Ahead of the Game (eBook)

Introduction

Welcome to Ahead of the Game – How to Use Your Mind to Win in Sport. It has been written for mental skills coaches, sports coaches, athletes, sportsmen and sportswomen of all levels, whether seasoned professionals or enthusiastic amateurs, or somewhere in between.

The purpose of Ahead of the Game is to provide the ‘how to’ for many of the techniques and concepts that are written about in sports psychology books. Although there will be some theory, I am mindful of a message that one of my many tutors gave to me about books. He said that typically 80% of what is written in a book is written for the author’s benefit, and only 20% is actually useful for any particular reader.

Now, whilst this may be somewhat harsh on most writers, I personally have found that many books I have read contain a significant amount of information which is not particularly useful to me, even if some aspects of the book and the topic overall is highly relevant to my needs. So even if we assume that the tutor was being harsh, it’s probably not unrealistic to say that around 50% of any book is actually useful.

So to assist your learning and to save you valuable time, I’ve omitted the other 50% that isn’t useful to you! Ahead of the Game will be full of practical tips on HOW to use your mind more effectively to gain more success in your sport, with diagrams and bullet point summaries. Theory and discussion will be kept to a bare minimum.

The basis of the approaches in this book comes from Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). The origins and foundations of NLP will be briefly considered in Chapter 3. Suffice it to say that NLP is commonly considered as ‘the new science of success’, a series of techniques and processes to help you to use the language of your mind (that’s the ‘Neuro Linguistic’ element) to program yourself for success. At its core, a main aspect of what NLP is about is how to control your mind (and help others to do the same) and therefore influence the results you get.

And if you’re in any doubt about the importance of controlling your mind and using it effectively before and during sports events, here are a few quotes for you to consider:

‘For success, first performers must have talent, then they must work and third they must have control of their mind.’1

Valeriy Borzov, Olympic 100m & 200m champion, 1972.

‘I think there are so many would-be clones, so many people who have tried to imitate her game. But they’ve imitated the most obvious thing about her, and that’s her (baseline) game. And I don’t think that’s her strongest point, I think her mind is her strongest point.’2

Virginia Wade, Wimbledon Singles Champion 1977...

...speaking about Chris Evert, winner of at least one ‘Grand Slam’ tennis tournament for 13 consecutive years.

‘The mental side of it played the biggest part; that was the difference between silver and gold.’
‘...for any athlete who stands on the starting line, as much as 70% of the race outcome is shaped by the mental aspects.’3

Sally Gunnell OBE, Olympic 400m hurdles Champion 1992.

The book will draw on material from sports psychology that is already in the public domain, plus NLP practical tools, together with the author’s experience and that of his colleagues in this field of work.

The book will also mention several points which may seem obvious to the reader. There is, however, a difference between ‘knowing what to do’, and ‘doing what you know’.

Some Terminology Explained

I intend to keep the jargon used in this book to a minimum, and to explain any jargon used. There are a few aspects which are best pointed out here to assist the reader.

Firstly, the term ‘mental skills coach’ will be used to refer to the person using the techniques referred to in Ahead of the Game, be they NLP Practitioners, Master Practitioners, Trainers or simply skilled coaches and ‘sports coaches’ using what they learn in this book and from other NLP sources. I could equally have chosen the terms ‘performance coach’ or ‘sports performance coach’, and you may sometimes see these terms used to describe the mental skills work dealt with in this book. The term ‘sports coach’ will be used to refer to what is traditionally known in sport as a coach, a trainer or manager. These people will tend to concentrate on the physical skills and tactical skills required in sport.

Secondly, within the NLP world there are three main levels of qualification – Practitioner, Master Practitioner and Trainer. In the academic world this is akin to Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate. Certified Trainers are authorised not just to work with individual clients, but also to train and certify Practitioners and Master Practitioners.

Generally, NLP Practitioners are trained to be able to use NLP techniques effectively with ‘clients’. NLP Master Practitioners receive further training and learn additional techniques, and are expected to demonstrate greater flexibility and fluidity with NLP techniques. Trainers take this level of knowledge even further, not just able to do the techniques but also to teach them.

In the section headed ‘Further Reference Material’, there is some information about how to progress your studies should you choose to extend your NLP knowledge.

The third point is the use of the words sportsman, sportswoman, sportspeople, player, athlete and occasionally client. Essentially these words will be used interchangeably.

Fourthly, I will abbreviate the term ‘personal best’ to PB. This is a standard term used by athletes.

Finally, the book will make reference to both the masculine and the feminine, singular and plural interchangeably when referring to athletes and sportspeople.

Background to Ahead of the Game

Why another book on sports ‘psychology’?

The moment in Spring 2006 when the Sports Science lecturer said to me that what is lacking in the world of Sports Science and Sports Psychology is the ‘How To’, and that NLP provides this ‘How To’ to complement the ‘What’ (i.e. the large amounts of data and information) in traditional Sports Psychology, I could hear this book calling out to me to be written. The lecturer works at a prestigious university and was one of my students on a Fast-Track NLP Practitioner Certification training. He could see the potential for NLP to be incorporated into lectures to provide students with the practical means to support or coach athletes and sportspeople. I could see how the material in this book would hugely benefit players and coaches alike.

It all fell into place.

I had quit the world of finance in 1999, having had what some would say is a very successful career, including having been a management consultant at Ernst & Young, Treasury Manager and then Group Chief Accountant at Unigate PLC and finally Finance Director of YO! Sushi, the restaurant chain founded by famous entrepreneur Simon Woodroffe.

And yet something was missing. Having attended various personal development courses, I realised that a key driver for me was ‘making a difference’, and I felt unfulfilled as an accountant. At YO! Sushi, I spent much of my time as, in effect, part-time Human Resources Director, dealing with the consequences for staff of being in a rapidly expanding and high paced business, and although I initially wished I wasn’t spending so much time on HR issues, I found dealing with people far more enjoyable than dealing with numbers – and I love numbers!

To cut a long story short, I quit as Finance Director to set up my own coaching business, and started studying NLP, initially as a way to improve my coaching results and skills. In 2000 I decided to study to become a Certified Trainer of NLP, in order to be able to train others to do what I do, so that they could make a difference to their clients.

Since then, I have been training and coaching people to improve their results using NLP, and this has mainly been in a business context. Some of my clients had achieved some quite remarkable business and personal results, which was no surprise given the proven effectiveness of NLP and the fact that I have had some superb teachers.

What I failed to notice was that some of my clients and students had also achieved excellent results in a sports context. This lack of focus on the sports results my clients achieved was surprising given how keen I am on sport, having played football semi-professionally, and been reasonably accomplished at cricket and tennis. These students and clients varied in the level of their sports ability from the ‘park player’ who beat his brother at tennis for the very first time having attended just an NLP evening taster session, to a tri-athlete who came in the top ten out of 650 in an international event and top three in a field of 250.

I remembered seeing Will Carling, the former England Rugby captain, walk into the offices at Ernst & Young for a meeting with the Partners about, as the rumour went, how he could provide management training based on the principles learned in his sporting days. (I also remember the drooling faces of the women in the office...