What Public Speakers and Performers Can Learn From Elite Athletes
- Brainz Magazine
- 6 days ago
- 11 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
James Westphal is an actor, coach, and creative development specialist with a degree and training from a leading drama school, professional stage and screen experience, and a Master’s in Psychology. His unique combination of acting craft, public speaking, communication techniques, and psychology helps people connect, lead, and speak with impact.
Are you in it for the long haul or for overnight success? In a world where instant celebrity is yearned for, quick success is pined after, and easy wins are applauded, this question becomes more relevant day by day. Instant gratification is on a consistent, overwhelming rise, as detailed in recent articles in Positive Psychology. Therefore, it is paramount that we remind ourselves that being consistently good at something involving skill takes time, hard work, and dedication. Whether we want to accept it or not, areas such as public speaking, communication, and performing are skills that require technical accomplishment. This article is here to remind us all how we can improve our accomplishment of these particular skills, and more specifically, how we can look to elite athletes and sportspeople for guidance.
You may not be an overnight success, but you will be embarking on a journey of pursuing something meaningful, pursuing mastery, and pursuing the accomplishment of skill.
Public speaking: A brief overview
Public speaking is an interesting one. Often, we associate it with big crowds, stages, lectures, and major events. But really, at its core, it means communicating with someone (anyone) else. Whether that’s communicating an idea, having a conversation, teaching, delivering a speech, pitching, or giving a presentation, the core principle remains the same: speaking so that someone else listens and understands.
Public speaking, in its more traditional sense, has spanned history from Primates to Greeks and Romans to the Modern Day. But we all share the commonality of either having done it, witnessed it, or heard people do it. Therefore, it is inherently a very human activity. But one that doesn’t come easily to us all. In this way, it can be likened to swimming. We are all surrounded by water, but not all of us are interested in it, participate in or learn how to swim. Similarly, as with swimming, although we are all born with the capability in some way, shape, or form, we don’t all harness it. Or, more likely, we don’t know how.
There are lots of self-help books, and even countless Brainz articles on communication and public speaking, but very little on the parallels between Elite Athletes and Public Speakers and Performers.
The link between public speaking and performing
Performing also spans the history of the human race. From stories around the campfire to streaming the latest TV and Film on Netflix. Both involve storytelling, narrative arc, and structure, require flair in vocal technique, aim to evoke some form of feeling or response, and demand that people have control over their presence, energy, and how they use their bodies to communicate. It, therefore, stands to reason that there is an inherent link between performing and public speaking.
What has any of this got to do with elite athletes?
The mindset and work ethic that build world-class physical performance also build world-class stage presence, communication, and expression. There are many commonalities between these fields. Mainly, that they are all skills to be acquired and perfected, take training and discipline, require immense amounts of dedication and benefit from harnessing the power of the mind.
What makes elite athletes elite?
‘Elite’ refers to someone who is at the top of their game. According to the US Cambridge Dictionary, elite is defined as, “Those people or organisations that are considered the best or most powerful compared to others of a similar type.” As in any field, if you are elite, you are among the best people to do it. This requires a unique combination that is not attributable to everyone. But then, if everyone achieved this unique combination, there would be no such thing as an elite.
Some hypothesise that part of it is natural talent. Which, in some fields, may be true (to an extent). But whether you are born with a ‘gift’ or not, many skill sets can be harnessed and improved through hard work, good coaching, dedication, a correct mindset, and discipline. This is certainly true for public speaking and performing.
Everyone is born with a voice, yes. Some people may be more inclined to use it, or be born into circumstances that give them more support and confidence. But, ultimately, public speaking and performing require more than raw talent. This is where we can look to elite athletes.
What can public speakers and performers learn from elite athletes?
Famously, elite athletes are very open about what is required to be the best in their chosen field. This has also been studied academically for years, as shown in a 2024 ScienceDirect article. The primary sources, personal anecdotes, interviews, and academic research point to factors far beyond natural talent and are fully applicable and transferable to the disciplines of public speaking and performing.
Use the 8 steps below to revolutionise your public speaking, communication, and performing, drawing on the world of elite athletes.
1. Discipline
Psychological research and articles consistently show that motivation is unreliable as a long-term driver of behaviour. Motivation may be responsible for getting us started, but it is considered fleeting. If we rely solely on motivation, we are setting ourselves up for failure. Psychologically, if we are consistent with something, we are building micro-habits rather than just waiting for inspiration or feeling alone. Athletes know this better than anyone. Getting up to train in the cold and the dark when everyone else hits snooze? Going to the gym or the swimming pool after a long day of work or school when everyone else gets to go home and relax? Showing up to the next competition even though you just lost the last one? Turning up for training even though it’s your birthday? Some days, we just don’t feel motivated. And that’s fine. But this is where elite athletes get the one up on the rest, unmotivated doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen. Build the habits, build the consistency, and build the routine.
The same goes for public speaking and performing. You can’t just wait to feel inspired or ‘up for it’. Showing up consistently, whether it's training, workshops, rehearsals, working on material, vocal warm-ups, whatever it is, the work needs to be done. Not just when you feel motivated to do it, but do the work consistently, and you will thank yourself for it.
As for what to do if you feel like you don’t have any motivation anymore, a sustained lack of motivation is often linked to dysregulation in the brain’s dopamine system, which governs reward, drive, and effort. Neuroscientific research, including work popularised by Andrew Huberman, suggests that reducing constant high-stimulation inputs can help restore dopamine sensitivity. Lower stimulation (remove scrolling, endless streaming and gaming, effortless tasks) = dopamine sensitivity recovery = effort feeling rewarding again.
2. Practice
Practice makes perfect, right? Wrong. We all know that ‘perfection’ is an unattainable goal. But, there is something to that adage. Okay, it might not make complete sense (because what is perfect anyway?), but it will definitely ensure one thing: improvement. Now, there is a slight caveat to this. Like money in a low-interest savings account, the small but steady gains can yield big returns in years to come. The same goes for practice: small, steady practice in the right ways, with the right form and technique, helps athletes to yield compounded returns on their time and energy investment. If this is true, though, the same can be said for compounding bad practice. Therefore, it is imperative that practice is done, but with the right foundational technique, which leads us to point number three.
3. Honing technique
Something that elite athletes know all too well. You may be born with some natural talent, but no one is born completely accomplished in a skill. Therefore, learning has to take place. If you can pair learning the right skill set with practice, there is no end to the heights one can reach.
Again, and perhaps you are spotting a trend here, none of this works in isolation. Learning can be much more lucrative depending on the mindset you adopt. The next point will delve into mindset as a whole, but regarding learning and honing technique, there is a certain mindset that helps. This relates to fixed and growth mindsets as predominantly researched by American Psychologist Carol Dweck. A fixed mindset is the belief that our intelligence, ability, or skill level is fixed and can’t be changed or improved. Growth is the opposite, believing that these aspects of ourselves can be improved, changed, and developed. When it comes to learning or developing competence in a skill set, are you telling yourself there is no point because you weren’t born with the gift? Or are you telling yourself you can and will improve? This doesn’t just go for the juicy stuff, the talk itself, or the pitch or the performance. But this also applies to the smaller cogs, the less glamorous aspects that shape an outcome. Things like physical and vocal warm-ups, preparing your mindset the night before, or cooling down your mind, body, and voice after a big speech, pitch, presentation, or performance.
4. Mindset
Elite athletes are absolutely masterful at controlling their mindset and outlook. A big part of how we live our lives, our happiness, our outlook on success, our mood, etc., is all to do with how we live our lives in our heads. The thing athletes practice and become very good at is talking to themselves in ways that are likely to improve performance, rather than negative self-talk, which is likely to hinder or damage performance. But, again, this isn’t something that just comes naturally. It is something that has to be practised and honed.
Some have a predisposition to speak to themselves in a supportive, encouraging way, and some are brought up in environments where this is taught. For a lot of us, though, the opposite is more common. Without realising it, we may have ingrained negative self-talk, sabotaging patterns of thought, and conscious and unconscious digs that grind us down. First, we all have to recognise that our brain believes what we tell it (even if it doesn’t believe it completely at first). Neuroscience tells us that the language we use in our internal dialogue has a measurable impact on performance and behaviour. Then, we have to be mindful of how we talk to ourselves leading up to, just before, during, and after a big talk, pitch, presentation, or performance. Just like athletes are mindful and repeat conscious, thought-through, and deliberate mantras, public speakers and performers can and should do the same.
5. Visualisation
One natural continuation of the point above is visualisation. Sometimes it is disregarded as ‘woo-woo’ or pseudoscience. But the psychological and neurological literature says otherwise, particularly regarding mirror neurons.
Essentially, mirror neurons mean your brain practices an action just by seeing or imagining it, almost as if you’re really doing it. That’s why visualisation works, your brain can’t fully tell the difference between rehearsal and reality. There are countless examples and videos of athletes practising the motor skills of driving, golfing, hitting a tennis ball, etc.
How can this be applied to public speakers and/or performers? Well, when you vividly imagine giving a talk well, or filling a space with your voice, or dealing with a mistake with ease and relaxation, your brain starts to lay down neural pathways. This means you're priming your mind and body for the actual task. In other words, it is a form of mental and physical rehearsal that can have real-world consequences.
For more on visualisation, you can check out one of Brainz’s other articles by executive contributor, Ali Franks.
6. Flow
In the book Different Every Night, the renowned acting practitioner Mike Alfreds compares the craft, technique, and execution of acting to a game of professional football. Hear me out.
A professional footballer will train (rehearsal), will work out tactics (action), will pursue clear goals (objectives), will work with other teammates (cast mates), have an idea of how the game might go (preparation), be in tune with their fellow team members and opponents (listening and responding), but, and perhaps most importantly of all, when it comes to actually playing the game (live show or filming) they have to let any preparation, preconceived ideas and control go. They have to work moment-to-moment. In every discipline, this is referred to as being present. In psychological terms, this is a form of Flow.
Flow means complete absorption in an activity, often at the expense of one's awareness of time, and an absence of self-consciousness. It is characterised by peak performance. There are conditions whereby Flow, as popularised by Hungarian-American Psychologist Csikszentmihalyi, is most likely to occur: an activity that stretches and challenges your ability but not to an excessive degree, concentration should be intense and focused, and action and awareness merge (total absorption). There are many others, and if you want to read more about Flow, click here.
The main takeaway here is that Flow has been linked to elite athletes, performers, and creatives, and is characterised by peak performance. Therefore, if we want to perform optimally, we want to aim to achieve a Flow state.
7. Stamina
When we want to get better at something, and we have a burning desire to do so, it is very easy to go all in straight away. But the risk with this is burnout. Maybe, even worse, a steep fall off, comprising a loss of interest, plateaus in growth, and a lack of stimulation.
Elite athletes know all too well the importance of stamina. From those involved in long-distance running, to those having to play a game for 90 minutes, to trying to last 12 rounds or keeping energy in reserves to give a sprint finish. Stamina is built through training, proper warm-ups and cool-downs, drills and practice, a proper regimen, proper sustenance, a correct mindset, and optimal performance conditions.
In public speaking and/or performance, this looks like practising little and often instead of last-minute cramming. It looks like vocal and physical warm-ups and cooldowns. It looks like an actual rehearsal or mental rehearsal to minimise unmanageable mistakes. It involves building experience and muscle memory in how to deliver your pitch, performance, speech, or conversation, so that each time you do it, it becomes a little easier and more manageable for your nervous system. It looks like regulating your emotions so that you are in control of your state, not the other way around. It looks like harnessing your mindset to build mental toughness rather than self-sabotage. You get the picture here, I think. Essentially, like athletes, we want to build momentum and a manageable process of preparation, execution, recovery, and reflection.
8. Coaches
Most, if not all, elite athletes credit their success, in some small way, to the work, dedication, commitment, and guidance of their coach, mentor, manager, etc. A dangerous thought we can have is, “If I’m the best at what I'm doing, then I shouldn’t need a coach.” But this is a very closed-minded and naive thought. If we do this, we risk performance bias, decreased motivation, and a lack of diverse perspectives and points of view, among many other things. Having a coach is not a form of weakness, it is a form of strength.
Whether this takes on the form of an advisor, a mentor, or some form of counsel, everyone benefits from having someone they can confide in, be challenged by, and count on to give them no-nonsense, helpful, and constructive support and guidance.
This is very common in the world of sport and elite athletes, but not so common in the world of performance and public speaking. So, I challenge you to change that. This year, maybe you can work with and alongside someone who helps you grow. Someone who healthily challenges you to be the best version of yourself, even if you already feel you are. Someone who identifies areas of weakness and points of improvement. There is always further we can all go.
If elite athletes commit to years of unseen work for moments of excellence, perhaps the real question is, why shouldn’t we do the same for our voices, our ideas, and our presence?
If you’re looking to work with someone in 2026 to support, challenge, and help you, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. I offer one-to-one and group coaching in public speaking and communication for Executives, CEO, and people in public-facing roles. As well as Acting Coaching and Audition preparation for professional Actors.
Read more from James Westphal
James Westphal, Actor & Public Speaking/Communication Coach
James Westphal is an actor, coach, and creative development specialist who works with professional actors on their acting and audition technique and provides public speaking and communication coaching for individuals and groups across business, leadership, and public-facing roles. With his first-class degree and training from a leading drama school, ongoing stage and screen work, a Master’s in Psychology, and extensive teaching experience at top drama schools and conservatoires, James also coaches internationally for leading companies. Founder and CEO of James Westphal Creative Development, providing effective help and guidance for people who speak for a living, his mission is to empower people to connect, lead, and speak with impact.
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