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Nelson, NZ · Coaching Worldwide
About Jamie
Helping athletes, entrepreneurs, and ambitious achievers turn high potential into sustained high performance, in sport, business, and life.
I'm Jamie
My work sits at the intersection of elite sport and entrepreneurship, two worlds that demand the same things from the people inside them. The ability to perform under pressure. To manage stress without letting it manage you. To deal with adversity, uncertainty, and to stay clear, focused, and effective when the stakes are highest.
I've spent 12+ years coaching athletes, entrepreneurs, and ambitious people across performance psychology, mental skills, nervous system regulation, and performance breathing. I bring a background in business, marketing, and entrepreneurship that means when a founder comes to me, I understand their world from the inside, not from a textbook.
I've worked with athletes from the All Blacks, Crusaders, Blues, Highlanders, Chiefs, NZ Sevens, USA Rugby, Tall Blacks, NZ Breakers, and beyond. World para champions. WBA champions. Professional tennis players. And founders and entrepreneurs building businesses they care about.
The real me
( but will never change )
I won't sugarcoat things to make you feel better. If something isn't working, I'll tell you. If you're the problem, I'll tell you that too. Growth starts with honesty, and I respect you enough to give it to you straight.
I grew up in sport and business. I love winning, I hate losing, and I bring that energy to everything I do. If you're my client, I'm as invested in your results as you are. Probably more.
No 47-step frameworks. No vision boards. No manifesting. I believe in doing the work, measuring what matters, and getting better every day. If you want woo-woo, I'm not your guy.
I've built businesses, failed at businesses, sold businesses, and started again. I don't coach from theory. I coach from scars, experience, and a genuine understanding of what it takes to build something from nothing.
Underneath the directness, I genuinely care about my clients. I think about your problems between sessions. I celebrate your wins. I'll push you because I believe in what you're building, not because it's a job.
I've walked away from safe careers, moved countries, reinvented myself multiple times, and bet on my own ability. I expect the same from the people I work with. If you're not willing to back yourself, we're not the right fit.
Beyond the work
I love seeing people strive and perform at their best, but I'm a human being before I am what I do for work. I'm a proud dad with a young son and a fiancée I adore, an avid sports fan, and a martial arts and combat sport enthusiast. In my spare time, I love the freedom of riding my motorbike on winding country roads, travelling and exploring different cultures (huge fan of Southeast Asia). I'm a foodie who loves to cook, appreciates good coffee, and has a genuine passion for live music.
I've always been entrepreneurial, having worked for myself for most of my adult life, and I love thinking creatively about business ideas. I genuinely believe business is one of the greatest personal development courses anyone can take.
I love nutrition, training, fitness and living a healthy lifestyle, but I also love a good time. Partying, making memories, and savouring good moments with people we care about are the things we look back on fondly when we reach the end.
Bottom line? Life's for living and enjoying, for engaging in and maximising, and the pursuit of high performance should enhance that, not consume it.
My approach
It's about building the inner game, the strategy, and the systems that make improvement predictable and excellence repeatable, even under pressure. I work across three pillars, Inner Game, Strategy, and Execution, because performance isn't built on one single thing. It's an integration of skills, strategy, and systems, and you need all three working together.
Inner Game
Your inner game determines how you show up when it matters most. Train stress regulation, focus, emotional control, and stress tolerance. Develop the mindset and nervous system foundations that let you access your best when the pressure is highest.
Strategic Clarity
Strategy is about choosing where to apply focus. It's clarity around priorities, direction, and trade-offs, so your energy and effort goes where it creates the greatest return. Without it, effort is wasted, focus is scattered, and progress stalls.
Reliable Execution
Execution is where performance becomes tangible. It's the systems, habits, structures, and behaviours that translate intent into action. Consistent execution turns potential into performance and goals into outcomes.
Results speak loudest
I'm grateful to have worked with some extraordinary people. Here's what a few of them have to say about their experience.
Since working with Jamie, my on-field performance has been the best and most consistent it's been in my career. His depth of knowledge, coaching ability, and support have helped me grow into a more confident, calm, and professional player! He's the best at what he does and he's had a massive impact on my life and career. He will help you find the edge you're looking for!
Ricky Riccitelli
Professional Rugby · Blues, All Black XV, Montpellier
I've been in professional environments for many years but working with Jamie really taught me what true high-performance actually is. He helped me shift my perspective and develop a mindset that helped me respond to adversity well. It's the level of intention and focus he helped me cultivate, and the standard and self-belief I developed that really stand out. He's an exceptional coach and his impact on my life has been huge.
Sam Walsh
Professional Rugby · USA 7's, Chicago Hounds
Jamie has actually completely changed my life! Since working together I have gone from doubting my ability and my body, to literally feeling the best I have ever felt on a tennis court. I have amazing control of my state, I can manage stress and pressure, my mindset feels bulletproof, and my athletic endurance and recovery has improved so much. Genuinely life changing!
Alex Hunt
Pro Tennis · 2× Parastanding World Champion, First Disabled Mens ATP Pro
I met Jamie through his work with the Crusaders and his protocols have really helped me to consistently control my mental game and get into a state of readiness to perform. I now use breathing as a tool to settle my nerves, and his teachings have become central to remaining calm and performing under pressure in big moments on the field. He's helped me find an edge and unlock more focus, consistency, and flow.
Tom Christie
Professional Rugby · Crusaders, All Black XV
After working with Jamie and playing my first tournament, I literally had multiple people ask what I was doing differently, the changes were that obvious in my performance and ability to control my response, stay calm, and perform in pressure moments on court. The performance breathing is something every athlete needs to be doing. Jamie's knowledge, expertise and care is next level.
Paige Hourigan
Professional Tennis · ITF World Ranked
If you're looking to elevate your mental performance and wellbeing, Jamie is your man! The tools he gave us to work into our training, fight camps, and daily lives have been invaluable. His knowledge and expertise on mindset, mental skills, breathing, and high-performance are second to none and we're so grateful for all his help!
Asher Derbyshire
Pro Boxing · WBA Australasian Cruiserweight Champion
What I Believe
After over a decade in this space, working with elite athletes, business owners, artists, and ambitious entrepreneurs, there's a handful of learnings and beliefs about life and performance I'd argue for in any room.
Let's start with the one ambitious people get wrong most. High-performance isn't about doing more. It's about doing more of what matters. That nuance is the difference between people who burn out and those who achieve and sustain high performance. Everyone is busy, but few are effective.
Calm is the ultimate competitive advantage. Composure under pressure separates people. And it's a trainable skill, not a personality trait.
Your state drives everything. Your ability to take control of your physiology and psychology determines how well you perform and how far you go. Skills and talent without state control are unreliable. This is why breathing, stress regulation, mental skills, and emotional control are central to everything I teach and do. Train them properly and they will change your life. I promise.
Pressure isn't the problem. Your relationship and your response to it is. Build your internal capacity, and you stop surviving pressure and start thriving under it.
You don't rise to your goals. You fall to your systems and your training.
I believe goals are important, but are also wildly overrated. Performance is built on repeatable behaviours, not motivation or intention. So set goals, but obsess over your systems, your process, and your training, not your attachment to the outcome.
Consistency will always beat intensity.
Anyone can push hard for a short burst, but true excellence is built by showing up on the days you don't feel like it, for years. That's where results compound.
Fierce self-discipline requires fierce self-kindness.
Here's one most coaches won't say out loud. Doing hard things is hard. If you're going to step into the arena and risk failing, you have to learn to have your own back through it. We're not minds and bodies, we're mind-body systems, and being a bad motherfucker requires being kind to yourself too.
Identity sets the ceiling. You will never outperform how you see yourself.
Building your identity is therefore one of the most important things you can do.
The people around you shape you. Energy is contagious. Emotion is contagious. Growth is contagious. The people around you shape you, and you shape the people around you. Take that responsibility seriously. There's no such thing as going at it alone, and a huge part of sustaining happiness and success is building meaningful connections and contributing to other people's journey.
I believe performance is downstream from presence. That recovery is a critical performance skill, not a luxury. That you are always practising something, and there are no neutral reps. Every action reinforces who you're becoming, whether you mean it to or not. I believe enjoyment is part of excellence, not separate from it. Hustle culture got this wrong. Suffering isn't a prerequisite for achievement, and the people who enjoy the work tend to out-perform the people who endure it, over a long enough timeline.
I don't believe we should strive to be the best, but to be the best at getting better.
Being the best is binary. You either are or you aren't, and you only get there for a moment. But being the best at getting better is a commitment to mastery that lasts a lifetime. The arrival trap is real. If you think I'll be happy when I just achieve X, you're in for a tough time. The human brain didn't evolve to arrive. It evolved to strive. So find meaning in the pursuit, because the pursuit is where you actually live.
Above all, I believe the real goal isn't arriving somewhere. It's becoming the kind of person who's committed to growth, who backs themselves unapologetically, who contributes to others in a meaningful way, and who keeps showing up and competing for the life they want and the things they care about.
That's what this work is about.
Work with Jamie
I work with a small number of clients at any one time. If you're serious about performing at your best, consistently and sustainably, book a free Performance Audit and let's figure out what's actually standing in your way.
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