So this weekend saw our very own David Haye become heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Against all the pysical odds, he overcame the 11 inch taller, 6 stone heavier Nicolai Valuev. Not only did he have brilliant thinking behind his tactics for beating an opponent who has never once been knocked off his feet in a very long boxing career – Haye did not really get hit at all by the flailing Valuev – but he had the belief. Some see his comments before the fight as derogatory, but they are also heavily punctuated with a supreme self-belief that has fuelled his ability to take this crown and after a mandatory defence, he’ll most likely get the chance to unify the belts and fight Vitali Klitschko… Both fights where we’ll doubtless get to see many more of Haye’s boxing skills as he fights men of similar stature.

Those fighters that had the most self-belief always went on to the greatest things:

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Well of course I would say that there was hypnotherapy in abundance as I was running my own hypnotherapy training diploma this weekend, it is wonderful for me to see and witness my students growing in self-confidence and belief… Often where there is required self-belief, there is also often more hypnotherapy skills hidden away in other corners of the world.

After 56 years without a victory against the All-Blacks in the sport of Rugby Union, Wales coach Warren Gatland brought in the services of motivational expert and hypnotherapist Andy McCann to help with that self-belief that they could overcome them. In this hypnosis article in the Independent last week, it states:

Fifty-six years of failure have the tendency to affect the self-belief levels and perhaps this is what Warren Gatland had in mind when employing a motivational expert to work with his internationals. Wales have not beaten the All Blacks since 1953 and it is clearly part of Andy McCann’s brief to convince this Dragonhood they can prevail on Saturday where so many generations have fallen short before.

It goes on to say:

McCann is a former karate international who quit as a PE teacher in 2004 after suffering a stroke, aged just 37. His fight-back saw him receive a UK Award for Courage as he retrained as a clinical hypnotherapist and life coach, setting up one of Wales’s leading corporate training consultancy and establishing himself on the motivational-speaker circuit.

Robin McBryde, the forwards coach, first got McCann involved with Wales in June on what was essentially a development tour to North America. Such was McCann’s influence Gatland invited him back to work with the hard-nosed seniors. “It’s a personal thing,” said the Kiwi. “Andy’s not doing anything with the squad as a group, but if the boys want to have a one-one chat with him he’s there.”

An insider in the Welsh camp said that initially the players were wary, but “now most of them have had a chat with him”. Alun Wyn Jones, the gigantic Lions lock, confirmed he was he was due to have a session with McCann last night. “We’ll have a cuppa and see what he has to say,” he said.

I think this is marvellous to hear, especially with such physical demands placed on Rubgy Union players and the added pressures and expectations. As it happens Wales came very, very close at the weekend and were just edged out 19-12 by New Zealand, by all accounts they deserved better.

So there really was much self-belief around this weekend, I loved seeing it!