Presentation – Performance through Psychology - Sappers Judo Team

I completely love working with the British Army. They are inspiration for me and have given me so much, despite being a civilian, including access to some of their psychology courses. So when I’m asked to help out, I’m there straight away – it is my pleasure to help out!

I delivered a presentation yesterday (6^th August 2013) to the Sappers Judo Team, over at the home of the Royal Engineers in Minley. They are there on a ‘Judo week’, training intensely. It was great fun working with them!

I’ve just received some amazing feedback. Remember, I’m a hypnotist, so it could be I just hypnotised them to give these great responses. Or, they really enjoyed the presentation and found it of benefit. Have a read; let me know what you think!

If you, your sports team, group, association or business think that you could benefit from such input, please get in touch!

Here’s the feedback, copied and pasted direct from the email. I have ‘starred out’ the final two words of the very last comment, and I’ll leave you to guess what the words are. I’m still laughing about it as I type this. It does show the military humour and the fact that this is a genuine email!

Here’s the feedback:

“Very helpful and made me think about my performance

Looking forward to trying some of the techniques to help my confidence and belief

Some great tactics in improving my positive mind set

Answered a lot of doubts about how to deal with nerves, as well how to encourage others.

Helped me clear a few voices in my head that have given me lots of grief over the last 2 years. Allowed me to put a very positive spin back in my life. Thank you for helping me move on......

Very helpful and gave me a few things to think about and try on the run up to comp days.

Gave me a lot of things to think about, not just on the judo performance side of things but in general life as well.

Nice to get an understanding of how to encourage yourself and break through the wall of pain. For example the smiling and motivational mindset needed whilst running etc.

Proved by example how pain as well as performance is a mind set and how we are able to understand and even suppress the feelings.

The guy's a genius!

Initially sceptical about hypnosis, Gary proved in front of everyone how his techniques can help you retrain the mind for positive effect.

The techniques we were taught on 'mental rehearsal' were really good, and will be of great assistance with future tournaments and fights in the future to run through fights prior to us competing and give us confidence when we think about ourselves doing perfect techniques.

From the moment Gary entered the room he had our complete attention which due to his enthusiasm and passion for the subject was held for 90 minutes.  He encouraged and coached the team to use their own imaginations to create self belief and positive mental attitudes.

A refreshingly positive outlook on life 'Smiler' remained positive throughout the session, even when approaching the topics of a lion and monster spider entering the room.

Gary was truly inspirational, members of the Sapper judo team team were still 'buzzing' after hours after his short session on sports performance and the power of the mind.  We took this on to the judo mat that evening in Enfield where everyone felt they performed better than earlier in the day.

And finally, one you won't want to post on your website  or share with the missus, but sums up squaddie humour to a tee...

With his positive mindset and imagination he must have a brilliant “****  ****”



As an amendment, I have received some text feedback too! Here's what the texts say:

"Response for Gary was thought that the session was very engaging and what he said made sense and would definitely think that would benefit from his sessions and have to say was a bit skeptic about the hypnosis but was proved wrong!"

"Gary did a great job of getting across to us the variety of skills he has and how he uses them to help people. His practical demo's were spot on and reinforced what he said he could do. I particularly liked the pain control and explanations of it. The mental practice rehearsals were definitely really useful and I'm definitely going to be using this technique."

"Very good, interesting how the attitude of the mind can result in a negative performance and the techniques to combat this were very good."

"Clear and understandable, I definitely can see how performance can be improved through mental practice, although didn't quite agree with the no free will theoy...a choice is still a choice no matter how predictable or the life experience involved in taking it, but otherwise very good and enjoyable!"

I actually love this last one as it is the only feedback that questioned an element of what I was presenting. I like being questioned. It tells me people are thinking, and that is a great thing. I referred this person to Sam Harris' book 'Free Will', which breaks down nicely the science of free will, so this person can gain further understanding - and of course make their own mind up!

Needless to say, I'm really pleased with all this great feedback! So if you want me to come and talk for you, please get in touch!