Professional footballers working with Mark Bowden

Play consistently
at your best.
Make your best
even better.

Private 1-to-1 performance coaching and bespoke Off-Pitch Training for professional footballers.

Message Mark on WhatsApp Opens a private, confidential WhatsApp conversation directly with Mark.
Reiss Nelson

“I RECOMMEND HIM
TO EVERY FOOTBALLER.”

“I started working with Mark when I was on loan at Feyenoord. A difficult time for me... with weekly sessions Mark made me realise that everything I do and think is on me and gave me the confidence I needed to finish the season strong.”

Reiss Nelson

There are two sides
to becoming the best
footballer you can be.

01

Bring out the football you already have.

You've spent years developing your game. But having ability and consistently showing that ability when it matters aren't always the same thing.

TOPFORM helps you understand what allows your best football to come out — and conditions you to get there more consistently.

02

Keep developing the football you have.

There's always something you can get better at.

Your movement. Finishing. Positioning. Decision-making. Composure. Confidence. How you respond to mistakes. Whatever matters most to your game.

Through bespoke Off-Pitch Training, we identify what you want to improve and deliberately rehearse it.

Play at your best. Make your best better. Keep doing both.

Professional footballer looking into camera

You know what
it feels like when
you're at your best.

You're in the game.

Your mind is clear. You're present. You're not overthinking anything.

You see things quickly. Decisions come naturally. You trust yourself. Your game feels instinctive, automatic and effortless.

Some players call it being in the zone. Others call it flow.

I call it your Blue Performance State.

One of the first things we'll work on in TOPFORM is understanding what takes you away from that state — and conditioning you to get there more consistently.

Because having the ability is one thing. Being able to consistently bring it onto the pitch is another.

But playing at your best is only half of it.
Because what if we can make your best even better?

No matter how well you're playing, there's always something you can get better at.

Your movement. Finishing. First touch. Positioning. Scanning. Decision-making. Composure. Confidence. How you respond to mistakes. Whatever matters most to your game.

Through bespoke Off-Pitch Training, we take what you want to improve and deliberately rehearse it.

Play at your best. Make your best better. Keep doing both.

What stops your best
football coming out?

Sometimes it's pressure.

Sometimes it's a mistake, a missed chance, a bad decision or something the referee has done.

Sometimes your mind has gone to what happens if you lose the ball, whether you're going to start next week, or you're trying too hard to make something happen.

And sometimes you're simply trying to consciously control parts of your game that you've spent years learning to do automatically.

Red Brain

Your Red Brain isn't something we're trying to get rid of.

But we don't want it in control.

Left in control, anger can become frustration. Nerves can become anxiety. Thinking can become overthinking. Pressure can make you rush, hesitate, force things or play safe.

But those same raw ingredients can be incredibly useful when they're controlled in the right way.

Green Brain

This is where your Green Brain comes in.

Your Green Brain keeps you present and puts your attention onto the things you can control.

And rather than allowing Red Brain to take over, Green Brain takes control of what Red Brain gives you.

Anger can become aggression and intensity.

Nerves and anxiety can become sharpness, awareness and energy.

You're not trying to become emotionless or completely calm.

You're using what you've got.

Blue Performance State

When Green Brain is in control and those raw ingredients from Red Brain are working for you rather than against you, you create your Blue Performance State.

Your mind is clear. You're present.

You're seeing, reacting and deciding rather than consciously trying to control your football.

Your football takes over.

“PLAYING CONSISTENTLY
IN MY BLUE PERFORMANCE
STATE
.”

“He's helped me to approach training sessions and matches by being able to bounce back quickly from mistakes and playing consistently in my Blue Performance State.”

“Helping me to keep going and continue trying new things and risking things.”

Fabio Carvalho

Fabio Carvalho — Brentford FC

Work on your game
— even when you're
not on the pitch.

There's only so much physical training you can do.

Your club controls your training load. You have matches to play, recovery to manage and a body that needs to be ready to perform.

But that doesn't mean you have to stop working on your game.

Through bespoke Off-Pitch Training, we take the situations that matter to your football and deliberately rehearse them.

Your position. Your game. Your situations.

STRIKERS

If you're a striker, we might rehearse the movement you're working on with your striker coach. Attacking a particular type of cross. Creating separation from a centre-back. A 1v1 with the goalkeeper. Or what you do immediately after missing a chance.

MIDFIELDERS

If you're a midfielder, it might be scanning before you receive, recognising where the pressure is coming from, receiving on the half-turn or seeing the next pass earlier.

DEFENDERS

If you're a defender, it might be decision-making, breaking lines, stepping in with the ball, playing more effective diagonal passes, 1v1 defending, leadership or composure.

And next week it could be something completely different. Because the work changes as your football changes.

“IT'S JUST LIKE
PRACTISING.”

“When you are in that position on the pitch, it feels like you've been there before.”

Bim Pepple

Plymouth Argyle Press Conference

Your football decides
what we work on.

Every time we work together, we look at what's actually happening in your football.

What's going well?
What could be better?
What are you working on with your coaches?
What keeps appearing in training or matches?
What do you want to improve?

Then we decide what will make the biggest difference to your game — and we work on it.

It might be something that happened in your last match. Something you're working on in training. Something your coach wants from you. A situation that keeps appearing. Or simply something you want to add to your game.

We can then turn that into bespoke Off-Pitch Training — deliberately rehearsing the situations that matter to you.

And as your football changes, the work changes with it.

The better I understand you, your game, your position and the situations you face, the more specific the work becomes.

Your coaches are
working on your game.
So are we.

If your striker coach is working with you on making a particular movement, we can rehearse it.

If your manager wants something different from you tactically, we can work on recognising those situations.

If you've been doing something on the training pitch that isn't quite appearing naturally in matches yet, we can work on that too.

You work on it with your coaches on the pitch. We can deliberately rehearse it off the pitch.

“IT HAS DEFINITELY
IMPROVED ME
AS A PLAYER.”

“Mark and I have been working together for a few years, working on the psychological part of my game and building good habits and focus points for each game. It has definitely improved me as a player.”

Emiliano Marcondes

Emiliano Marcondes celebrating — AFC Bournemouth

Where they started.
Where their
football took them.

Every player's journey is different.

The following players came to me at very different points in their careers, with very different challenges. This is where they were when we started working together — and where their careers went next.

01 RELEASED BY THREE PREMIER LEAGUE ACADEMIES.

NOW PLAYING AT ONE OF EUROPE'S ELITE CLUBS.

From three academy releases to the highest levels of European football.

Read Player Journey ↓Hide Journey ↑

WHEN WE STARTED WORKING TOGETHER

He had been released by three Premier League academies and was rebuilding his career in the Championship.

WHERE HIS CAREER WENT

He established himself as one of the outstanding young players in the Championship before moving on to one of Europe's elite clubs.

02 ZERO GAME TIME IN JANUARY.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR BY MAY.

From zero game time to two end-of-season awards in a matter of months.

Read Player Journey ↓Hide Journey ↑

WHEN WE STARTED WORKING TOGETHER

Halfway through the season, he was at a Championship club and hadn't played a single minute.

His confidence was at rock bottom.

We started working together in January.

WHERE HIS CAREER WENT

By the end of that same season, he had won both:

Young Player of the Year.
Player of the Year.
03 CONSIDERING QUITTING FOOTBALL.

TWO SEASONS LATER: PREMIER LEAGUE & FULL INTERNATIONAL.

From considering whether he had a future in the game to playing at the highest level of English football and representing his country.

Read Player Journey ↓Hide Journey ↑

WHEN WE STARTED WORKING TOGETHER

His career wasn't going where he'd hoped.

He was facing the prospect of dropping into League Two and was seriously considering walking away from football altogether.

WHERE HIS CAREER WENT

Two seasons later, he had become:

A Premier League player.
A full international.
04 SIX MONTHS WITHOUT A GAME.

THEN A MULTI-MILLION-POUND PREMIER LEAGUE MOVE.

From struggling to get on the pitch in League One to becoming a Premier League player.

Read Player Journey ↓Hide Journey ↑

WHEN WE STARTED WORKING TOGETHER

He had joined a League One club but couldn't get into the team.

For the first six months, he didn't play a single game.

WHERE HIS CAREER WENT

By the end of the following season, his performances had earned him a move to the Premier League for a multi-million-pound fee.

Why I built TOPFORM.

I've spent years working with professional footballers and trying to understand one thing:

What allows a player's best football to come out consistently?

That question led to the ideas I first explored in Use Your Brain, Raise Your Game — Red Brain, Green Brain and eventually the Blue Performance State.

But the longer I've worked with players, the more the work has evolved.

It isn't only about helping a player bring out the football they already have.

It's also about helping them develop the football they have.

That's what TOPFORM has become.

Helping you play consistently at your best — while continually working to make your best even better.

Mark Bowden

Performance Coach

You don't need to be
struggling to get better.

TOPFORM is for professional footballers who are serious about getting everything they can from their ability — and continuing to improve it.

You don't need to be struggling.
You don't need to have lost confidence.
You don't need to be out of form.

You can be playing some of the best football of your career and still want more:

How do I keep this coming out?
And how do I get even better?

That's what TOPFORM is built around.

Private. Bespoke.
Built around your football.

I work personally with a limited number of professional footballers at any one time.

Our work is ongoing and built around you, your football and what you want to achieve.

We'll work together privately through regular 1-to-1 sessions, with prescribed training and bespoke Off-Pitch Training to continue the work between our sessions.

The better I understand your game, the more specific our work can become.

Message Mark on WhatsApp Opens a private, confidential WhatsApp conversation directly with Mark.
MARK BOWDEN | TOPFORM PLAY AT YOUR BEST. MAKE YOUR BEST BETTER.

How good can you become?

You've spent years building your game.

There's the player you are today.

And there's the player you can still become.

TOPFORM is built to help you get the best from both.

Play consistently at your best.
Make your best even better.

Message Mark on WhatsApp Opens a private, confidential WhatsApp conversation directly with Mark.