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

“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
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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
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.
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.
“When you are in that position on the pitch, it feels like you've been there before.”
Bim Pepple
Plymouth Argyle Press Conference
Every time we work together, we look at what's actually happening in your football.
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.
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.
“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
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.
From three academy releases to the highest levels of European football.
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.
From zero game time to two end-of-season awards in a matter of months.
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:
From considering whether he had a future in the game to playing at the highest level of English football and representing his country.
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:
From struggling to get on the pitch in League One to becoming a Premier League player.
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.
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
TOPFORM is for professional footballers who are serious about getting everything they can from their ability — and continuing to improve it.
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.
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.
MARK BOWDEN | TOPFORM
PLAY AT YOUR BEST. MAKE YOUR BEST BETTER.
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.