Ep. 801 of the Tom Rowland Podcast is a conversation with Justin Adams, the mindset coach for UFC fighter Kevin Holland, about what elite fighters do mentally before a fight and how that translates to everyday performance. Adams, a former professional bull rider who has also trained fighters like Derek Lewis and Terrance McKinney, walks through how he gets fighters into peak performance mode, why reframing negative self-talk matters, and how a career that never reached the very top in rodeo ended up making him a better coach.
Press play in the YouTube player above to hear Justin Adams explain this in his own words, or scroll back up to watch the video.
Justin Adams calls himself Kevin Holland's jiu jitsu coach, though he describes his real role as more of a positive vibes coach. He and Holland have trained together since Holland was seventeen, and Adams' job during fight week is less about technique and more about getting Holland into what he calls peak performance mode. He has since expanded to work with other UFC fighters, including Terrance McKinney and Derek Lewis.
Adams grew up in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, riding bulls from a young age and competing professionally, reaching the alternate spot for one nationally televised event. After noticing how many competitors beating him on the rodeo circuit had jiu jitsu backgrounds, he sought out training with coach Travis Lueder, which improved his bull riding and got him into fighting. A detached retina in a fight left him blind in one eye and ended his own competing, which is when he moved fully into coaching, starting with a teenage Kevin Holland.
Adams says the key is helping fighters recognize and access the handful of times in their life when they felt unstoppable. He uses small reminders, like a song that played after a big past win, to trigger that same mental state before a fight. He described using this with Kevin Holland before a fight where Holland was fighting one-handed after breaking his hand, reminding him of past moments when he was at his most dangerous instead of focusing on the injury.
Adams told me that fighters who go in purely wanting to beat someone up are not performing at their optimal level, even though the aggression feels productive. He believes focusing on becoming the best version of yourself is more effective, because an opponent doing the same will expose the gaps in a purely aggressive approach. He sees this play out with both Kevin Holland and Derek Lewis when they are at their sharpest.
No. Adams coaches differently depending on the person. Some fighters, he said, want him to be completely blunt about what is and is not working mid-fight. Kevin Holland responds better when Adams lays out an idea and lets him arrive at the conclusion himself, because Holland tends to push back against being told directly what to do. Adams said figuring out how each athlete actually receives information is as important as the information itself.
Adams explained that the mind does not process the words don't or shouldn't the way people think it does. Telling a fighter not to get caught in a clinch, he said, plants the word clinch in their head anyway. He coaches fighters to state what they want to do instead, in positive terms, rather than what to avoid, because reinforcing the positive version sticks better under pressure.
Adams never won a world title in bull riding, finishing second in the state as a senior, something that stuck with him for years. He told me that shortfall, along with an eye injury that ended his competing, is exactly what made him a better coach for people who are still chasing that first title. He thinks about his own life in chapters rather than staying stuck on one chapter's ending.
I was a wrestler growing up, it was my primary sport, and I still think about the mental side of that sport more than almost anything else from my childhood. I got fourth place in the state championship instead of first, and it took me years to understand that missing that title is part of why I ended up doing well in other things later. When I heard that Justin Adams works with Kevin Holland, and heard him described as a positive vibes coach, I wanted him on the show because I think everybody, not just professional fighters, could use someone like that before a big moment, whether that is a fishing tournament, a business meeting, or a hard conversation with your wife. I have always thought wrestling and jiu jitsu share something with fly fishing, both are a lot more cerebral than people give them credit for. I wanted to hear how Justin actually gets a fighter's head right, not just what he tells them, but how he figures out what each guy actually needs to hear.
Justin Adams grew up in a small mountain town in New Mexico, riding bulls from the time he was a kid and eventually competing professionally, reaching the alternate spot for one of the sport's biggest televised events. Noticing how many of the riders beating him on the circuit had a jiu jitsu background led him to training, which is where he crossed paths with a teenage Kevin Holland. A detached retina in a fight ended his own competing career and pushed him fully into coaching. What that transition actually looked like, and how a rodeo background shaped his approach to fighters, is worth hearing him tell it.
Adams described peak performance mode as something every person has already experienced a handful of times, whether they realize it or not, and his job is helping fighters recognize and recall it on command. He uses specific memory triggers, a song, a story from a past fight, to put a fighter back into that same headspace before walking out. He walked me through exactly how he used this with Kevin Holland during a fight where Holland could not throw his right hand, and it is a story worth hearing in full.
Press play in the YouTube player above, or scroll back up to watch the full conversation.
Adams was clear that wanting to beat someone up and performing at your best are not the same mindset, and they do not produce the same results. He explained why fighters locked into pure aggression tend to miss openings that a calmer, more strategic opponent will find. This is a distinction I have thought about since my own wrestling days, and Adams has seen it play out at the highest level of professional fighting with more than one of his fighters.
One of the more useful things Adams told me is that he does not coach every fighter the same way. Some want him brutally honest about what is and is not working in real time. Kevin Holland, he said, responds better when Adams sets an idea in front of him and lets him arrive at it on his own. Adams treats reading which approach a person needs as its own skill, separate from anything technical, and he explains how he figures that out fighter by fighter.
Adams never reached the very top tier of bull riding, finishing second in the state as a senior, a result that still bothers him. He told me that falling short of a world title, combined with the injury that ended his competing career, is part of what makes him effective now for fighters chasing the top of their own sport. He thinks about his life in chapters instead of staying anchored to how one chapter ended, and how he arrived at that mindset is worth hearing directly from him.
Yesterday's conversation with Justin Adams gave me a lot to think about, and not just for fishing tournaments. The idea that your mind cannot really process the word don't, so telling yourself what not to do just plants the wrong idea, is something I am going to try to actually use. I also liked how much he talked about chapters instead of staying stuck on one result, because I have my own fourth place finish that I still think about more than twenty years later.
If you have ever needed to perform under pressure, whether that is on a boat, in a boardroom, or anywhere else, I think you will get something out of this one.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page to hear the entire conversation with Justin Adams.
Justin Adams, Kevin Holland, Travis Lueder, Terrance McKinney, Derek Lewis, Tom Rowland (host, Tom Rowland Podcast).
Justin Adams is a mindset coach for UFC fighters, best known for his work with Kevin Holland, whom he has trained since Holland was a teenager. Adams grew up in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, and competed professionally in bull riding before an eye injury ended his competing career. He has since worked with other UFC fighters including Terrance McKinney and Derek Lewis, focusing on the mental preparation and in-fight composure that separate a fighter's best performances from the rest.
Subscribe to get the latest episodes, show notes, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.