Hi, in this post I explain how I got a professional squash player to beat the World Number One and the World Champion by changing his subconscious beliefs with the Gamma Mindset.
So, some years ago, I had the pleasure to coach this guy Antony Ricketts.
Antony was about number eight in the world at the time. He was a phenomenally fit guy. Any player in the top 10 – elite fitness was a given.
These were elite athletes. Go on YouTube and put ‘Best Squash Rallies.’ It’s phenomenal; the speed, the muscular strength, endurance – the flexibility – the reaction time, the stamina! They’re amazing athletes to watch.
Anyway, so I coached Anthony and his goal was to be World Number One, like all of the players in the top ten was their goal was to be World Number One.
Tony had a big ranking tournament coming up, called the British Open Tournament and that’s the equivalent of Wimbledon. Its a big ranking tournament. You win this, you go right up the rankings.
So, I tested him out…
I got him on my coach and tested his subconscious mind.
So, I got him to say this out loud:
“It is safe for me, to be world number one.” `
What’s did his subconscious mind say?
“No”
“I deserve to be World’s Number One.”
What did his subconscious mind say?
“No.”
“All parts of me are ready, willing and able to be World Number One”
What did his subconscious mind say?
“No.”
Those three sentences, when he said them out loud sent stress signals – stress chemistry into his body and weakened him. So, his subconscious mind was basically saying “Nope! Nope! Nope!”
Now when you’re a professional athlete and your goal is to be World Number One and you’re going, “No, no, no”, at a subconscious level – that’s a serious block to achieving your goals !
So, we integrated those beliefs into his subconscious and then we came onto the specifics.
So, I tested him;
“It is safe for me to win the British Open.”
What did his subconscious mind say?
No!
Tony could not believe it.
This was a dedicated professional athlete that trained 2-3 times per day. He had gold standard dedication, fitness, discipline the lot!
Tony was a switched-on guy and he tried many different nutritional approaches, he tried various different hypnotherapists – he tried all sorts of stuff – but nothing had changed him, nothing had got him where he wanted to be.
I said, “Right, let’s go Tony. Let’s see what we can do here.”
Next test;
“All parts of me are ready, willing and able to win the British Open.”
Test: Subconscious says, no !
What would happen if you clear the blocks and integrate new positive goal specific beliefs into the mind ?
Tony was a very hot-headed character, that was his temperament and he was a bit like John McEnroe, the tennis legend with a short temper that he was not shy to show…
Tony was similar, if he got a bad decision from the referee, he’d be like “Oh come on Ref…rah, rah, rah!” “Ref, what the hell? F in hell ref…get the picture?
Anyhow, we did all the subconscious belief changes and I got him sorted.
I made sure that everything in his subconscious was in alignment with his conscious goals.
So back to the McEnroe thing, one of the key things about him, was that he did blow up on court.
He did get, you know, aggressive and maybe lose energy.
And so, we integrated some statements that were something along the lines of;
“I remain calm and focused in high pressure rallies.”
“When I’m in the middle of an intense point, I hold my discipline, focus and pressure.”
These are very specific powerful beliefs for him to run in his subconscious mind.
So, we integrated those into the subconscious, I tested him out thoroughly and he had no blocks left.
Let’s see if this makes any difference in his next tournament.
So off he went to the tournament, got through the first couple of rounds okay and then he played the, World Champion and the
World Number One in the semi-final – And he’d never beat this guy before.
They played and holy shit, what a match.
The speed, endurance, reaction time, the accuracy, the level of fitness – Oh my God!
Anyway, so it went to two sets each, and it’s a five-set game, first one to three games wins.
It went to 13 each in the last game…
And someone had to win by 2 clear points…
Tony got the next point, now its 14-13, so now he needs one point to win the match.
One point to beat the World Champion and World No.1
And then after another gruelling rally, he did it, he got the point and won the game 15-13 !
He beat the World Champion and World Number One.
What was really interesting was, some of the feedback that he was getting from people that watched the game and watched it regularly. They came up to him and said;
“Tony, what have you been doing? You were so calm and relaxed in that game. You were so calm and focused in that game. You never lost your temper.”
They were actually feeding back some of the words that we’d used, the specific words that we used, that we integrated into his subconscious.
In the match he had a few bad calls, but he kept his focus and flow. He didn’t blow up and lose his temper like in previous games
He went on to the final and he played a French guy and thrashed him 3-0.
He won the British Open Tournament – the most prestigious tournament in the world of squash – the one every player wants to win.
Of course, Tony was absolutely over the moon and was I. It was great to see such direct and pretty much immediate changes as this was tournament was only a week or so after we had done the Gamma Mindset session.
In Tony’s next three or four tournaments he either got to the semi-final, the final or he won the tournament.
At the end of the season he achieved his career best which was World Number 3.
His previous best was 7. He never made the top 5 before.
Now he didn’t make World Number One, but we have to realise that when we’re talking about elite sport, there can only ever be one, Number One.
Winning the British Open, beating the world no.1 and world champ was the highlight of his career and the difference that made the results show up was aligning his subconscious beliefs with his conscious goals.
That’s where the magic starts…
Our beliefs create and control our perceptions. The way we perceive the world drives our emotional responses to events and interactions, which in turn governs the actions we take and ultimately has a large effect on the outcome of events and interactions.
A lack of self-belief in any area of your life can lead to the feelings of anxiousness among many other negative emotions.
Integrating new positive beliefs and thinking patterns into your subconscious mind makes a huge difference to your day to day
