The world's first mental performance partnership.

Three years ago, a 300ml pump bottle sitting on a kitchen counter changed everything. It looked like soap. Expensive soap, maybe, but soap.

Susie, the head physio at Harlequins, happened to live with Adam Roberts, the head of medical at Bristol Bears. We were running a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with Harlequins at the time, and the original CONKA bottles were these slightly absurd-looking pump dispensers. Adam noticed them around the house and asked what on earth the Harlequins players were doing with this strange new formulation. That question started a conversation. That conversation started a trial. No PR firm would have scripted that. The soap dispenser did it.

CONKA is now the official brain performance partner of Bristol Bears Rugby Club. This is the first professional sport mental performance partnership of its kind in the world, and the first time a nootropic supplement has been formally adopted into a professional sports programme with objective cognitive measurement behind it. For anyone following the development of brain health supplements in the UK, this is a significant step.

How the Bristol Bears Trial Actually Worked

Elite sport has heard every supplement claim going. What CONKA brought was the ability to show actual change in mental performance in rugby players, measured objectively. That made the difference.

The measurement tool was the Cognica test, built on the Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA) developed by Cognetivity Neurosciences. It uses a rapid animacy categorisation task where participants classify natural images as animals or non-animals at speed. Not a quiz. It is measuring information processing speed and accuracy at a neural level. Published research from Glassbrook, Chazot and Hind at Durham University found that the ICA demonstrates high in-vivo precision, with processing speed showing a coefficient of variation of just 2.32% post-sport, well within acceptable clinical thresholds. Kalafatis et al. confirmed its convergent validity against established assessments including the MoCA and the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination.

Three months. Players taking CONKA. Brains being tested. No shortcuts, no favours. Just the data.

What the Data Showed

Across 914 cognitive tests conducted as part of CONKA's wider trial programme, the formulation showed an 18.1% performance advantage over caffeine. That number has been scrutinised. It holds.

At Bristol Bears specifically, something interesting came out. On two days of the week, cognitive performance dipped more noticeably than on others. That pattern prompted a serious conversation about oxidative stress and whether CONKA Clear, taken in the five minutes before high-demand moments, could close that gap further.

Dr James Morehen, working with the club, ran a fuel gap analysis showing that more errors occur in the second half of matches. His read was that underfuelling is the likely driver. The brain is not separate from the body's fuel demands. Probably should have been obvious sooner.

When players start buying something with their own money after a trial ends, the data and the experience are aligned. Fitz Harding, the club skipper, has been a genuine advocate. Max Lahiff has taken something of a rugby biohacker approach to the whole thing. That tells you something.

The Formulation That Made It Into Elite Sport

CONKA Flow, the morning shot taken before the inbox opens, contains Lemon Balm, Turmeric, Black Pepper, Rhodiola Rosea, Bilberry and Ashwagandha. Ashwagandha has been studied extensively for its effects on endurance, recovery and strength -- see the full research summary on Examine.com. Ashwagandha has shown statistically significant improvements in VO2 max, fatigue recovery and fitness markers against placebo.[1][2] In a randomised controlled trial, it produced greater improvements in bench press, leg press and endurance performance in both male and female participants compared to placebo, with no adverse events reported.[3] Rhodiola Rosea has been studied extensively for its effects on physical and cognitive performance under stress -- see the full research summary on Examine.com. Rhodiola Rosea combined with appropriate cofactors has shown measurable improvements in physical and cognitive performance under load.[4]

CONKA Clear, the afternoon shot for the five minutes before anything that matters, a second half, a pitch, a meeting, contains Alpha-glycerylphosphorylcholine (Alpha GPC), N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC), Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALCAR), Glutathione, Ginkgo Biloba, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Vitamin C and Vitamin B12. Alpha GPC has been studied extensively for its effects on attention and cognitive processing speed -- see the full research summary on Examine.com. Alpha GPC supplementation has been shown to significantly improve cognitive performance in tasks requiring attention and processing speed, particularly in high-dose conditions.[5][6] That is the kind of specificity that matters inside elite sport.

The full formulation is covered by UK patent GB2620279. Every batch is Informed Sport certified. That certification is not a sticker. It is what makes it possible to operate inside elite sport without hesitation, and why CONKA is now used by over 50 elite sports clubs including NFL teams, England Rugby and Premier League clubs.

For anyone researching the best brain supplements UK sport has actually put through its paces, that combination of patent, certification and objective trial data is a short list. CONKA's clinical trials have been conducted with both Durham University and Cambridge University.

Why This Is a Brain Health Story, Not Just a Performance Story

There is a genuine problem in professional contact sport around long-term brain health. That is not news to anyone inside the game. What is different here is that the focus is not on managing decline after the fact. It is measuring brain performance in real time, identifying dips before they become problems, and doing something about it while there is still time.

Every tackle decision, every second-half call, every read of a defensive line under fatigue runs through the brain first. If cognitive performance dips on Tuesday and Thursday and nobody knows why, that is a gap. A data point you cannot act on. Pairing the Cognica ICA with a clinically tested brain health supplement turns that gap into something you can actually work with.

For anyone looking at nootropics UK-wide, across Premier League clubs, NFL teams and now the Premiership Rugby circuit, the evidence base is growing. Bristol Bears is the next step in a programme that has always been about one thing: bringing to brain health the same rigour that physical performance science has had for decades.

The origin story is a pump bottle that looked like soap. The data has been doing the talking ever since.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is mental performance in sports?

A: Mental performance in sports refers to the cognitive processes that drive decision-making, attention and processing speed under pressure and fatigue. Research using tools like the Integrated Cognitive Assessment shows these functions are measurable, variable across the week and directly linked to on-field outcomes like error rates in the second half of matches.

Q: What are the best brain supplements UK athletes actually use?

A: CONKA Flow and CONKA Clear are used by over 50 elite sports clubs including NFL teams, England Rugby and Premier League clubs. Both are Informed Sport certified and covered by UK patent GB2620279. The formulations have been through objective cognitive testing across 914 tests, showing an 18.1% performance advantage over caffeine.

Q: Are nootropics UK sports programmes actually testing these supplements?

A: Yes. CONKA conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with Harlequins and has now become the official brain performance partner of Bristol Bears Rugby Club, with cognitive performance measured using the Cognica ICA tool throughout. Clinical trials have also been run with Durham University and Cambridge University.

Q: Can a brain health supplement improve rugby performance?

A: The evidence from Bristol Bears points to measurable improvement in cognitive test scores over a three-month period. Dr James Morehen's fuel gap analysis also found more errors occur in the second half of matches, suggesting brain performance under fatigue is a meaningful and addressable factor in rugby outcomes.

Q: Is Alpha GPC safe for professional athletes?

A: Alpha GPC is found in CONKA Clear, which is Informed Sport certified, meaning every batch is independently tested for banned substances. Research by Kerksick et al. in Nutrients found Alpha GPC supplementation significantly improved cognitive performance in tasks requiring attention and processing speed, with no safety concerns flagged.

References

1. Tiwari et al. "A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial on the effect of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera dunal.) root extract in improving cardiorespiratory endurance and recovery in healthy athletic adults." Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 2021. (source)
2. Roy. "Ashwagandha in Sports: Investigating Its Impact on Physical Performance and Athletic Enhancement." JSU Student Synopsium. 2024. (source)
3. Verma et al. "Effects of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) standardized root extract on physical endurance and VO2max in healthy adults performing resistance training: An eight-week, prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study." F1000Research. 2024. (source)
4. Liu et al. "Synergistic Effect of Rhodiola rosea and Caffeine Supplementation on the Improvement of Muscle Strength and Muscular Endurance: A Pilot Study for Rats, Resistance Exercise-Untrained and -Trained Volunteers." Nutrients. 2023. (source)
5. Kerksick. "Acute Alpha-Glycerylphosphorylcholine Supplementation Enhances Cognitive Performance in Healthy Men." Nutrients. 2024. (source)
6. Sagaro et al. "Activity of Choline Alphoscerate on Adult-Onset Cognitive Dysfunctions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis." Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. 2023. (source)