SOFT scoop ice cream saved the career of a top basketball player, according to a former practice partner of seven-time world snooker champion Stephen Hendry.
Stephen Tierney, a sports psychologist and Neuro Linguistic Programming practitioner, turned his back on snooker after five years as a pro in the 1990s.
He joined the circuit in 1995, the same year as Paul Hunter.
Now living in Warsash, the Glaswegian recently made a return to the game – for Q World D in the Southampton & District Social Clubs League.
Tierney told of a basketball player who benefited from a dose of NLP.
“In the free throw, his bottle kept going,” he said. “The pressure got to him. So the chap that worked with him put him back into a state of when he was totally relaxed and really enjoying himself.”
The basketball player recalled walking along the beach on a hot day with his partner while eating soft scoop ice cream.
Soft scoop became the anchor words.
Tierney added: “Every time he was about to take a free throw he would bounce the ball and say ‘soft scoop’, and he would be back in that relaxed state.”
Picture by Kevin Legg
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