The mental mindset of a world champion

[Music]

you’re a world champion for many many

years which takes

obviously a lot of physical fitness but

also mental fitness as well the

incredible

sort of mind training that you have had

to go through

in order to stay at the top for so many

years walk me through how that’s like if

a young person

wants to learn um what is your mind

training routine how does that look like

one is to turn the negative to positive

so just thinking about on a daily uh

practice where you have a phrase or you

you are more aware about

what you’re talking to yourself and if

you feel like you’re talking negatively

how to turn it round use different

phrases

or different words to bring you back to

think positive

and and that becomes a daily habit and

the last one

is visualization and um and i used to do

that when i was 11

12 years old to visualize how am i going

to be

a world champion how am i going to play

this perfect match like every single

point

every single rally every shot is being

viewed in my mind and i would just go

through it over and over again and even

seeing myself with a trophy

or being a world champion i started

doing that since i was a kid how do you

turn it

like let’s say you’re telling yourself i

can’t i can’t train today how do you

specifically turn that around yeah so

i’ll have an

example where like on the day i would

just wake up going

oh you know i just i’m so tired my body

is not moving and i just can’t get out a

bit

but i’ll tell myself you know this is

the only time i can

really make this day happen because if i

don’t do this day right

i will prolong the process of getting

better or improving myself to get to my

goal

so this day counts so i’m going to make

the most of it even though i’m feeling

down and out

but i know i’ve done it before i’ve done

the training yesterday i can do it again

so

that alone you already start having this

posture you wake up and you go okay i

can walk a little bit hard with my head

held high so

so yeah i think and it becomes a a daily

habit

i believe you became world champion at

the age of 22

you won the first world championship and

that is something you have

worked so hard for so many years and

suddenly you’ve achieved that dream

what is that journey like once you once

you hit that dream

nobody actually tells you in a playbook

like how do you be world champion

next step and then so i had to figure it

out myself and it was a place that i

felt really lost and i i just didn’t

know

what was next for me and i was

losing matches i was not in a good state

i was very down and also i was expecting

myself to be something else

i thought i had to be another person i

had to be

a better person if you’re a world

champion you are expected to be

this much better or this much like you

know like you have to

act differently so i was also lost in

the fact that do i need to

be something else so all these things

happening in my mind

while i still have to compete while i

still had to perform

so that first half of the year i was

just losing matches i went down the

ranking straight

straight after i think and and it

occurred to me

when i took a little bit of time off

maybe like two three weeks of just

time away from squash i spoke to my

coach

and and also my sports psychologist and

my family

and sharing with them how i how i was

feeling and

they said you know what just be true to

yourself you don’t have to be anything

else

the person you are is what made you

become world champion and well number

one so why

change that now it’s up to you of what

you want to do next

what you decide and i and i was like

yeah you’re right so

so my coach and i we just sat down and

we redid

new goals we re did a new

set of goals for myself to see how far i

can push

so every year we will will jot down

what milestones would take to get to the

next level and then the world

championships will be the final

event for the year so we always work

towards that

progression and that was it and my

mindset just switched and i knew that

now i have to work even harder

and now it’s another step up of what i

did before

is now another ball game so we had a

team around that was

positive it was there was a stronger

network in

support system which might with my

sports psychologists my

sports therapists with working on my

body

as physio physical trainers all these

people

came in to make sure every small detail

was looked after

and and then i could be pushing forward

to

what’s what i need to do in the tasks

that i had and and all the plannings

that we need to do

along the way and and you stayed well

number one for

eight years um and at one point

you decided that okay you’re going to

retire

how did you reach that point what was

the thinking behind it

suddenly i just didn’t get the the wins

i suddenly didn’t

quite reach that finals and slowly but

surely i lost my world number one

ranking but i was in denial i was going

through that

for two years and it came to a

tournament in the u.s

open and i lost to a player from hong

kong and

i played i beat her all throughout my

squash career and that moment i lost to

her

she played amazing but i i came out of

that match in the second round

and my coach told me or even asked the

question

do you really want to play squash like

really what do you want to do with your

squash

um and i was like no i’m gonna play

squash for another five years while

you’re talking about why you asked me

that question

and he’s like she’s like no just go back

and think about it and

and literally i went back to the hotel

and i just burst into

tears and i just did i realized that you

know i

got nothing much left the hunger was

lost

i’m getting older too so obviously i’m

not as spunky as i was before

but i only had two years left and all

that i’ve used

all that energy i’ve used for my mind to

be always sound or my body to be always

fit and strong and ready to take on the

pressure of just

everyone wanting to beat me the coaches

all trying to find ways to beat me and

and that was constant pressure on me to

to

always take on and it just needed that

needed a break and

so i only i told myself i’ll have two

more years

and i was in 2017 and i would retire in

2019

but i i need to do my process so i had

an emotional like up and down mode but i

had great people around me

to help me through i have to let go of

what was truly me

and now i have to find a new reason new

purpose to

then take on the next phase of my life

and is to give back now i found finally

found a reason to

do something after squash so i i think

that is so great because you know

your identity for so long has been about

being a squash player and being a world

champion and

now you have a second phase of the

purpose that you’re looking for which is

to inspire youth of next generation kind

of as a closing

if you if there’s something about what

you do

that you wish every youth every child in

the country will know about what would

that be

i would hope that every youth can just

really stay true to themselves i think

nowadays we are so caught up with the

noise around us or what we should be or

what we are told to be

and it’s so easy to get to fall into the

wrong path

and and i think being true

to yourself is so it’s difficult but at

the same time if you know yourself

and you know who you are it’s so much

better to just move forward and

trust that this is going to be the right

decision to make

and if it’s your passion if it’s

something you you

deserve or something you truly want

never let anyone tell you otherwise