Charlie Unwin
Charlie graduated from Durham University with a degree in Psychology before joining the Army as an Officer in 2001. After a year at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Charlie commissioned into the Royal Horse Artillery with whom he served in Iraq as a platoon commander.
Charlie was seconded from the Army to the World Class Performance Centre in Bath he trained with the Great Britain modern pentathlon team. Within two years Charlie was selected to compete for the British Team at the World Championships and in 2007 Charlie became National Champion.
During his time as an Athlete, Charlie noticed that his interest in mental training strategies were giving him an edge in competition and firmly believes that rather than raw talent it was his passion for applied psychology that gave him the edge.
Charlie retired as an athlete and went next to gain a further MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Brunel University where he won a National Award for his applied research into “motivational climate”.
Charlie started coaching mental skills to schools and clubs (including Whitgift and Millfield schools).
He was soon given opportunity to work with athletes and teams from numerous Olympic and Professional Sports.
Charlie became the lead performance psychologist for the GB Olympic Skeleton Team working with Lizzy Yarnold towards her becoming double Olympic Champion (2014 and 2018) as well as the team becoming the most successful Winter Olympic team of all time.
Since then Charlie has gone on to work with a huge range of clients including England Football, Premiership Rugby, military special forces and the Royal Household. He also mentors Premier League football Coaches looking to improve the mental development of young players.
Charlie also applies the principles of human performance psychology in working with global organisations, helping them achieve their own performance aspirations. He delivers keynotes, coaching and workshops, sharing his insights into mental performance, team environment, leadership, coaching and resilience.
Charlie has designed and delivered award winning programmes for a number of global organisations including Coca Cola, Lego, Virgin, Dyson and Linklaters. He was awarded Top Speaker at The Henley Business School Partnership in 2015.
Charlie is a Co Founder of Centre10 with Sarah Huntley. Centre10 delivers Performance Psychology Training for Coaches and Riders.
The Centre10 Approach
There is currently very little access to professional and credible Performance Psychology Training for athletes and coaches in the U.K. Most options are either a one day course or a three year academic degree with little in between.
At Centre10 we have bridged this gap by condensing the field of performance psychology into key components that we believe make the biggest difference to sporting performance.
Our unique approach fuses cutting edge research with practical techniques .
We have courses for both Riders and Coaches. For Riders “Win The Mind Game” and for Coaches the Applied Psychology for Equestrian Coaches programme (APEC) is available for both Advanced and Foundation Coaches.
Find Out MoreCharlie Unwin
“Performance psychology is about helping athletes perform consistently at their best under the pressure of competition. This typically requires us to have belief in our potential, create and execute a clear game plan and focus effectively on the things that count under pressure.”
