Adam Wright, Ph.D., CMPC, PCC
Director of Mental Performance, Washington Nationals
Co-founder, The Antifragile Academy
PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE
Train the systems that hold when it counts.
You've optimized everything. So why do you still tighten when it matters most?
You've trained focus, yet the same distraction keeps pulling you off course.
You've mastered your craft, yet the words—or the movement—still slip away.
That gap between potential and execution—that's what we close.
Not through tactics alone, but by addressing the systems and patterns that either hold or break under sustained pressure.
About
I hold a Ph.D. in Kinesiology (Sport and Exercise Psychology) from Temple University and a Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. I serve as Director of Mental Performance for the Washington Nationals and Co-Founder of The Antifragile Academy.
The goal isn't peak performance. It's sustainable performance—clarity, adaptability, and well-being that last beyond the arena.
For over 20 years, I've worked with performers whose decisions and composure define outcomes: All-Star players, World Series champions, National Team athletes, Academy Award winners, performing artists, CEOs, founders, surgeons, trial attorneys, and tactical operators.
The context changes.
The internal systems that hold under pressure don't.
My training across sport psychology, exercise physiology, and clinical counseling allows me to work where most performance approaches remain siloed. I address physiological, cognitive, and emotional systems—not as isolated variables, but as an integrated architecture of performance. The work often begins with execution under pressure and expands into sustainability, identity and meaning.
Three Systems Drive Performance Under Pressure
1 – Physiology
Your nervous system sets the ceiling. You can't think your way past a dysregulated body.
2 – Cognition
Mental skills aren't simply concepts; they're trained capacities that determine whether you execute or hesitate when it counts.
3 – Emotion & Pattern
The toughest opponent isn't across from you. It's within—the patterns that surface when pressure hits.
Performance challenges are rarely single-domain problems
The executive whose “confidence issue” traces back to chronic physiological overload.
The athlete who knows the mental skills but can’t access them when the lights come on.
The founder who has strategic clarity on paper, but is paralyzed in the decisive moment.
When performance breakdowns span multiple systems, single domain solutions fail.
You know what to do, but automatic patterns hijack the system when pressure hits.
Services
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Personalized Performance Consulting
For those who’ve already optimized the fundamentals but know that sustaining excellence requires addressing what’s beneath the surface.
We identify where the interference lives—your nervous system, decision-making under load, or recurring emotional patterns—and build systems that hold.
I maintain a limited roster to ensure depth of engagement.
Engagements are structured in 3- or 6-month formats, determined through an initial conversation about fit and scope. -
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Organizational Consulting & Training
Through The Antifragile Academy , co-founded with Dr. Nick Holton, we partner with elite teams and organizations on performance, recovery, and resilience under high-stakes conditions.
We design systems that strengthen decision-making under pressure, sustain clarity in complexity, and protect well-being in volatile, uncertain, and ambiguous environments.
Clients include professional sports organizations, executive teams, surgical departments, and tactical units.
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Speaking, Podcast & Media Engagement
Keynotes, panels, and podcast conversations exploring the dynamics of performance under pressure. Topics include the neuroscience of choking, leadership in chaos, burnout prevention, and how elite performers train the internal systems that hold when stakes are high.
In
Conversation
Podcasts exploring performance, resilience, and the human condition: how people hold under pressure and find meaning in it.
Let’s Talk