GQ Active
Spring 2000

Relaxation

Uri Geller's world of the strange Turn relaxation and laid-back attitude into a winning formula Ian Doyle is a man with a problem.

His prodigy, his uncut gem, his star-of-tomorrow, is possessed of so much natural talent that Wolfgang Mozart would weep in envy.

But the star is so laid-back, he's horizontal. Doyle's boy is a snooker player. Like most of the graduates of Britain's pool halls, this lad likes to unwind in a bar-room atmosphere. He doesn't smoke and rarely drinks, but he enjoys a joke, he likes to hear the gossip, he wants to know the footie scores.

Off the baize, he's no more likely to talk about international snooker than Iranian poetry. Poor Mr Doyle. When an undisciplined, natural gift comes into contact with a focused, honed determination - the kind of determination wielded by snooker's greatest-ever player, Stephen Hendry - then the natural gift will evaporate. Won't it?

In fact, it is the ultra-motivated, fanatically-focused player who is more likely to turn to dust and be blown away at the table. When the intensity gets unbearable, the most practised shot-potter in the world can find that every stroke goes wrong. The harder he tries, the more he misses.

Sports psychologists call this 'choking'. And choking is an alien concept to Mark Williams, 24-year-old protégé of manager Doyle.

Playing at his peak, or having a bad day, his heart rate is the same. There's no cold sweat, no hypertension. Williams was 9-6 behind Hendry in the Benson and Hedges Masters, and came back to beat him 10-9 on a respotted black. In the Regal Welsh Open last year, the two went neck-and-neck together before Williams proved to have the cooler nerve - and won 9-8.

Last autumn, Williams proved beyond a doubt that his winning streak was no lucky fluke, by taking the Liverpool Victoria UK championship against Matthew Stevens 10-8. As I write, Mark Williams is provisionally snooker's world No 1.

"He's laid-back and it's not put on," says Ian Doyle. "Mark is so relaxed and full of fun, regardless of what situation he finds himself in. It's phenomenal. At first I thought it was a problem. Now I've come to realise it's a gift."

The psychology of choking in sport is almost mystical. Almost psychokinetic. If there's a way to miss a shot, fluff a ball, foul a stroke, the choker will find it. As the desperate determination to beat this bad patch spirals higher, the more outlandish becomes the choking.

The classic example is Gareth Southgate's missed penalty against Germany in the semi-finals of Euro '96. Fired up till he was white hot, with the energy of the nation focused on him, this powerful footballer just scuffed the ball feebly into the keeper's hands. Mark Williams might not amount to much as a Premier League defender, but it's easy to believe that, if the snooker star could have been called to the spot at Wembley that night, he would have slotted the ball nonchalantly into the net.

The psychology of choking in sport is almost mystical. Almost psychokinetic If choking is a problem for you, don't fight it head-on.

The harder you try to focus your way out of the choker's zone, the harder you make it for yourself. Choking is like a sports depression, where frenzied efforts to dig your way out just dig you deeper. Like the maze of depression, the choker's zone has no door out on the ground floor - you just have to float out.

Relax, stop worrying, let it sort itself out. Instead of going into the game with 100 per cent dedicated focus - a technique which may always have worked in the past - just go in to enjoy yourself. Be yourself. Let's face it, you can't choke any worse by switching to this easy-going tactic. And you will probably find what thousands of sportspeople have discovered before you: "When I gave up worrying and played for fun, my game came back."

And if you're playing well but you feel that tension and anxiety are sometimes robbing you of an extra two or three per cent, draining energy that would be better applied to your game, here's a simple exercise: Imagine all the knots of stress and anxiety in your muscles. They are not painful - you just sense them dotted through your body, boluses of energy.

Now visualise them as red and blue rubber balls. They are dangling in your back, your head, your neck, your stomach, your arms, and you are about to release them. With a tug of a rope that runs right through your chest, you undo the forces that bind the tensions in your body. The balls go bouncing to the floor, scattering and rolling away into invisibility. With that single tug on the ripcord, your body is cleared of tension. You step out of this daydream in a comfortable state of relaxation. Calling on the aggression you have stockpiled during a tough week in the office is a big energiser before a game. Many amateur players enjoy sport especially because it burns off the tension of the daily grind - but anxiety doesn't always translate into anger.

If you are preoccupied or depressed your game will suffer. When you need to relax immediately before a game, don't be afraid to try a Mindpower exercise with your teammates around you. When you're on the bench in the changing-room, pick a point on a vacant wall. Stare into this point and feel all your consciousness flowing out to it. Breathe your consciousness out of your body, leaving only a state of relaxation and acceptance in your mind. In your mind, hear yourself say: "I breathe anxiety out. I breathe relaxation in. I breathe thought out. I breathe alertness in. I feel thoughts flowing to the point. I see where my thoughts go. I do not follow them. I am relaxed. Relaxation is filling my body like warm liquid. I am blissfully relaxed. I am awake." This repetitive, mantra-like meditation only needs to last a few seconds to bring a beneficial state of relaxation into your mind and your game. Breathe out worry. Breathe in confidence.Now pot that black.

Uri Geller's novels Dead Cold and Ella are published by Headline at £5.99. Mind Medicine is published by Element at £20 Visit him at www.urigeller.com and e-mail him at urigeller@compuserve.com