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Formula 1 Driver Coach Rob Wilson gives us a fascinating insight into the techniques he has used to coach over half the current F1 drivers, as well as some of the World’s best rally stars.

Rob Wilson was so inspired by Bruce McLaren, that he moved to England from New Zealand and like his fellow countryman, became a very talented racing driver. He beat World F1 Champs; Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost on occasions, but ultimately didn’t have the necessary funding to progress. Yes, money mattered even back then.

His career saw him travel the world, competing very successfully in a large variety of cars and Championships, before hanging up his helmet and starting down the road of teaching driver techniques.

Given the talent of his coaching clients, I consider him to be the World’s No.1 professional driver coach. His customer base is also made up of rally drivers, team engineers and other team members, eager to understand Rob’s principles of how to drive fast.

In this show, Rob very generously explains the fundamentals he teaches. You need to listen carefully and may need to listen a few times. There is plenty of footage of Rob in action on YouTube as well, go check it out.

Away from the track, Rob is a very accomplished bass player. His band, Grand Prairie have opened for Aerosmith, Diana Ross and Willie Nelson to name a few.

We recorded this show towards the end of 2020, a year to forget for many. It was great to chat to someone who absolutely loves what he does. Some of his stories are simply fantastic, this is a man who has lived a very full life so far and intends to for a very long time to come. We could all learn from that attitude.

There are plenty of people in the world right now who need a pick me up. So if you find any benefit from the show, perhaps others might too, so please share it and spread a little positivity. It might just be the boost your friends and family need in these strange times.

Enjoy the show.

Learning and action points

Thanks to Rob for all his insights and advice which I hope you found useful. Here are some things you can try: –

• His main principle is simple aim for a flat car. In other words, try to keep the car as parallel to the ground as possible, therefore maximising the contact patch of all 4 tyres which leads to more efficient braking, cornering and acceleration. This will also help reduce tyre wear.
• Aim to make the corner as short as possible by getting a little more rotation in the middle of the corner.
• Aim to keep the steering wheel straight for the maximum amount of time – even the slightest steering input will slow a car.
• Be as smooth as possible in everything you do, steering, gear changes, avoid bumps etc…
• The biggest thing is the way you move your body, you drive the car as much with your feet as well as your hands.
• Use tiny introductions in both steering and braking to initialise the weight transfer.
• You need to be smooth in releasing the brakes as well to avoid unsettling the car.
• Aim to minimise the movements of steering, throttle, brakes etc… in everything that you do. Whisper to the car.
• Learn your craft, don’t outsource your brain to data downloaders and engineers, show interest in what they do to help look for similar patterns in the future.
• Build great relationships within your team

If you’d like to get in touch, our email is info@stagebystage.com  and you can find us on all the usual social media channels.

All of this information is in the show notes which you can find on my blog at www.stagebystage.com/blog

There are plenty of people in the world right now who need a pick me up. So if you find any benefit from the show, perhaps others might too, so please share it and spread a little positivity. It might be just the boost your friends and family need in these strange times.

That’s it for now, thanks very much for listening, until the next time, take care and stay safe.

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Performance Coach and Grief Recovery Specialist Helen Arthur offers some advice on coping with COVID 19.

This show is a little different to the previous episodes and is aimed at anyone who’s had a difficult time coping with COVID.

We recorded the show just before we found out that the UK government was about to start a vaccination programme. That hopefully, is a bright light at the end of a very dark tunnel. We still have quite a bit of pain to go through, so I feel there is plenty of value in this episode. I’d really appreciate your feedback on it, good or bad.

Helen and I have been working together for the last 15 years on various training and coaching programmes. We first met when she was the UK Training Manager for Daimler Chrysler, which at the time included Mercedes.

In 2006 she got her coaching qualifications and started her own business. Helen is an excellent coach. Earlier this year she started a new course on strengths-based coaching and needed some volunteers to practice on. My wife Jacquie and I put our hands up, which has led to us employing her as our coach.

There’s a good chance this podcast would not exist without my coaching programme with Helen.

Helen is also a Grief Recovery Specialist, who helps people cope with loss, which is very relevant in this current climate. So many people have lost loved ones, work, jobs and for a lot of people, their self-esteem. That’s why I thought it would be useful to get her advice on how to cope with COVID, in the hope that it could help some of you.

There are plenty of people in the world right now who need a pick me up. So if you find any benefit from the show, perhaps others might too, so please share it and spread a little positivity. It might just be the boost your friends and family need in these strange times.

Enjoy the show.

Learning and action points

Thanks to Helen for all her insights and advice which I hope you found useful. Here are some things you can try: –

• Don’t say “your fine” if you’re not
• Tell someone about how you actually feel – It’s OK not to be OK
• Talk with a vulnerability, an authenticity and openness
• Stay true to your emotional feelings
• Ask for help if you need it and keep communicating
• Share what’s going on with you, don’t keep it inside
• Check in on others who you haven’t spoken to for a while
• Play to your natural strengths
• Finally, let’s help each other, by reaching out to people and checking how they are

Listen to Helen’s chat on the MENable Matters podcast here: –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rHP0agfzik

If you like to get in touch with Helen, her email address is: – helen@griefuk.net

Her website is: – www.griefuk.org/helen

On LinkedIn: – linkedin.com/in/helen-arthur-5a860325

this his the link to the Clifton Strengths Test: –

https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/253676/how-cliftonstrengths-works.aspx

If you’d like to get in touch, our email is info@stagebystage.com  and you can find us on all the usual social media channels.

All of this information is in the show notes which you can find on my blog at www.stagebystage.com/blog

There are plenty of people in the world right now who need a pick me up. So if you find any benefit from the show, perhaps others might too, so please share it and spread a little positivity. It might be just the boost your friends and family need in these strange times.

That’s it for now, thanks very much for listening, until the next time, take care and stay safe.

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Becs offers advice for budding journalists and tells us what she thinks makes a World Champion.

I first met Becs Williams not long after she started her career as a Broadcast Journalist, Commentator & Presenter on the World Rally Championship and we became great friends.

If you’re one of the thousands of rally fans who like me have listened to Becs over decades on the World Rally Championship radio station, then you’re in for a treat as she takes us right back to life in South Wales as a 6-year old who wanted to present the BBC Breakfast programme.

It was great to work alongside her as a Stage End Reporter on the WRC a few years back. That experience, together with her advice and encouragement gave me a lot of the confidence I needed to start this podcast and I’ll always be grateful for the faith she showed in me. She even asked me to present the Rally Finland show in 2016, when fellow countryman Kris Meeke led from the start, dominated and scored an incredible win. A truly memorable event for me.

She has interviewed World Rally Champions more times over the last 18 years than anyone else I know, which means she has a great insight to what makes a World Champ which she shares with us.

Becs has also helped plenty of people with advice on how to build a career in journalism and she also shares some of those tips with us.

There’s a lot of learning in here which can easily be applied to everyday life. I’ll summarise it at the end as usual. There are plenty of people in the world right now who need a pick me up. So if you find any benefit from the show, perhaps others might too, so please please share it and spread a little positivity. It might be just the boost your friends and family need in these strange times.

Enjoy the show.

Learning and action points

Thanks to Becs for all her stories and insights which I hope you enjoyed. Here are some things you can do if you too want to improve your life: –

• To become a World Champ, you’ll need commitment, focus and determination
• You also have to have self-belief to be a champion.
• Be blinkered in pursuit of your goals, don’t let anything distract you
• If you want to pursue a career in rally journalism, let nothing phase you, write to the WRC promoter or any of the other media agencies. Don’t hold back, do it, life’s too short to have any regrets!

If you’d like to get in touch, our email is info@stagebystage.com  and you can find us on all the usual social media channels.

There are plenty of people in the world right now who need a pick me up. So if you find any benefit from the show, perhaps others might too, so please share it and spread a little positivity. It might be just the boost your friends and family need in these strange times.

That’s it for now, thanks very much for listening, until the next time, take care and stay safe.

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The World’s most successful track cyclist, shares some of the secrets of that success and how he transferred those skills and learning to his current motorsport career.

It was an absolute privilege to have Sir Chris Hoy, a genuine sporting superhero as a guest on my little podcast. After a recent chance meeting at a rallycross event, he agreed to come on the show and was a man of his word.

I’ve been a huge fan for many years, watching him win title after title and being fascinated by his attention to detail and incredible work rate. He’s one of the UK’s most successful athletes – ever!

When he retired from professional cycling, he started out on a motorsport journey, grasping the opportunity in 2016 to take part (and finish!) the world’s most demanding motorsport endurance race, the Le Mans 24 Hours.

He now enjoys competing in various Championships and cars, from Rallycross to Caterhams to GT cars and pretty much anything in between.

I was fascinated to learn how much of his cycling skills and learning were transferrable to motorsport, especially the mental training which he practiced daily in his cycling career.

There’s a hell of a lot of learning in here which can easily be applied to everyday life. There are plenty of people in the world right now who need a pick me up. So if you find any benefit from the show, perhaps others might too, so please please share it and spread a little positivity. It might be just the boost your friends and family need in these strange times.

Enjoy the show.

Learning and action points

Thanks to Chris for all his stories and insights which I hope you enjoyed. Here are some things you can do if you too want to improve your life: –

• Find something that you love and are passionate about, the hard work will be worth it then. Make sure you enjoy the process.
• Focus on what you have control over, forget about the ‘what ifs?’
• Concentrate on where you want to go and what you want to do rather than the things you don’t want to do
• Visualise the perfect outcome to help block out any negative thoughts
• Remember that inevitably you will get distracted and lose focus, practice so you are able to regain concentration quickly
• Mental training needs as much practice as physical training – you can practice on a daily basis, e.g. controlling your temper or dealing with frustration. Are you able to stay calm if another motorist cuts you up?
• Take ownership of your performance and build your team around you
• Have an end goal and enjoy the process, that is really important, don’t forget to have fun…
• Focus on your own improvement, don’t compare yourself to others.
• The world is a changing place right now, you’ve got to adapt and look for opportunities – that’s what successful people do

Listen to Chris’ interview on the High Performance podcast here: – https://bit.ly/3cNjoeF

and to the Motorsport magazine one here: – https://bit.ly/3kWWGng

Watch his brilliant documentary on Colin McRae here: – https://bit.ly/3jmZWrs

You can find Chris via his website: – https://www.chrishoy.com

If you’d like to get in touch, our email is info@stagebystage.com

That’s it for now, thanks very much for listening, until the next time, take care.

2016 Australian Rally Champion and Subaru brand ambassador Molly Taylor is joined by her Mum Coral, 4 x Australian Rally Champion Co-driver as well her current co-driver Malcolm Read to tell some more stories and answer viewers questions.

#performancecoaching #rallying #motorsport

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If you’ve got a dream of competing at the highest level of your sport, then Seb Marshall’s journey from rallying for fun as a schoolboy in Yorkshire, to five podium finishes on World Championship rallies, is proof that you too can do it with the right attitude and hard work.

Seb Marshall is a World Rally Championship Co-driver from Leeds in the UK. He has had five World Championship Rally podium finishes with both Hayden Paddon and Kris Meeke. In this episode, Seb describes how he rose through the UK’s rally co-driver academies, to compete at the sport’s highest level. Meticulous in his preparation and hardworking, Seb also strives for excellence, continually thinking laterally to find the edge needed to be an elite sports star.

He very kindly sent me a note describing the learning he had picked up from the previous episodes of this podcast. We discuss some of that learning which has also helped me plan future coaching content to share with you.

Enjoy the show.

Learning and action points

Thanks to Seb for all his stories and insights which I hope you enjoyed. Here are some things you can do if you too want to follow in Seb’s path.

• Have a target to aim for and make sure you know the steps you need to take to get there, then do it Stage by Stage…
• Focus on the skills, knowledge and attitude you need to be the best and the results and career progress will come naturally.
• You’ll enjoy the learning process more if you can find an internal motivation, e.g. self-improvement rather than trophy hunting.
• Be meticulous in your planning and check every little detail so there are no surprises.
• Establish great relationships with all the members of your team in a genuine way.
• Seb referred to a book called The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters and told us he learnt how to be aware of distractions, but remember to respond to them, not react. In other words, give yourself time to think.
• Learn how to build relationships with different characters and personalities.
• Aim to make a good impression on people when you first meet them in order to build trust
• And finally find a way to be creative if your final university exam clashes with a rally! That will be a true test of your commitment and dedication.

If you’d like to get in touch, our email is info@stagebystage.com

Nowadays we’re all very busy, so don’t worry about reviewing, liking or sharing the show.

That’s it for now, thanks very much for listening, until the next time, take care.