Thanks to the backing of Ex-springbok rugby captain and later manager Morne du Plessis, the organisation received funding from amongst other, the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation.
After completing a master's degree in Sport Science and at age 25, Upton cut his playing-career short to take up the full-time position of Strength and conditioning Coach for the South African cricket team, from 1994 to 1998.
He has since worked as Mental Coach and/or Performance Consultant to over 20 professional cricket, rugby, soccer and field hockey teams across South Africa, India and Australia.
He has also served as personal Mental Coach to over 100 professional athletes from 11 different sports, and across five continents, including cricket, rugby, soccer, golf, tennis, swimming and World Tour surfing[15] (2003 – current).
Upton served as Gukesh Dommaraju's mental conditioning coach for the World Chess Championship 2024 against Ding Liren,[16] for six months.
Upton was brought back to the Indian team as a mental conditioning expert in July 2022, during the India tour of West Indies.
Between 2013 and 2018 Upton worked as head coach in 12 professional T20 cricket seasons, for five different teams across three tournaments, in Australia, India and UAE.
He was appointed head coach of a 6th team, the Durban Qalandars in South Africa's T20 Global League, before the tournament was postponed.
[citation needed] Upton was head coach of the Sydney Thunder cricket team in the Australian Big Bash League for four seasons, from 2014 to 2018.
[20] Upton was head coach of Lahore Qalandars in the inaugural two seasons of the Pakistan Super League, hosted in Dubai (2016–2017).