Let it be Tough

Harness pressure, reframe fear and perform at your best when it matters most.

Rather than teaching people how to excel under pressure, Ant Williams, a psychologist working in elite sport, decided to practise what he preached, and took up sports that scared him. First freediving and then ice diving, Ant set two world records and proved that the mental techniques that he used could build resilience and help him thrive in life’s most challenging moments.

In Let it be Tough, Ant shows that mental toughness isn’t born – it’s trained. Through gripping personal stories, science-backed strategies and practical techniques, Ant shows you how to recognise the hard moment you're in, pause with purpose, and move forward with confidence and clarity – even when the pressure is intense.

Let it be Tough shows you how to:

• build mental resilience and thrive in challenging situations
  
  
• develop confidence in the face of uncertainty
  
  
• stay calm and clear-headed in difficult times
  
  
• develop a performance mindset in everyday life
  
  
• take bold, decisive action when it matters most.

About the Author

Ant Williams is a world-record-holding freediver, performance psychologist, and mental strength coach who has spent two decades exploring what it means to perform under pressure. Before diving under Arctic ice on a single breath, Ant coached elite athletes, including MotoGP riders, big-wave surfers, and extreme sports competitors, helping them master fear, focus and high-stakes performance. But despite his success in the field, he felt something was missing. To truly understand what it means to operate at the edge, Ant turned to freediving, not because he was born to it, but because it scared him.

He trained himself to a world-class level and went on to set multiple world records, including the deepest freedive under ice (70.3m) and the longest distance swum under ice (182m), performed in near-total darkness in sub-zero water. Today, Ant combines insights from sport psychology and extreme adventure to teach others how to harness pressure, reframe fear, and perform at their best when it matters most. His immersive dive has been featured in Apple’s Adventure series on Apple Vision Pro, offering a groundbreaking look at human potential in the world’s most unforgiving environments.