Elite Mental Performance Coaching with Kirsty MacMillan MPM

Today on TotalSUP, I’m honoured to welcome one of my dearest friends and Starboard SUP North America Team Rider Kirsty MacMillan. The first time I met Kirsty, we were at a local Ontario Series SUP race in Canada. I approached her and said “Hi! I’m Maddi!” and she said “Hello!”. I then said “I hope you have a fun race!” and walked away. When Kirsty re-tells that story to our friends, we always laugh at how I walked away so quickly, and how that’s changed dramatically – since we don’t ever stop talking whenever we’re together! Since that day we have become the truest of friends. Kirsty and I have always shared a passion for growing our paddling community, however our stories look a little bit different. I went along the path of pursuing the life of a professional athlete, while Kirsty has gone down the path of pursing the life of a professional mental elite performance coach. Her path has been full of twists and turns but she is proud of where she is today. Kirsty is extremely excited for the future of pursuing her passion while helping athletes master their mental performance along the way.

Welcome to TotalSUP today Kirsty! Can you first introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a little bit about yourself?

Thanks Maddi! I’d love to! My name is Kirsty, I live in Canada, I’m 51 years old and am a full time mom to two teenage boys who I adore. My passion in life is paddling and SUP racing. I work in the medical field, and my scientific mind really wanted to understand great technique to become faster. Luckily I soon discovered Larry Cain who lives in the same city, and I’ve been coached by him for the last 8 years or so. He’s been a great mentor to me, and I’ve even written a few articles for Paddle Monster! With a lot of hard work I am now an Advanced SUP coach with Paddle Canada, and I’ve been to 3 ICF World Championships (Poland, Thailand, Sarasota) and have done really well!

That’s incredible! Where did your journey start? How did you get into stand up paddle boarding, and eventually into SUP racing?

I found SUP in 2015 when I went to LA to visit my brother. He lived a block from Redondo Beach, and I rented a SUP from Paddle House for 2 hours and absolutely fell in love with it. Paddling in the harbour near all the sea lions barking on the rocks, I was blown away! I immediately started looking for how to do it when I got back home in Canada. I got into racing pretty soon after that… I have always been involved in sports and love the whole process of training.

What do you do when you’re not racing, or training? What do you do for a living?

I’m an Anesthesia Assistant and work in the Operating Room of Oakville Hospital full time. I used to really love my job but working during the Covid pandemic burned me out. I’m working hard to switch to mental performance coaching (which I love) full time in the next couple of years.

Anesthesia assistant by day, and mental performance coach by night! WOW! What initially inspired you to become a mental performance coach, and how did you get started in this field?

Last January (2024) I went to Susanne Lier’s SUP training camp in Fuerteventura. I had the best time! When I got home, I really started to brainstorm how I could get more involved in coaching and that’s when I came across mental performance coaching. I signed up and completed the Mental Performance Mastery (MPM) certification. The more I read about it the more I felt this is what I want to spend my energy helping people with. I love talking one on one with athletes about their goals and dreams, and helping them get the huge edge that a strong elite mindset gives them to perform at the highest level. Coincidentally as we discuss this article, I’m back here in paradise with Susanne!

You found the inspiration and set out to chase your dream! It’s remarkable to see! Can you describe your coaching philosophy and what sets your approach apart from others?

As an athlete myself, I can relate to the amount of hard work and discipline that is needed to compete at a high level. I think I’m very easy to talk to, intuitive, and can help my athletes get to the heart of the issue, and from there it’s a matter of talking through different tools and strategies and finding what will work best for them. I always want my athletes to be better for having a session with me. Usually mental performance coaches or sports psychologists work with professional athletes and national teams, and are difficult to book time with. I’m really stoked to be able to bring this training to other athletes who are really competitive and want to improve!

It sounds like your services are more accessible than most. That’s great! What are the types of skills that you can help athletes with?

• Elite mindset
• Awareness
• Focus
• Confidence and Discipline
• Process Over Outcome
• Visualization
• Routines and Habits of Excellence

Now that we know the skills you can help develop for your athletes, how do you assess the mental performance needs of your clients?

First I like to find out what they already know about mental performance, and what they’re executing on. From there we discuss what the athlete needs… is it help with confidence? Focus? Elite mindset? Visualization? Setting up routines and habits of excellence? Once we know what is important to the athlete to work on, we tackle it as a team. Lots of communication and accountability.

In the past, you helped me prepare for the Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis largely using a concept called “visualization”. Can you discuss the role of visualization in mental performance training? How does it work?

Visualization has been around for over 70 years (when Sir Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile using it) and its benefits are proven through many studies. When you use all 5 senses to create a full image in your mind, the brain does not know the difference between mentally imagining your performance or physically doing it. The intensity of the neuron firing varies slightly but the pathway is exactly the same.  The more the pathway fires, the stronger it becomes! There are so many benefits including decreasing time to acquire new skills, improved technique/performance, lower stress, and getting in mental reps (while resting the nervous system). It’s also the perfect tool for the injured athlete to maintain their skills during recovery. When an athlete actually competes should never be the first time they’ve “seen” their performance in the competition. Visualization done daily (ideally) only takes about 10 minutes, and will allow the athlete to be calm and present on race day.

This is why for the Crossing for CF race, visualization was crucial.  Not only was it your first time doing this race but the race start was at midnight and in the dark. So it was really important for us to look up any video we could find of previous race starts and talk with people who had done it before, so that you could do the best job possible visualizing it. This is what would give you the best preparation for your big race!

Thanks for explaining visualization to our readers and why it’s important for athletic performance! What techniques do you use to help clients manage performance anxiety or pressure during competitions?

Anxiety is essentially associated with thinking about the future… things like race results and other things that are out of the athlete’s control. I really work on bringing awareness to being present, being where your feet are. And controlling all the things that are within your control… things like body language, attitude, positive self-talk, process, preparation, performance, energy and effort. I have a lot of tools that athletes can use to keep their focus on the present, and when you do that the anxiety is kept to a minimum. The key is when you go all in on the things you CAN control, this is the very best way to achieve the goals that you’re working towards!  It also helps to reframe anxiety as pressure (to perform), and “pressure is a privilege” (thank you Doc Rivers).

Pressure is most certainly a privilege. How important is goal setting in your coaching process, and what strategies do you recommend for effective goal setting?

Goal setting is crucial, imagine shooting a bow and arrow but you don’t have a target to aim at. It’s so important I have a few in-depth tools to help athletes figure out their goals and what they value. Once you know your goals, you can reverse engineer back to create your process, which are the daily things you want to be doing to achieve your big goal. Just doing these exercises bring awareness to what you want in life, and open your eyes to opportunities that arise that align with your goals!

Can you share a success story from your coaching practice that highlights the impact of mental performance training?

One of my first athlete’s I worked with was a 16 year old rep volleyball player. She was really engaged as we went through the 7 skills of mental performance, and excited to put things into action!  A few months went by, and her mom texted me saying that she was back in her head and worrying about mistakes that happened on the court, and basically unfocused and not having fun playing. She had a big tournament the next day and wanted my help.  So I did a session with her that same day, and reminded her of things we’d discussed. Things like controlling the controllables, using her recognize/release/refocus routine when mistakes happen, doing her visualization that night and also on the way to the tournament (I send all my athletes an audio recording they can use) and really focusing on positive self-talk. All of these are things we discuss and plan ahead of time, so that she can practice them and they come naturally during competition.  It was so freaking rewarding to get a few texts from her and her mom the next day that she was back to playing at her best and having a blast!

Wow! That is amazing! What advice would you give to young athletes or individuals just starting their performance journey?

I would say that working on the mental side of athletics is a HUGE advantage for you and the more you practice, the better you’ll get with it. Just like going to the gym, and building physical muscles, you can build your mental skills. Especially if you are a high performing athlete, at some point all of the other competitors are also talented and work hard. So mental performance is a big advantage to take you to another level. I’m always really excited to work with young athletes. I coach a few teams and also teach in 2 schools about mental performance! As a life-long athlete I would have given anything to know these things as a young person!

Phenomenal! What other services do you provide with your mental performance coaching?

I do one on one coaching, either in person or virtually. I also work with teams, and with classes in schools. I also do presentations, for sports associations or any group that sees the benefit of improving mental performance. I’m drawn to working with athletes, but it can also be professional associations and teams in the corporate world.

That is great that your services are so dynamic! What are some of your hopes and dreams with your mental performance coaching business?

I love having conversations with people about mental performance and how it can improve your life. I’m planning to retire from healthcare in the next couple of years and coach full time!

Before we let you go today, we know you have a partnership with Pison! Can you tell us a little bit about your collaboration with Pison?

I’m really excited about my collaboration with Pison, a technology company that has the first ever wearable for mental performance! Pison has pioneered the science of ENG (electroneurography) together with Artificial Intelligence to accurately measure cognitive performance. We all know that in athletics you need to be able to measure in order to improve, so this is really special. There are three different tests that can be done: reaction time, go/no go (executive control), and the gold standard Psychomotor Vigilance (PVT) test.  With the insight of these results you can sharpen your focus and improve your decision-making, and make race day decisions about what your body needs to be at it’s optimal performance. It’s currently being used in professional sports (Toronto Blue Jays), other pro sports, Division 1 athletics in the US as well as in the US military to detect sub-concussive injuries. I’m proud to be one of the first Canadians to work with them and to share this technology with my mental performance clients.

Thanks for joining us on TotalSUP today Kirsty! We wish you a fantastic year ahead racing, training, and coaching!

To learn more about Kirsty MacMillian’s Mental Performance Coaching you can visit her website at macmillanelitemindset.com

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