CT Peak Performance

17/02/2026

When Olympic athletes are using structured breathing and emotional regulation strategies before competition, it tells us something important:

High performance requires nervous system control.

Slow breathing.
Heart coherence.
Emotional regulation.

These aren’t add-ons. They’re competitive advantages.

Heart Coherence is one example of how breathing directly influences performance outcomes.

By slowing respiration and activating positive emotional states, athletes can:
• Lower stress hormone output
• Improve recovery
• Enhance mental clarity
• Reduce fatigue risk

Breathing is a performance lever.

At CT Peak Performance, we go beyond awareness and teach athletes how to build real CO₂ tolerance, respiratory strength and nervous system literacy.

Because calm is trainable.
And composure wins competitions.

Leon Marchand, four-time gold medalist in swimming at the 2024 Olympics, didn't achieve success overnight. He has been preparing mentally for competitions for two years. Among other techniques, his performance coach taught him Heart Coherence to help him manage his stress and anxiety during competit...

30/01/2026

📣 Coaches, parents & sport leaders, this one’s for you.

If you're not teaching your athletes how to breathe, you're missing one of the most powerful tools for mental, emotional, and physical performance.

Breath training is no longer just a “wellness” add-on.

It’s a core performance skill and one that’s been wildly overlooked for too long.

In this post, I share 5 reasons why every athlete needs breath training today:

✅ For handling stress & pressure
✅ For faster recovery
✅ For sharper focus under pressure
✅ For movement & injury resilience
✅ For long-term health & wellbeing

If we want stronger, happier, healthier athletes, we need to train them from the inside out

It starts with the breath. 💨

👉 Swipe through.
🗣 Tag a coach or parent who needs to see this.
📩 DM to bring breath training into your team or program.

21/01/2026

Always great to see the work happening behind the scenes being brought to life.

This dryland work with the club is just one small part of what I do in sport, but it’s a part I genuinely enjoy and value. It allows me to stay hands-on with athletes across both development and performance stages, and to contribute directly to performance improvement in a practical, applied way.

My wider work in sport goes beyond how athletes use their bodies for performance. It’s about helping them understand and work with their bodies, building capacity, nervous system resilience, movement integrity and self-regulation alongside strength and mobility.

I believe performance isn’t just about adding more. It’s about preparing the system to handle what’s already there.

Grateful to continue contributing in environments that value a systems based approach to development and whole-person coaching.

17/01/2026

In 2023, I completed my Fully Accredited Professional Sports Psychology Diploma and it helped bring language and structure to work I was already deeply committed to.

Supporting athletes isn’t about fixing mindset.
It’s about understanding pressure, fear, regulation, identity, and safety and how the brain and body respond together.

I’m grateful to now combine:

psychology + physiology + lived experience
to support athletes in a way that actually sticks.

Always learning.
Always evolving.
Always human first .

14/01/2026

My work with swimmers isn’t about chasing fatigue or ticking boxes.
It’s about building capacity so swimmers can tolerate training load, maintain efficiency, and recover well.

Dryland done well:
• Supports stroke efficiency
• Improves endurance at race pace
• Reduces unnecessary fatigue
• Helps swimmers stay robust across the season

This is long-term athlete development, not quick fixes

22/12/2025

How NOT to Breathe Before a Big Performance

In this clip, we see Jake Paul preparing to step into the ring, but his breathing tells another story.

This kind of rapid, mouth dominant breathing (aka hyperventilation) may seem powerful on the outside, but physiologically, it does quite the opposite:

🚫 Reduces oxygen delivery to muscles and brain
🚫 Overstimulates the nervous system, increasing anxiety, not calm
🚫 Impairs focus and reaction time
🚫 Disrupts CO₂ balance, which is essential for oxygen uptake and energy efficiency

🧠 If the goal is peak mental clarity, nervous system control, and oxygen efficiency, this isn’t the way.

✅ Nasal, low, and slow breathing helps regulate the nervous system, maintain energy efficiency, and build composure under pressure. It’s what we train for, because it
works.

As someone working in both sport performance and female athlete support, I’m passionate about helping people breathe better to perform better.

The breath is a powerful toolwhen used
correctly.

Let’s move beyond hype and train for sustainable, science-based performance gains, one nasal breath at a time.

20/11/2025

Sharing a recent clip from a podcast I was invited on to, sharing my journey through sport to burnout.

My experience in sport lead me to doing the work I do today, supporting, guiding and educating athletes, coaches and active people on what you can do to help avoid over-training and burnout, the tools and strategies I wished I knew when I was a competitive athlete.

Full Podcast available https://youtube.com/?si=5exxd65PnJHAFKBr

https://youtube.com/shorts/er5rOwQsVog?si=u-JiSD0xuWZYCHeG

Wait, you retired at 19 because of burnout? 🤯 Clare’s story is a wake-up call for anyone constantly pushing themselves.She had to learn how to emotionally r...

27/10/2025

Why do Breathing Training on Land for Swimmers? 👇

Most swimmers think performance is built in the pool.

But the real gains often start on land with how you breathe.

Breathing training on land helps swimmers teach their bodies to:

💨 Become more tolerant to carbon dioxide (CO₂)
💪 Use oxygen more efficiently
⚡ Conserve energy and delay fatigue

Why does this matter?

Because breathing itself uses oxygen, anywhere from 5–15% of your total oxygen intake during moderate to intense exercise.

If your breathing is inefficient, your muscles get less oxygen and your performance suffers.

By improving CO₂ tolerance through land-based breathing drills, swimmers learn to:

✅ Take fewer, more efficient breaths (for example, every 5 strokes instead of every 3)
✅ Move with better rhythm and flow in the water
✅ Reduce hydrodynamic drag, every unnecessary breath slightly disrupts body position and flow
✅ Train the respiratory muscles to work harder
with less ventilation meaning you can swim longer, with less effort

Think of it like strength training for your breathing system:

🫁 Fewer breaths → less drag → smoother swimming
🫁 Stronger respiratory muscles → more efficient energy use
🫁 Better breathing control → improved recovery and focus

When you learn to breathe better on land, your body learns to move better in water.

The goal of breathing retraining isn’t to hold your breath longer, it’s to teach your body to do more with less

Less effort. Less drag. More control. More performance.

27/10/2025

Day 3 in beautiful Portugal on a week-long swim training camp with 24 dedicated swimmers from Alliance ASC and what an incredible few days it’s been so far.

As both Dryland Coach and Breathing Instructor, I've been helping the swimmers integrate CO₂ tolerance training into their dryland sessions, helping the athletes build:

💨 oxygen efficiency
🫁 better recovery
⚡ mental calm under pressure

It’s been amazing to watch them push new limits in the pool while learning how to recover faster, regulate stress better, and use their breath as a performance tool.

We’re only on Day 3, but already we’ve seen a powerful balance of focused work, smart recovery, and (of course!) plenty of fun and laughter between sessions.

This is what performance looks like, not just working harder, but learning to work smarter, with awareness, adaptability, and control.

Roll on the next 5 days, more learning, more growth, and more proof that when you train your system, you expand your capacity to perform. 🌬️💪

25/10/2025

Here we go of to training camp #2 at Rio Maior Sports Centre with Alliance ASC.

A total of 11 training sessions planned for the week ahead with my focus being on dryland and improving oxygen efficiency. 💨