Mental Training Lab
Master your mental game with the Mental Training Lab, hosted by Pete Kadushin. With 15 years of coaching experience and a PhD in performance psychology, Pete digs deep each episode to provide practical tools and expert insights so you can perform your best when it matters most. Enhance your focus, harness stress, and overcome challenges whether you’re an athlete, leader, or high-performer. Subscribe to learn how to elevate your game in work, play, and life.
How Do You Know? Training the Translator Between Mind and Body
A few years ago, I started working with a somatic experiencing practitioner who opened every session the same way: “How are you?” I always had an answer ready. Then she’d ask the follow-up that stopped me every time: “How do you know?”
In this solocast, I’m sharing that simple but not easy question, and why I keep bringing it to my clients.
Most of us can explain what we’re feeling and why. But when it comes to where we actually notice it, we hit a wall pretty quickly. That gap between the story in our h...
What Game Are You Playing? Seeing the Invisible Rules That Run the Show
Every game has rules. The blue line in hockey, the three-point line in basketball. And those rules quietly shape every strategy built around them.
In this solocast, I’m asking a deceptively simple question: what game are you actually playing?
There’s the visible game. The sport, the business, the role you’ve signed up for. But underneath it, there’s often an invisible game running the show without our awareness. The fit-in game. The be-liked game. The good-enough game. The money game. The feel-good game.
None of these are wrong. But when the invi...
With the End in Mind: Reflection as Your Highest Point of Leverage
For the best, reflection is an integral part of the process. For everyone else, reflection is one of the most overlooked parts of the performance cycle.
Without structure and commitment, reflection can quickly become rumination - replaying mistakes, picking apart what went wrong, and carrying all of that into tomorrow.
In this solocast, I’m breaking down one of my favorite tools for closing out a performance: Good, Better, How.
What did I do good? What will I do better next time? And, most importantly, how am I actually going to do it?
<...You Gotta Get Up to Get Down: The Paradox of Relaxation
In this solocast, I’m exploring something I got wrong for a long time: the idea that when we’re carrying too much stress or activation, the answer is simply to get better at relaxing.
Breathing, meditation, visualization, progressive muscle relaxation—I still believe in all of those tools. But what happens when you’re trying to relax on top of years of missed shots, disappointing performances, high-pressure moments, frustration, and stress that your body never really had a chance to move through?
Over time, that stuff can start to accumulate. Our baseline creeps higher, our capa...
Stop Overriding Your Body: Elisa Haggarty on Somatic Coaching, Authenticity, and Peak Performance
In this episode of The Mental Training Lab, I sit down with former basketball athlete and executive/somatic coach Elisa Haggarty to explore how athletes, leaders, and high performers can build a more honest relationship with the body.
Elisa’s work helps leaders and teams use bodily sensations, emotions, and present-moment awareness as data for authenticity, trust, and more effective communication. Drawing from her own athletic background, she shares how sport can teach us to work hard, push through discomfort, and chase approval. Meanwhile, we’re also disconnecting ourselves from the very signals that could help us perf...
The Monster Under the Bed: What Are You Afraid to Face?
In this solocast, I’m exploring what happens when performers try to avoid the very things they’re most afraid of.
Maybe it’s falling. Missing the shot. Losing the tournament. Getting hurt. Looking like a fraud. Our instinct is often to push those possibilities away and use mental skills to stay calm, focused, and in control. But when we’re using those tools to cover up what’s happening underneath, we can actually create an artificial ceiling on our performance.
I break down three ways we tend to relate to fear: pretending the “monster” isn’t there, t...
Unlocking the Last 10%: Jim Harshaw on Failure, Aligned Goals, and the Structure of Peak Performance
In this episode of The Mental Training Lab, I sit down with former All-American wrestler, performance coach, TEDx speaker, and entrepreneur Jim Harshaw to explore what it takes to unlock sustainable high performance in sport, business, and life.
Jim’s story starts on the wrestling mat, where early disappointment, self-doubt, and the pressure to prove himself eventually led to one of the most important mindset shifts of his career: moving from outcome obsession to process focus. That shift helped him become an All-American wrestler, and it now shapes the work he does with athletes, executives, entrepreneurs, and hi...
Into the Unknown: How to Perform Without Certainty
We all want a little certainty before a big performance. A great warmup. A perfect night of sleep. Some sign that everything is going to go according to plan.
The problem is that certainty is never actually available.
In this solocast, I explore how our desire to know what will happen next can create fragile confidence, negative predictions, rigid expectations, and a whole lot of wasted energy. That tension can show up as panic practice, distraction, frustration, self-criticism, or even freezing when it is time to take action.
I also share three steps...
Stop Trying to Fix Athletes: Dr. Kate Bennett on Love, Psychological Safety, and Mental Performance
In this episode of The Mental Training Lab, I sit down with sport psychologist and three-time national champion Dr. Kate Bennett, founder of Full Send Consulting, to explore one of the most powerful and often misunderstood drivers of performance: genuine human connection.
Kate’s work sits at the intersection of athlete well-being, mental performance, and transformational coaching. Heavily influenced by Jerry Lynch’s Way of Champions and Brené Brown’s research on shame, scarcity, and vulnerability, Kate helps athletes, teams, and coaches build cultures where people feel se...
Inside the Mind of a Tour de France Rider: Brent Bookwalter on Pain, Performance, and the Mental Game
Brent spent years competing at the highest levels of cycling, including the Tour de France, the Olympics, and World Championships. Since retiring from professional cycling, Brent has completed graduate training in mental performance and now works as a coach, helping athletes and high performers translate lived experience into tools for growth, resilience, and well-being.
This conversation is a case study in how mental skills actually show up in the real world. Brent and Pete explore how concepts like self-determination theory, mindfulness, acceptance, a relationship with pain, motivation, and identity played out across his cycling career. And how...
Don’t Let Optimization Hold You Hostage
In this solocast, I’m exploring a paradox I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: the more optimized a system becomes, the more fragile it can get.
We start with sleep, but this applies to performance routines, recovery, leadership, training, and the way we prepare for just about anything. When everything has to go exactly right in order for us to feel ready, we end up narrowing the window for success.
So I’m breaking down the difference between fragile, resilient, and anti-fragile systems, and how we can build habits that don’t just work whe...
Psilocybin, Performance, and Deep Healing: Adam O'Neil on Going Beyond Mental Skills
**This conversation is all about psilocybin-assisted therapy, but it is not medical advice. Psilocybin is not appropriate for everyone, laws vary by location, and anyone interested in this work should seek support only from qualified professionals in legal, regulated settings.**
In this episode of The Mental Training Lab, I sit down with Adam O'Neil, a Boulder-based licensed psychologist and clinical psilocybin facilitator working at the intersection of mental health, performance psychology, and natural medicine.
Adam brings a rare combination of rigor and heart to this conversation. We talk about the importance of comprehensive...
You Can't Outcoach Your Nervous System
Your nervous system is the foundation of everything else. It shapes the way you perceive reality, and everything flows from there: what you think, how you decide, what comes out of your mouth, and what your people feel when you walk in the room.
You can have the right words, the right plan, and the right tools. But if your state is communicating panic, pressure, or disconnection, that's what lands first and colors everything after it.
In this solocast, I dig into why state regulation isn't a sidebar to great coaching and leadership. It's the...
Beyond the Grind: Lodro Rinzler on Meditation, Worthiness, and the “I’m Not Enough” Trap
In this episode of The Mental Training Lab, I sit down with Buddhist teacher, meditation teacher, and author Lodro Rinzler to explore a concept that has powerful implications for athletes, leaders, and high performers: basic goodness.
So many of us operate from the quiet assumption that we’re not enough. Not successful enough, disciplined enough, accomplished enough, or mentally tough enough. Lodro’s work and new book “You Are Good, You Are Enough” challenge that story at the root, offering the possibility that beneath the striving, self-doubt, anxiety, and the insatiable need to achieve, there is something fundamen...
Stop Hiding Behind the Process
In this week's solocast, I’m unpacking something I’ve been seeing a lot lately: the idea of caring less about the outcome and just focusing on the process. That mindset may not seem like that big of a deal to you, but the more I hear it, the more I think it’s missing something important.
Because the truth is, you do care. You care about the result, and when that starts to feel uncomfortable, pressure, anxiety, fear of what it might mean if you don’t get it, we try to solve that by pretending it doesn...
From Formula 1 to the Boardroom: Building Trust and High-Performance Teams with Peter Hodgkinson
What does it really take to build trust and psychological safety in teams under pressure? In this episode of The Mental Training Lab, I sit down with Peter Hodgkinson, high-performance consultant and the former Head of Build at Mercedes F1. Peter has spent decades in elite motorsport, including Formula 1, Le Mans, and the America’s Cup. He shares how environments with razor-thin margins and constant pressure shaped his philosophy on intent-based leadership, consistency, and human performance.
Peter's experience connects directly to what many people are navigating every day: burnout from grinding in “second gear,” leading teams through high-s...
Unlocking Flow: Breath, Challenge, and Embracing Nerves
In today's solo-cast, I’m digging into something I see all the time with athletes and high performers, the way we misunderstand nerves, pressure, and what it actually takes to access flow.
We’ve been taught that the goal is to calm down, relax, and eliminate anxiety before we perform. But in reality, that approach can pull us further away from our best.
I break down why being a little “too activated” is often exactly where you want to be, how to rethink your relationship with nerves, and what it really looks like to find that swe...
Crossover Episode | Live Coaching + Feedback on The Transformational Leader with Adam Quiney and Chris McAdoo
On this episode of The Mental Training Lab we are sharing an episode of The Transformational Leader featuring a conversation with Pete Kadushin.
"On this week's mid-week episode of The Transformational Leader, Adam Quiney welcomes friend of the show Pete Kadushin for a live coaching conversation that pulls back the curtain on what transformational leadership work actually looks like in practice. Pete brings a client, Chris McAdoo, into the session and invites Adam to observe and offer real-time feedback as the coaching unfolds.
What follows is a candid, unscripted exploration of leadership, coaching, and the...
Beyond the Grind: Redefining Mental Toughness with Dr. Hillary Cauthen
For decades, athletes and high performers have been taught to grind harder, push through pain, and silence weakness at all costs. I’m your host Pete Kadushin, and in this episode of The Mental Training Lab, I sit down with clinical sport psychologist and author Dr. Hillary Cauthen to talk about one of the most romanticized ideas in sport and performance: mental toughness.
Hillary explains why that traditional narrative gives her the “ick” and why many performers are quietly paying the price through burnout, injury, harsh self-talk, and unsustainable pressure. We discuss a more holistic model of mental...
The Illusion of Progress
In this solo episode, I’m exploring something I see all the time in the performance world: the illusion of progress. From the outside, it can look like we’re doing everything right. We’re building mental skills, trying new strategies, putting in the reps, and staying disciplined. And yet, despite all that effort, we often find ourselves circling back to the same patterns and frustrations.
In this conversation, I unpack why that happens. We look at the deeper structure underneath behavior — how our beliefs quietly shape our actions, and how those actions reinforce the very reality we’re tr...
Hypnosis for High Performance: How Intentional Focus Can Transform Pain, Sleep, and Stress with Dr. David Spiegel
What do a hypnotized high-school wrestler, Olympic athletes, and modern neuroscience all have in common? In this episode of The Mental Training Lab, I sit down with Dr. David Spiegel, one of the world’s leading experts in clinical hypnosis, to clear up the myths, misunderstandings, and stage-show baggage surrounding hypnosis. Next, we explore how it’s actually being used to reduce pain, manage stress, improve sleep, and enhance high-level performance.
We unpack how hypnosis works in the brain (including its effects on attention, dissociation, and the default mode network), and why hypnosis is best understood as an i...
Train Your Mind Like an Olympian | Mental Skills for Peak Performance from the Skimo Gold Podcast
It’s officially the Olympics season, and I was stoked to join endurance athlete Travis Macy and Olympic ski mountaineer Cam Smith to talk about the mental skills behind peak performance. This episode is shared here on the Mental Training Lab feed as part of a crossover with Skimo Gold, and I’m excited to bring this conversation to you.
We get into what it truly means to train your mind like an Olympian. And that means for any moment where pressure, uncertainty, or expectations are high. Not just on race day.
You’ll learn:
How e...Bad Advice: Discipline > Motivation
On this week's solocast I'm taking a hard look at the way motivation and discipline are talked about online — and why a lot of the popular advice actually works against long-term performance.
You’ve probably seen the posts: discipline beats motivation, motivation is weak, success is just showing up no matter what. It all sounds tough and inspiring… until you actually try to live it. And then burnout, inconsistency, and frustration start creeping in.
So let's unpack the fundamental misunderstanding behind those messages and explain why discipline without motivation is like a car without gas. Discip...
Turning the Mic Around: Pete Kadushin on Meaning, Mindfulness, and Mental Performance
What happens when the Mental Training Lab host hands over the mic? I’m your host Pete Kadushin, and in this special reverse interview episode, I’m interviewed by psychiatrist, meditation teacher, and longtime contemplative practitioner Holly Rogers. The conversation grew organically out of our previous episode together, one that sparked more questions, deeper curiosity, and the realization that it was time to balance the scales.
Together, Holly and I explore how contemplative practices like mindfulness and meditation have shaped my personal life and professional path—from grad school, to working with elite athletes, to my...
"No Big Deal"
In today’s solocast, I explore one of my favorite mental training mantras: “No big deal.”
We look at how quickly we label experiences as good or bad, and how those judgments (often made without the full story) can quietly hijack our nervous system, emotions, and performance. Using a classic Zen parable alongside examples from sport, I unpack how unexamined thoughts start to feel like reality, and what happens when we learn to loosen our grip on them.
We also examine how “no big deal” isn’t about dismissing your experience, but about creating space to feel what...
From Self-Criticism to Self-Compassion: How Mindfulness Changes Performance with Dr. Holly Rogers
In this episode of Mental Training Lab, I sit down with psychiatrist, meditation teacher, and author of The Mindful Twenty-Something, Dr. Holly Rogers. We’re breaking down how mindfulness and meditation can transform our relationship to the present moment, performance, and our lives as a whole.
Holly has spent decades working with college students, emerging adults, and high performers, helping them use Vipassana (mindfulness) meditation not as a relaxation tool, but as a mental training and nervous system regulation practice. We dig into what mindfulness actually is (and isn’t), why it...
From Fear to Freedom: Skiing and the Art of Acceptance
In today's solocast, we hit the slopes and explore the transformative power of acceptance through my own experience of learning to ski.
We touch on how embracing the possibility of injury actually unlocked my ability to be present to the joy of skiing, and 10x'd my skill level after a decade away from the sport.
We also look at some of the reliable barriers to acceptance and outline a couple of practices to help create more acceptance in your life.
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Safety, Stress, and Performance: Megan Bartlett on Rethinking How We Coach Under Pressure
How does stress impact the experience of sport? In this episode of the Mental Training Lab, I sat down with Megan Bartlett, founder of the Center for Healing and Justice through Sport, educator, and faculty member of NM Sport, to explore the fascinating intersection of stress science, sport performance, and human development.
Megan’s work brings together neuroscience and coaching practice through what she calls biological respect. It’s the recognition that our stress responses aren’t independent choices, and instead we need to collaborate with our physiology! Together, we talk about how coaches can design environments that s...
What's the Worst that Could Happen?
Today's solocast explores the role that negative visualization can play in generating gratitude, wonder, and a connection to the present moment.
I share a vivid story from my early days as a mental performance coach, and outline practices that can support you in appreciating your current capacity in a way that will support your growth and best performance.
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Practicing What We Preach: Dr. Ryan Hamilton on High Performance, Self-Awareness, and Pushing Limits
In this episode of the Mental Training Lab, I sit down with Dr. Ryan Hamilton, someone who truly lives the work he teaches. Ryan is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of New Brunswick, a certified mental performance consultant, and the mental performance coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning and Canadian National Team.
Ryan embodies what it means to truly practice what we preach in the world of high performance. He deep dives on a couple of stories from his time working with elite athletes, and shares what it really looks like to walk the...
Don't Step Over "The Suck"
Today's solocast explores the difference between positivity and optimism, and how positivity can often get in the way of both presence and progress.
I also cover how to practice The Stockdale Paradox in real time, and the importance of practicing this shift in mindset in order to create lasting change.
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The Hero’s Journey: Jilyne Jarvis on Transformation, Dancing with Fear, and Empowering the Next Generation
In this episode of the Mental Training Lab, I sit down with Jilyne Jarvis, co-founder and executive director of ZGiRLS, a confidence-building program transforming the lives of middle school girls. Jilyne was a professional ski racer who built a nonprofit that tackles one of the most pressing challenges facing young women (and human beings everywhere) today: self-doubt.
We talk about the baby steps and big leaps it takes to bring an idea to life, how to navigate setbacks without losing momentum, and why support systems are essential for personal and...
Not Good Enough, Need to Be Better: A Broken Model of Motivation
In this episode, I explore a common motivation pattern that presents itself as people walk the path of mastery. I'll outline the negative motivation model, why we get hooked on being driven by fear, and how it holds us back.
Then, I roll out the alternative approach and offer up some practices that will allow you to cultivate more sustainable motivation over time.
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Resilience, Trust, and Growth: O2X Founder Adam La Reau on Creating High-Performing Teams
What makes an organization truly high-performing? It’s not just the leader at the top, it’s the system, the culture, and the people who are working together toward a shared mission.
In this episode of The Mental Training Lab I sit down with Adam La Reau, co-founder and President of O2X Human Performance. A former Navy SEAL turned organizational builder, Adam has dedicated this phase of his career to helping first responders, tactical athletes, and high level sports teams to unlock their highest potential.
We talk about what separates good teams from great ones...
It's Only Right if it Grooves
Excellence leaves clues, and sometimes, those clues come from the most unexpected places. Today, we're talking about the wisdom of bass guitar legend Victor Wooten and what his approach to rhythm, groove, and performance can teach us about showing up at our best when it matters most.
We’ll cover the difference between training and trusting mindsets, why so many skills fail to transfer from practice to performance, and how to make your training look, feel, and sound like the real thing. Along the way, we’ll connect the dots between funk music, self-expression, and the psychology of p...
From the Octagon to the Playground: How Environment Shapes Elite Performance with William Massey, PhD
Ever wondered what elite MMA fighters, elementary school playground dynamics, and high-performing leaders have in common? Turns out, a lot more than you’d think. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. William Massey, a pioneering sports psychology researcher renowned for his immersive approach to research, from literally stepping into the MMA octagon himself to meticulously observing recess interactions to decode performance under pressure.
William shares captivating stories from his groundbreaking research, exploring the powerful ways environment shapes behavior, performance, and leadership. We unpack his unique approach of total immersion, how trust and clarity drive team su...
Try a Little Tenderness: Exploring ‘Rest With Awareness’ alongside iRest Yoga Nidra Expert Annie Okerlin
Is it possible to truly rest and reset, even amidst constant stress and high performance demands? In this episode, I sit down with Annie Okerlin, Yoga Nidra and iRest instructor who has spent decades guiding veterans, first responders, athletes, and top performers to profound states of rest and resilience.
I first met Annie back in 2019 when she masterfully guided a room full of veteran detectives through a iRest yoga nidra practice that left a lasting impression on me. Annie’s approach is anchored in her presence, which comes through loud and clear in this co...
We Are All Storytellers
The way we explain the past tells us everything we need to know about how we’ll predict the future…
On this solecast, we’ll explore how the stories we tell ourselves about ‘why things happen’ can give us incredible insight into the ways we’re empowering ourselves, and where we’re holding ourselves back.
At the heart of this is two questions. Does how we’re telling our story create the opportunity for success in the future, and do we believe that we’ll have influence over those future outcomes.
We’ll touch on why we tell...
Leaving the Game: An Athlete's Guide to Transition, Identity, and Curiosity with Tessa West and Kirsten Cooper
What happens when an athlete's passion fades, but their entire identity is wrapped up in their sport? In this episode I sat down with two distinctly qualified experts to talk about the psychological and emotional journey athletes face during career transitions: Tessa West, NYU Professor of Psychology and bestselling author of Jerks at Work and Job Therapy, and Kirsten Cooper, former U.S. Alpine Ski Team athlete turned clinical and performance psychologist.
We unpack how athletes grapple with identity crises, ambivalence, and systemic barriers when considering life beyond sports. Powerful questions like: "Can I still be myself...
The Mattering Mindset: How to Feel Valued and Add Value with Sonya Looney
What does it mean to truly matter, and how can focusing on this concept transform your performance and fulfillment? In this powerful episode of the Mental Training Lab, I sit down with professional mountain biker and positive psychology expert Sonya Looney to explore how she transformed from being driven by external validation to finding deeper purpose and joy in her career.
Sonya shares profound insights on why intrinsic motivation often outperforms extrinsic goals, how recognizing your strengths can reduce perfectionism, and why focusing on the impact you have on others is more meaningful than...
