The King of Heists: How Great Performers Train for Pressure

What a 19th-Century Bank Robber Can Teach Modern Athletes About Training for Chaos

Author

Zach Brandon
October 20, 2025

Today’s Theme: Rehearsing Pressure

A common trap for most people is waiting to feel pressure before learning how to handle it. The best performers, on the other hand, rehearse it ahead of time.

A 19th century bank robber did it with full-scale replicas of banks. Elite athletes do it with game-like practices.

Today’s article is all about injecting pressure into preparation so when the lights come on it feels routine and familiar.

The King of Heists

Over a nine-year stretch in the late 1800’s, George Leslie orchestrated more than 100 bank robberies, which accounted for over 80% of all the major heists in the United States during that span.

His “success” wasn’t built on luck or bravado. It was built on meticulous and intentional preparation.

Before each job, Leslie would visit the bank posing as a customer, memorizing specific details (e.g. door frames, light patterns, guard rotations). Then he’d return home and sketch the entire floor plan from memory.

He took it a step further by renting an abandoned warehouse where he’d reconstruct the bank layout and rehearse with his crew until every step was automatic. He’d even extinguish the candles mid-rehearsal so his team could practice in the dark.

They didn’t just prepare for ideal conditions. They prepared for the inevitable chaos.

Leslie treated every mission like a dress rehearsal. By the time they executed the real job, they’d already lived it dozens of times. Leslie and his team didn’t rise to the occasion. They simply returned to what they’d already practiced.

That’s the mindset of every high performer: They don’t wait for pressure to test them. They train until pressure feels routine.

Representative Learning

Over the past decade (or so), a steady revolution has been reshaping how elite performers train. Gone are the days of sterile, repetitive drills and block practice. In their place, coaches are designing representative learning environments with training that mirrors the decision-making, distractions, and emotions of competition.

It’s a movement gaining traction across sports and levels. Over the past month alone, The Athletic ran two features on the Constraints-Led Approach (CLA), which is a framework that helps athletes develop skills by manipulating constraints rather than relying solely on direct instruction. By manipulating constraints (e.g. rules, task demands, timing, space, etc.), players learn to adapt and make decisions under pressure (the same way they’ll have to in competition).

That same kind of pressure was central to how Andrew Luck prepared as an NFL quarterback.

This sentiment also emerged in my recent conversation with Phil Beckner on The Threshold Lab podcast. Beckner, who’s worked closely with NBA star Damian Lillard, emphasized how intentional elite performers are about preparation (not just in what they train, but also how they train).

Lillard’s words reflect that discipline:

And it’s not just about physical skills. In a peer-reviewed paper I co-authored, we found the same principle applies to mental performance. When mental skills are trained under the same pressures athletes face in competition, they transfer more effectively.

You can’t separate mindset from environment. You have to train the mind through the environment.

The DNA of Pressure

Any coach can engineer a more pressure-filled environment by leveraging the five elements that shape pressure: Judgment, Uncertainty, Importance, Competition, and Expectations.

Together, they make up the JUICE of performance. Think of it like the mix that turns an ordinary moment into one that matters. When all five are present, intensity rises, focus narrows, and emotion kicks in. Great coaches recognize that formula and recreate it deliberately in training.

  1. Judgment – Add eyes. Record reps, invite feedback, or make outcomes public. External evaluation mimics the social scrutiny of competition.

  2. Uncertainty – Change the script. Add surprises, adjust conditions, randomize scenarios. Uncertainty trains adaptability and keeps attention sharp.

  3. Importance – Raise the stakes. Keep score, assign consequences, attach pride or reward. Importance amplifies focus.

  4. Competition – Create rivalry. Scrimmages, races, leaderboards. All add the comparison element that spikes adrenaline in real games.

  5. Expectations – Set standards. Define what “good” looks like and have athletes chase it. Internal pressure can be just as powerful as external.

Oregon Football head coach Dan Lanning offered a perfect example of this kind of intentional pressure design. Before facing Wisconsin last year, he knew the stadium would erupt to “Jump Around” at the start of the fourth quarter. Lanning told his team they’d embrace that moment “like Pavlov’s dogs.” They rehearsed the reaction ahead of time, transforming a potential distraction into a trigger for energy and focus.

That’s representative learning in action: Anticipating the environment, simulating the conditions and then rehearsing your response to it.

Just like Leslie’s team rehearsing in the dark, the aim isn’t to remove pressure, but to rehearse it.

Final Thoughts:

From candlelight robbery rehearsals in an empty warehouse to stadium lights pulsing with “Jump Around,” the stage changes, but the rule stays the same: Pressure exposes what’s been rehearsed.

Because in the end, you don’t rise to the occasion. You return to what you’ve practiced.

Inspiration for This Piece:

The Threshold Lab:

Here’s a quick rundown of last week’s episodes on The Threshold Lab Podcast.

You can listen to all past episodes here: The Threshold Lab Podcast.

With gratitude,

ZB