The Secret to Lasting Consistency
hi everyone i’m nicole david and i’m a
former world squash champion and i’ve
represented malaysia for more than 20
years
i’m really excited to be here sharing on
this tedx sunway university session with
all of you
today i’ll be talking about the secret
to lasting consistency
many have asked me about how i could
sustain at the top of my game for such a
long time
usually questions like how did you do it
what kept you motivated to keep on
winning or
how do you handle it all or the pressure
to be at world number one
during your career well now that i’m
retired
from playing squash professionally i
could actually reflect
on my career and have more time to
understand it better myself
so i’d like to share with all of you the
secret to my success
but before i go into it let me tell you
a little bit more about my story
i was born in penang in 1983 and i’m the
youngest of three girls
in the family my dad desmond
was a civil engineer but he was also a
sports person himself
and used to play football for malaysia
and hockey and athletics for penang
state
i’m pretty sure the sports genes came
from him and also the competitive age
too
my mom ann marie was an english art and
geography teacher in a chinese boys
school
she was super patient to put up with the
boys for over 20 years
but she definitely needed more patience
to put up with me
the most hyper kid you can possibly meet
and all i wanted to do is run around
everywhere
and climb up things if i see an
opportunity
so when i was five years old the first
public school center was built
in penang by my dad’s friend at the time
i was way too small to play squash
because the record was far too big
for me so my sisters had lessons first
while i followed them and sat outside
the court watching in
the minute i saw them playing the game
in their first lesson
i was so intrigued by the sport and i
made a point to ask my dad straight away
to sign me in too somehow
he managed to get me an old wooden
racquet cut it into half
and hand made it specially for me so i
could join in the lessons with my
sisters
the first time i stepped foot on the
squash court
and started hitting the ball with my
special racquet
i just loved every moment of it and i
fell in love with squash from then on
i was dreaming about squash i would wait
for my school day to be over to play
squash
and i just played squash all day every
day
and before you know it i got better and
better at it
i was selected to join the national team
at 11 years old
i started to improve a lot in
tournaments nationally and
internationally but eventually the
results came
when i was 14 years old i had a
breakthrough
and i won my first asian senior title
it was an open age group event so i was
playing opponents that were twice my age
and even still managed to beat them i
was so thrilled
to win that title that it spurred me on
to train harder
and push myself more a year later
i won my first world junior title and at
the time
i was the first ever female athlete in
malaysia
to have ever won a world title so i was
really proud of that achievement
from then on i continued to work harder
and two years later i won my second
world junior title
in my hometown penang it was such an
amazing experience to win that title at
home
in front of my family my friends and the
malaysian supporters all around
after that win it gave me more reason to
make my
decision to become a professional squash
player after that
i also had my mindset to be world number
one
and being world champion in a seniors
one day
when i was 17 years old straight after
high school
i went out and played the puerto r i had
a year on tour
and i did really well to break into the
top 16 in the world within one year
however i noticed i needed to do more to
play against the top players and as they
were very experienced
i knew very quickly what to do to beat
me
so a year later i decided to leave
malaysia and move to amsterdam
to work with my professional coach
deserving
i wanted to train with the best to be
the best i can be
she knew what it takes to compete with
the top women on tour
i have to say this is the best decision
i
ever made in my squash career
she told me the first thing when i
started training with her
was that it would take time and lots of
patience
to make these changes but i was willing
to commit to it
basically i had to change my approach to
training completely
we corrected my technique made my
movement more efficient
learned better tactics tactics to match
up to the top pros
get stronger physically and mentally too
it was certainly a process that was not
easy at all
but i kept to it without missing a day
of training
i had many many tough moments in the
process
but i got through those obstacles and
came out reaching my goal
eventually i became world number one
and world champion all by the age of 22.
also from then on i went on to win eight
world titles and sustained
world number one for nine years
consecutively
and it’s a record in squash history
never in my wildest dreams would i have
ever imagined
achieving this in my entire life
so welcome to the moment of truth
what is the secret to lasting
consistency
well the secret to my success
is improvement i have always wanted to
keep improving myself
and making sure i continue to learn and
grow in every possible way
here is the actual meaning of what
improvement means
and i found it from the dictionary here
it says
the process of making something better
or off
getting better even when i got to world
number one
i knew there were areas i needed to work
on to get better
and at the same time i never thought to
myself that
this is it i’m set now also i didn’t
want to have
any areas where my opponent could attack
me or find any form of weaknesses
when i was competing so i was constantly
making sure i got better in
all aspects of my game so i had to
create a solid
support team around me that was focused
on their roles
to help me improve and get better while
refining my game
at every step of the way i had my coach
my sports physiotherapist my sports
psychologist
and the sports institute to set up my
training schedule
and my programs with my physical
trainers
it was all about improving on the small
details and by doing so
i could continue to get better and stay
on top of the pack
with the rest of the players on tour
throughout my time
at world number one and my entire career
i never
once felt that i was entitled to
anything in my life
i’ll say this again i never once felt
that i was entitled to anything
in my life one of the key things to
remember when you want to reach your
goals
and improve yourself is to never ever
feel
comfortable if you have something set
that you’re wanting to go for you can’t
get comfortable
it is very easy to just settle but if i
fell in this trap
i would be starting to make excuses that
will not help me improve
or get better in any way it just doesn’t
work
so if you want to go somewhere and do
something better in your life
to reach your goals if you get
comfortable
you won’t go anywhere basically
you’ll have you stay put and not move
further to pursue anything more
for yourself one of the biggest things
to
keeping you on track is to have a strong
mindset
which i call the strongest mindset
as an athlete we work on our minds a lot
and it certainly applies to everyone on
how to take
on their daily lives this strongest
mindset is what we practice as an
athlete
so i’d just like to share the six points
that makes a strongest mindset
number one focus on the details
i mentioned before to focus on the small
details to improve yourself
my coach told me to make these small
goals and if i could reach them
then i’ll only get better to reach the
bigger bigger goal
so i would say to work on the small
details and when you work on them
it gets gets you to where you want to go
number two have a vision
as you heard from my story i always had
a vision in mind
and that was to be world number one and
world champion
i went to amsterdam with that in mind
but it doesn’t mean i knew what i
would be doing just knowing what i could
see
or visualize it in my mind helped me to
prepare and plan
myself towards it somehow if you can’t
see
it you can’t reach it number three
look around you competition is
everywhere
and it’s it is the best thing i honestly
learned so much from my opponents
throughout my career
if it wasn’t for my competitors pushing
me to get better
i wouldn’t be where i am today so don’t
fear competition
embrace it and learn from those around
you
number four be willing to do it a
million times
until you get it right i feel that we
don’t give ourselves a chance to even
try things
before we even start or even
want to get through things we just quit
i had to change a lot of things when i
moved to amsterdam and i had to keep
doing
everything a million times till i got it
right and
kept to the plan if you have a plan
stick to it and be willing to work hard
at it
if you want it to work for you number
five
listen to others even if you don’t want
to hear it
i had moments at tournaments when i had
a really bad match
and the day after i had to go through
what happened with my coach
she would be asking me questions and we
will be going through what went wrong to
find out how we can overcome it if it
happens again
i hated the fact that i needed to listen
to it
but it was the only way i could learn
better about myself
the best last best learnings we
were when i lost and that the le that i
learned the most
so be open to listen to others because
it’s the most important thing to do
number six don’t think you know it all
it all it also comes with being open to
listening
if you think you know everything you
won’t take anyone’s opinions
opinions and advice we can be at any
level
in what we do but there is always space
to learn without putting anyone down
we are not the only ones that know
things others do as well
so be willing to let your guard down and
not feel threatened if
and others have an opinion to share
all these that i’ve shared with you is
important to build the strongest mindset
this worked for me but you can also try
and practice it
out yourself as it applies to everyone
another thing that has made me the
person i am today
is to be humble the more successful you
are
the more successful you are the most
humble you should be
my mom was always an example to us
growing up
she was the best to everyone and would
show lots of gratitude with the people
she is around
when i was competing she would tell me
that it doesn’t matter whether you win
or lose
as long as you are a good person that’s
all that matters
i carry this with me through all
throughout my career until now
and i feel this is the best thing to
have in life
the way we treat others is how we will
be treated back in written
i like to finish with a saying that i
always share
and that is being world number one you
have to gain it
every day you have to make an effort
each day in whatever you do to become a
better
friend boss teacher or student
and make every day count don’t take
anything for granted
and make the most of each day of your
life
thank you very much for your time and i
hope you enjoyed
my sharing today take care bye