Apr 15, 2026 · 2 hr 20 min · 17 segments
In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Lenny Wiersma — one of the most respected and quietly influential figures in sports psychology — for a conversation on what it actually takes to perform when the…
Lenny WiersmaGuest
Andy GalpinHost
But the entire time watching that, I kept thinking this is obviously fairly easy for him physically.
There was some challenges, but that was by far, and again, this is going to really hurt me saying this.
Just at the very basic start here, what does psychology, what does the brain, how does this even look when someone is doing something as crazy as Alex climbing up a building like that? Where do we even start to think about this? I've never worked with
So people who aren't him, like you and I, to try to even have a sense of what that's like for him is impossible to do.
It's a great example of we're all seeing the same things, but we're all seeing very different things and feeling different things.
I've worked with athletes who do extreme things and I have some insight perhaps and maybe what some of that was like for him.
I mean, the first thing my nephews were reaching out, hey, what do you think? Is it gonna be like, it's a 10 second delay, is that gonna be needed? And like, no.
Like one thing I've learned about extreme sport athletes is that if it's not a 100% yes, then it's a 100% no.
And like this is important to understand like the risk involved with it because I think at the heart of doing these things is the concept of the psychology of risk.
A mistake, him being overconfident, an earthquake, wind, like things in his control, things out of our control.
He's not going to go into doing that if he has doubt in his mind about his ability to do it.
And actually, I think that's pretty phenomenal to know what it took for him to buy that kind of confidence, to build that kind of confidence over time.
But the entire time watching that, I kept thinking this is obviously fairly easy for him physically.
There was some challenges, but that was by far, and again, this is going to really hurt me saying this.
Just at the very basic start here, what does psychology, what does the brain, how does this even look when someone is doing something as crazy as Alex climbing up a building like that? Where do we even start to think about this? I've never worked with
So people who aren't him, like you and I, to try to even have a sense of what that's like for him is impossible to do.
It's a great example of we're all seeing the same things, but we're all seeing very different things and feeling different things.
I've worked with athletes who do extreme things and I have some insight perhaps and maybe what some of that was like for him.
I mean, the first thing my nephews were reaching out, hey, what do you think? Is it gonna be like, it's a 10 second delay, is that gonna be needed? And like, no.
Like one thing I've learned about extreme sport athletes is that if it's not a 100% yes, then it's a 100% no.
And like this is important to understand like the risk involved with it because I think at the heart of doing these things is the concept of the psychology of risk.
A mistake, him being overconfident, an earthquake, wind, like things in his control, things out of our control.
He's not going to go into doing that if he has doubt in his mind about his ability to do it.
And actually, I think that's pretty phenomenal to know what it took for him to buy that kind of confidence, to build that kind of confidence over time.
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