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NEURO-LINGUISTIC
PROGRAMMING
Say what????
Here I was, during my last
visit to Wolverhampton, chatting away with Scott Handley, when
he introduced me to Pete Gooding, a Level III Squash Coach,
Sports Performance Specialist and Personal Trainer, who told me that
he was specialised in NLP.
Well, excuse me, but I didn’t have a clue what that was… So I asked
him a bit more explanation…
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by Pete Gooding
NLP videos
Pete was the Royal Air Force (RAF) National Squash Champion
for four years (1999-2003) and an NLP Practitioner (1999
American Board) & regards NLP as a very positive influence in
the Squash arena.
With 15 years Military Training with the RAF as a Physical
Training Instructor (PTI) he has a thorough understanding of
body performance across the very varied physical & sporting
realm.
He specialises in designing training programmes for squash
players of all levels, assisting with their physical and
psychological development towards the game.
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Pete at Wolverhampton
Scott Handley
John White, an NLP beneficiary
Pete with the Selbys
at Wolverhampton |
It would seem that we all have some
problems when playing squash, such as:
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You are
in a game where, and no matter what you do, you just can’t seem to
time the ball right
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The
ball just seems to keep coming off the side wall & you give away
countless strokes/points
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You
find yourself looking to the balcony after rallies, win or lose,
and get easily distracted by things going on outside the court
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You
come on court thinking “I don’t feel fit/strong/fast today –
I’ve got no energy”
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You
come off court saying to yourself “How in the hell did I lose
to that guy/girl”
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You
play well in friendly games, but when it comes to team games,
matches or competitions you simple fall apart
And it seems that NLP can help...
So, have a read…
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What is NLP?
NLP is ‘Neuro-Linguistic Programming’ or the “No Lose
Position” as I like to call it.
NLP started in the 70’s with two guys called Grinder and Bandler who
studied human behaviour. ‘Neuro’, or the mind, refers to how
we translate sensory information and turn that into thought,
consciously and unconsciously. How we do this affects our
physiology, emotions and behaviour. ‘Linguistic’ is language,
and looks at how the words we speak (or think) influence our
experience.
Finally, ‘Programming’ is about our sequences of repetitive
behaviour; how we make decisions, learn, evaluate and get results.
When combined it’s about gently reprogramming the mind, body and
soul to perform automatically by understanding that how you play is
your CHOICE.
How it works and how it
can help your Squash
One application of NLP covers State Management and how
thought and mood or ‘state’ links to the quality of ones practical
performance. There have been hundreds of books/articles written
about the ‘Inner game’ or the ‘inner mind’ and how the preparation
can affect the outcome or performance. It is often assumed however,
that you have to be playing at a high performance level to get the
benefit from such inner mind efforts, which holds a lot of players
back.
If the world’s best players can improve their overall performances
by around 5-10%, by just using ‘Mind Set’ training (which is a lot
at that level) just imagine how much you could improve if you’re
starting from scratch. Mind Set training looks at identifying
whether you think through a “filter” or an out dated belief system
such as “I’ll never be a pro” or “I’m not a great player”. While you
think like this you’ll behave like this - you’ve already limited
yourself to this belief. By breaking the mindset you will inevitably
be able to raise your game and your performance.
NLP also uses Anchoring Techniques which looks at how
physical, emotional and sensory perception relate to each other.
Like the smell of sunscreen may make you think of a holiday or the
taste of a particular sweet might take you back you to your
childhood. Once you get to grips with this you can start to
manipulate associations more easily.
You might find you are doing this in a positive or negative way
already - or, others may be able to do it to you and influence your
thought and consequently your mood and as a result your game by
“psyching you out”.
Here is a quick example for you:
Try NOT to think of
the colour Blue.
It’s impossible isn’t it? You just focused on something that I asked
you not to. Now, if during a game you or someone else tells your
‘not’ to do something, what you’re actually in danger of is doing
it. Reinforcing the thing you don’t want to do any more – inner talk
like ‘Stop it!’ or ‘Don’t do that!’ can be damaging and can take you
back to feelings you had earlier in the game you’re playing or past
games where you felt you had made the wrong shot choices or made
lots of unforced errors.
By telling yourself off all you’re actually creating is what’s
called a ‘negative anchor’. Once you’ve done that your
performance will almost certainly deteriorate for an unspecified
period in a game, and you may even find yourself repeating this
behaviour when faced with a similar set of circumstances in the
future as your thoughts and behaviour become fused, effectively
‘anchored’ together.
One of the skills an NLP Practitioner can assist with is collapsing
these negative anchors and create new ‘positive’ ones in
their place, so that when an unforced error occurs you don’t dwell
on the mistake, instead you move seamlessly on focusing on the next
point and create a fresh perspective in an instant. NLP can help you
block out the ‘rubbish’ that breaks your concentration.
Think about this scenario for a minute - how many of us have been in
the position of ‘still thinking about a poor decision a referee made
7 or 8 points ago, or in an earlier game?’ Sure, deal with it after
the game if you need to, but during the game is a sure fire way to
destroy your rhythm!
Another application commonly known as “Modelling Excellence”
looks at how changing behaviour can influence thought. If we can
model an expert’s actions, in theory we can get similar results to
theirs and think a little more like them. For example, if ‘Anthony
Ricketts’ said he practised 8 hours a day 6 days a week and ate a
healthy diet and you ‘modelled’ that, are you more or less likely to
get an improved result? It’s a case of “act like a pro, do like a
pro” and you’ll think like a pro.
These skills are just a drop in the NLP ‘ocean’. NLP is the science
of communication, it looks at Rapport techniques: matching
and mirroring, pacing and leading - how to create the “flow” and how
to break it. Another important area to mention is Behavioural
Flexibility, realising that “there is no failure - only feed
back” and if you “do what you did – you get what you got”.
Most significantly NLP addresses change as an informed “CHOICE”.
Pete Gooding |
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