Lee & Chris discuss: 

• Overcoming injuries and setbacks

• Maximising the chance of success

• Using failure as a motivation

• Consistency and constant improvement

• The importance of incremental goal-setting

• Dealing with the fear of failure

• The role of mental strength in a highly physical sport

Links & references:

Lee Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecooperrecruiter/

Chris Billam-Smith: https://www.instagram.com/chrisbillam/

The Perfect Athlete Podcast with Chris Billam-Smith https://perfectathletepodcast.com

Get in touch: lee@extrology.com

Episode highlights:

“I'm the youngest of three brothers, so I like to be the centre of attention. So the idea of everyone being there and chanting your name - I just loved the idea of that when I was younger and gave it a go. 10 months later, I was in the ring having my first bout.” - Chris Billam-Smith

“I think when it comes to sparring, there's no substitute for experience and for your fitness. Now I can do twelve 3-minute rounds, whereas back in the amateurs I struggled to do three 2’s or three 3’s.” - Chris Billam-Smith

“A lot of people are scared to be embarrassed. If you get knocked down or knocked out, then that's a very primitive feeling of defeat in a way, of someone bettering you at something. Whether it's chess, or a game where they're physically stronger than you, I think the mental demands of the sport are more than the physical.” - Chris Billam-Smith

“I’ve been stopped, I've been dropped and almost knocked out - that's the worst thing that can happen to you in a boxing ring. So anything from here on in is not gonna be as bad as that. It might be on a bigger stage, but I've already dealt with those situations very early on in my amateur career.” - Chris Billam-Smith

“I’m really intrigued to find out what drives people, how people become successful and how they got there. You look at any successful person, and they fail. And I think I've learned that as I've got older, I look back on my own career and think “I failed there, I failed there, I failed there. But now I'm here.”. So without those failures, I probably wouldn't be here, I may have quit a long time ago.” - Chris Billam-Smith

“You don't achieve a world title by saying you're going to achieve a world title, it comes down to the minute detail of doing what I did as an amateur, turning up, giving hundred percent and more, and trying to do anything you can to improve yourself. And like I said, there's that constant goal and drive for improvement, and I think that's what is going to achieve what I want to achieve in the sport.” - Chris Billam-Smith

“Shane, my coach, is only young himself - he's 31, so he's a new school coach. He likes some of the old school elements., but we don't get up stupidly and go for a long run. In fact, we don't do many long runs because the sport isn't 36 minutes of plodding along at a normal pace. It's high intensity bouts of exercise, followed by a short rest period, followed by high intensity followed by a short rest period. And that's what we emulate in our training.” - Chris Billam-Smith

“Especially in boxing, there's very few boxers that go into high level fights without carrying a niggle of some sort.” - Chris Billam-Smith

“You can have a fight with someone and in the last second round, you're trying to take his head off, you're trying to knock him out. The bell goes and you're hugging the man and you respect them and there's just that respect that I believe only combat sports can teach you.” - Chris Billam-Smith

“It's crazy to think that I used to watch come off champions on Sky Sports. Now I am one, so it’s crazy to even consider that that’s where I am. But at the same time, that's not where I want to stop. If I retired now, I wouldn't be happy with my career.”- Chris Billam-Smith

“It's just learning from your failures and making adjustments then going again. As babies, everyone tried to walk and fell over. I think that's the easiest way to describe it to people. When it comes to failure you couldn’t walk once, and now you can run, walk, jump, and do these things. You couldn’t speak once and now you can speak. 99% of the population achieve these things, so just look at all the things you've already overcome in life.” - Chris Billam-Smith

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