Andy Winter and Denise Holland, both sports professionals, for over twenty years, share how their sports coaching has changed since coming across this understanding of, how the human mind works to create experience. What happens to athletes and coaches, when they let go of the contents of their conditioning and fall into the Grace of pure Being? Beyond the linear perspective of living life, the chronological of time, and the continuum of memory and projection, there is a stillness, a Divine Universal Intelligence, a supreme creative presence. When human beings are aligned with this essence, they re-connect with their true Self, rather than live from the conditioned self; concepts, judgments and assumptions. Performing from this space of peace and pure joy is the ultimate leveraging point for sportspeople.  Andy Winter has been an Educator, Administrator, and Coach for over thirty years. He encountered Dicken Bettinger and Sydney Banks twenty-five years ago, and his life and his work changed dramatically. Since then he has worked with adults, children, couples, schools, athletes and teams to help them better understand their innate health, and wisdom, and live work and play with greater joy. Andy is the Director of the Center for Insight and Change in Brattleboro, Vermont - where he works sharing the principles behind the human experience. He also continues his practice as a Tennis Pro.  

A unique style we could call performance meditation, Denise takes you to the spaciousness before the creation of memory, your true nature/Self, that place of pure creative potential – of BEING rather than proving, striving or even competing. As human beings, memory logs experience through the lens/perspective at the time; it is part of the design to support the individual expression of the one Divine life force. Are we, however, misusing this function of the human mind? When we recall, it can never be the previous moment that we are remembering, it can only ever be today's take on it? Are you giving your memories far too much importance and significance? Is this misunderstanding sabotaging your capacity for psychological and performance freedom? If you woke up with no memory whatsoever, just the divine inspiration to live utterly present to the moment, how would your day go? Imagine, showing up for competitions, without any ideas of consequences, medals, or mistakes, just a deep connection to that which has evolved humanity for hundreds of years, and which brought you here, that which can be trusted to fuel, and deliver a performance perfect for you at that time? 

The human memory system, a brilliant part of the human mind (not brain), continues to the subject of scientific research to find clues as to why people behave the way they do but are we looking in the wrong direction. What is the memory, and as a function is it any different to imagination, discernment, judgement or appreciation? Do we give that which we hold in our minds too much importance and significance? Can it be trusted to provide us with an accurate account of what happened? How is it that humans have this capacity to forget, move on, get over things? Is it conceivable that human beings are not supposed to remember, to operate optimally in the now, present to each moment, ready to be intuitive and instinctive for the greater good?

Joe Marler Professional Rugby player was recently shown a red card during a Harlequins Premiership match, which left him unavailable for national selection. When hormones go crazy in the heat of the moment, how helpful is it for coaches to know what’s happening inside the human body and mind? There is an enormous benefit to coaches of elite athletes, to get ‘buy-in’, rather than ‘compliance’. Some coaching approaches appear too inflexible and rigid whereas a Super Coach would be someone who has a profound understanding of the role of the human mind to create experience. They see beyond the traditional methodology to regulate behaviours to the source, and intelligence of all human performances, positive and negative. Super Coaches are better equipped to gain overall buy-in and help athletes work within the broader goal of the team and the rules of the game.

Michael Neill shares the distinction between setting goals as a course of direction, to inform your work together rather than something to put pressure on yourself, with consequences for non-achievement. Athletes perform at their best when they are not conscious of themselves – anything that makes you self-conscious works against high performance. Denise asks Michael to talk about the question of 'controlling outcome', do athletes even have the capacity to control the outcome of human accomplishments and how helpful is it to believe they can or cannot?

Michael Neill talks with Denise Holland about 'pressure'? How is it sportspeople often comment that they need to feel under pressure to be able to perform well? What's going on with this perspective and is it healthy?  Is feeling under pressure helpful to athletes? What happens to the physical body and mind when human beings continuously feel under attack, threatened, or frightened? In contrast, is there an optimal state of mind and body for sustainable high performance? Often we witness sparks of genius appear out of no-where and in many cases when the chips are down, what's behind this human phenomenon? Is it true that 'pressure' is an inside job, that circumstances, people and situations can never be the cause of feeling under pressure? If so, this is well worth investigating further, don't you think, nothing and no-one to blame for your experiences!

Denise Holland talks with Michael Neill about match point situations, in the heat of the moment, when it is highly likely that athletes get caught up in a lot of thinking, how helpful is this 'Understanding of the Mind? Also on this show, Michael shares his wisdom about ‘Talent Identification and Development’ – How useful is it to focus on traditional attributes and characteristics, i.e., self-determination, self-preservation, being self-absorbed, a win at all cost mindset? Are you missing one vital core ingredient of all human performance; ‘Love of the Game’, the inspiration to live, breath, and sleep your sport, an unconditional drive to explore new ways to go further? What's behind athlete's motivation and is that worth the investment?

Michael Neill, transformative coach and bestselling author, discusses the inspiration behind his book, Creating The Impossible, and the excitement of tapping into a deeper part of oneself. He explains the characteristics of great performance and how understanding the mind helps explain it. The podcast also explores redefining sports psychology for harnessing untapped mental energy.

It is very common for coaches to feel bad when their athletes suffer disappointments, so what’s the best way to deal and cope with this situation when it arises? Denise used to use techniques and rational thinking to help the Scotland National athletes, ‘park it’ so that they could quickly learn from poor performances and plan for the next one. Nowadays, Denise no longer uses strategies to help athletes to feel better; instead, she points them towards understanding their reality and how it is created, from the inside to out. It may seem a little odd to suggest that coaches do not need to intervene, that there is nothing wrong or to be done. By using a parenting example, Denise shares a recent shift which has helped her family enormously.

Rudi and Denise talk about a behavioural performance model; that dealing and working on poor behaviours, with consequences, and discipline procedures are missing the point, i.e. it is too late by then as all responses are an effect of a person’s state of mind in the moment and not the cause of the problem. Whatever people think, it is going to look real and true to them; however, with a glimpse of how the mind works to create our separate realities, you can take a step back and see that thought is a construction, not an instruction. We gain a deeper respect for diversity; wisdom shows us we no longer need to be right. How does an understanding of the inside out nature of life change the use of the Performance Analysis? Are sportspeople mistakenly comparing and over-thinking today about yesterday’s performances? Is this preventing a stronger download signal of fresh, innovation in the moment?