players struggled with the same thing

If your mind is holding your game back, this one's for you.

🏆 APPLY TO WORK WITH ROB & LUKE

www.elitexiapply.com

Elite XI is our 1-1 mentoring program for professional footballers.

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes on the psychology of elite football.

Play What Is

Stop Fighting Football. Start Playing It.

Every professional footballer is playing two games.

There's the game everyone can see. Twenty-two players, one ball, two goals.

Then there's the game nobody sees. The one in your head. What does the manager think of me? Am I starting next week? Why am I not further ahead? What if I'm not actually good enough?

Nobody teaches you how to play that one.

Play What Is is a full audiobook for professional footballers, read by performance and mindset coach Rob Blackburne, built from years of conversations with players at every level from the Premier League to non-league.

It isn't positive thinking. You won't be told you're amazing, or that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes the criticism is right. Sometimes the manager doesn't rate you. Reality isn't always nice, but reality is useful, because it's the only place you can actually work from.

Across thirteen chapters, it covers the stories you tell yourself, the gap between what is and what you think should be, staying in your own business, why courage comes before confidence, the four fears underneath almost every player's head, mistakes and reset speed, judgement, expectations, who you are without football, uncertainty, overthinking, and how to find your way back to playing.

The method is built on the work of Byron Katie, author of Loving What Is, taken into the dressing room and translated into team sheets, contracts, managers, crowds, and injuries.

It comes down to five things. Awareness. Acceptance. Turnaround. Action. Play.

Because the game is still happening while you're arguing with yourself.

If you're a pro footballer and want to work with Rob & Luke exclusively this season, go to www.elitexiapply.com fill in a short form, and we will be in touch.

Join other pro players who are taking their games to the next level today.

In today's episode, I have Wrexham's, Elliott Lee.

The progress he's made has been astronomical in the last few months since we've been working together.

We discuss:

• Taking the positives from the negatives and how this has made him more confident
• Accepting the way he feels now instead of arguing with it and being in conflict with himself internally
• Why he's loving football more than ever now he's at Wrexham and he's embracing the challenge
• He talks about some challenges he's had in the past that he's only ever told 5 people, but he's hoping that by speaking about it, it can help others in some way. Inspirational and brave on so many levels.

If you want to work with me and improve your game as Elliott has, click the link below and apply to work with me one-on-one and I'll be in touch.

www.eliteperformancemindset.com/proapply

In today's podcast, I have former Watford defender Tommie Hoban.

We discuss:

• The frustration Tommie had with injures
• How he dealt with the injuries mentally
• Why he decided to retire just one week after signing for a new club and moving his family up north
• Why he decided to become a financial advisor and why he wants to help footballers with their finances

If you want to contact Tommie about your finances go to www.hobanwealth.co.uk

You can access my FREE programme for pros for a limited time.

How to deal with fear, and how to change your attention when your confidence is low.

Go to:

https://eliteperformancemindset.com/freecourse

Or if you want to work with me one on one.

https://eliteperformancemindset.com/proapply

In today's episode, I have Bolton Wanderer's, Kieran Sadlier.

We discuss:

• What he's learnt from working with me and the differences he feels on and off the pitch.
• How he trained to get into flow state, got over mistakes and learnt to play with freedom.
• Why you need to put the reps in at the mind gym and why mindset talent is just as important as performance talent.

If you want to work with me one-on-one, change your game, and break free from the shackles of negative thinking.

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO APPLY AND SEE THE DETAILS.

⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://eliteperformancemindset.com/proapply