The mind/body connection is crucial in sport. Staying focused and in the 'zone' enhances sports performance.

Sports psychology coaching focuses on the here and now,  not on the bad shot  you have just made or projecting a negative outcome on to the future! The main barriers to improving  mental ability,  and so performace  lie in the following key areas: self confidence, self acceptance, self esteem, managing stress under pressure, concentration and anxiety.

Techniques used to heighten performance include: visualisation, relaxation, positive self talk, and goal setting.

Also NLP techniques including: well formedness conditions, keys to an achievable outcome, and principles to success are excellent motivational strategies.

The best performers in the world all have excellent control over their mind!

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When my dance partner and I set ourselves the ambitious goal to become British Modern Ballroom Champions exactly 18 months after partnering up and only 12 months after I had given birth to my son, John was key to our plan.

Dancing at this level not only requires moving elegantly in tune with the music. An exceptional level of stamina is required to first survive all rounds up to the final and then still use every muscle with the right technique and have the flexibility to create big shapes whilst moving far and often fast. Each dance has a different character with different demands on the body. John was keen to fully understand the different requirements even watching competition DVDs so that he could create specific exercises to help me develop in all these areas. Working with somebody to achieve your goals who takes a personal and specific interest in what it takes to get there makes it very enjoyable. We were not the favourites to win but John’s combination of coaching techniques to focus and build self belief together with the amount of thought he put into the design of the fitness training significantly contributed to us winning the final. Our next goal was to qualify for the World Championships in 2009 and …hooray…we qualified as the No 1 ranked couple and are off to Canada to represent England. Thanks John for all your support and input.

Janine-Nicole Desai - British Modern Ballroom Champion 2008 (over 35s)

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