Sports Performance Workshop: Inside the Mind of a Champion – Mental Strategies to Win!

Last Saturday I presented my latest Sports Performance Workshop: Inside the Mind of a Champion – Mental Strategies to Win!

Over 50 people attended. In just two hours I aimed get a performance increase from each and every participant, increase their knowledge as to the mental strategies for performing to their best, and to teach psychological interventions/techniques that they can take away and self-apply. It was a big-ask, and an intense, yet fun workshop!

This blog post is to just give some quotes I have received in just 24 hours following the workshop.

If you think you could benefit, please take a look at my website www.garyturner.co.uk. I offer one-to-one sessions and present to groups including businesses. If you need a performance increase – I can help you to deliver. Get in touch!

To start with, here are some ‘clipped’ quotes from a much longer message from Kate Jones, a Sports Scientist and Personal Trainer and specialist in Sports Psychology:

• “I really enjoyed the seminar. I though the content was varied and appropriate and pitched in a style that engaged the level of experience/ability of the audience.”

• “Looking around at the faces in the crowd, everyone was captivated, interested and genuinely looked like they were absorbing everything you did with interest.”

• “I thought you handled the members of the crowd who didn't seem as responsive to the techniques with tact and the response I saw in their body language was not that of 'this isn't working for me therefore I don't buy it' but more 'I want it to work for me and how can it' . I think that was due to your language patterns and prompts so that was impressive to watch.”

•  “I hope that you intend to produce more of these, as I believe they will do very well.”

 And here are some more general ones: (I have removed everything of personal relevance, although many suggested to me it was OK to include their names and personal details.)

• “Having no experience at all with this subject I had no idea what the content would be. I was hooked from the start and really took in what was being said, was a bit worried it would get lost in technical jargon and lose interest, this was not the case. Had fun, learnt those techniques and found the group atmosphere real relaxed.”

• “Just got back from Gary turner's seminar. It was brilliant! Loved every minute of it. Strongly recommend to any fighter or athlete who is serious about being the best they can be. Really good laugh as well.”

• “I went yesterday very open minded and left in really lifted spirits. I suffer from bouts of anger, stress jealousy..... All sorts. That 2 hours made me feel great! THANK YOU”

• “Have done nothing but talk about your seminar to everyone and please let me know when you are doing another one. I will be there a million percent.”

• ”I can really see this doing well to soldiers in similar positions to me in recovery centres like Tedworth House. I can see why the lads come to you!”

• “Hi Gary I used your techniques this morning at my fight training session and the results were remarkable. I used all your suggestions and the results were devastating for my opponents and comments like WTF you been doing this week. I have trained quite a lot over the years but although I’m not a bad fighter I do have anxiety and some confidence problems. I believe in myself but lacked that something/knowledge that could improve my performance. Your course yesterday has sorted out so much of my sparring problems. It was the practical demo’s that made me believe in the power of the mind which although I wanted to believe, it was too big a leap of faith... but you have now changed that!”

• “Just been to local gym for 1st time in a little under 2 years following yesterdays (potentially) Life changing free workshop with Gary Turner. Learning techniques to help with anxiety and bad memories, (among other things) all of which are pretty new to me. The difference in anxiety I had from walking to the gym in Aldershot (where I've never been before) from the station and walking back was immense! :)”

• “Awesome seminar yesterday, I found it fascinating and very helpful. The techniques you showed for suppressing the negative emotions and thoughts I found were instantly effective and very useful technique for the future.”

• “Gary Turner sorted my head out after 18 months of insomnia and hitting rock bottom mentally he fixed it. You can analyse procrastinate without a shadow of a doubt he stopped me in my tracks and turned me around. Gary is the man if you have any mental baggage see him and get it fixed I recommend him 100 % if you ever need me to speak before a seminar I will because he is the real deal !!!!”

• “It was an excellent seminar Gary myself and everyone else that I spoke to who was there really got a lot out of it! Many thanks.”

• “Well done for another great workshop mate!”

• “Your head hacking has helped me in a number of areas I always tell my mates to give you a call about challenges they are facing. Thanks for all your help”

•  “Really enjoyed today. Thanks Gary.”

•  “Amazing results this morning at my fight training, will pm you....Thanks Gary”

(I’m leaving some personal details in this next one, which is longer, as it just goes to show the type of experiences people had at the workshop.)

“I really liked the 3 exercises near to the beginning which really got me engaged and made me realise that hypnotherapy does actually have an influence (these were the exercises where we had to resist our arms being pulled down and where we had to try and un-clasp our locked hands) - I actually found this really good especially where we had to interlock our hands and imagine that they were locked together, because during the whole thing my memory was the passing of my dad almost 4 years ago now and my hands were locked really tightly almost showing that maybe I was holding on to him still and not allowing myself to fully move on, then when you told us to let go of that memory and see if we could open our hands my hands came undone quite easily and it made me feel as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders and that maybe now I can stop blaming things for my dad's passing and just be happy for all the time I had with him!!

More positives include the 'voices in your head' the way you spoke about the self-talk and explained how to shut it up was great and I can definitely see how that is going to help me. Also, the tapping your shoulder 10x exercise was very good, simple and worked - this also applies to the eye-movement exercise to let go of negative experiences. I also found the word anchor very powerful, where we had to imagine ourselves before a fight and we had to imagine a colour and a word and see it get bolder, brighter, bigger, speed it up and make the word appear louder, I found that really powerful!

Finally, I really liked how you taught us how to correct mistakes via visualisation but also the stages in how to visualise when preparing for a fight, I always visualise before fights but there is no real structure so this is again a great help and will help enhance my boxing and kickboxing performances.
Really grateful for the seminar Gary and really enjoyed it!

All the best with the feedback and I hope mine has been of some use to you, hope to see you again soon!!”