Gymnasts have done it through the power of believing.

If you have been following this blog, you would have read how people could walk on glowing, smoking,red-hot coals. You would have read of people who pierce long thin shafts into their cheeks or bodies and later remove them without any indication of injury to them. Unbelievable, of course, unless you understand the power of the mind.

What should interest us even more is how we can harness this power of believing to achieve our everyday success. For that, allow me to tell you how I achieve success as a state gymnastic coach.

When I did my first year of teaching in St. Michaels Secondary School in Alor Star, I assisted a more experienced coach to train the gymnasts of the school. When the experienced coach left for further studies in Australia, I took over the team and for the first time the school team became the champion team of the state. This was the case for the next four years when I was there. Frankly, I was very egoistic and strongly believe I am a better coach than all the others.

Then, just as I was getting another team together in another school, the captain of another school team had an accident and all gymnastic competitions came to a full stop in the state for the next approximately twenty years. Do you see how powerful an incident like this can have on the mind?

About ten years before my retirement, I was required to go for coach training. My school was sent Olympic standard gymnastic equipment and I immediately went to the lower form classes to select the right students.

Firstly, I wanted to know who were interested to become excellent state gymnasts. Some of those who came forward were not only interested; they walked with a confidence of being able to achieve what I planned to succeed at. They were the ones I chose, for in their walk, they showed that they believed in what I was going to do.

Then they went into training, six Malay girls and seven Malay boys. To remove any doubts as well as other obstacles regarding my method of teaching, I invited their parents to watch the training. They saw the progress their children could make and approved my method.

If you understand how gymnasts are trained, you would know that at certain parts of the training there is the need to bend backwards with arms stretched back as you jumped upwards and backwards to land on your hands while your body and legs follow through to land on your feet and straighten the body; a backward somersault. Some people dared not even jump upwards as the body bent backwards. They just do not have the confidence. Have you ever thought what is it that gives us the confidence? It is nothing but belief; belief in the coach and believe that it could be done. Without those beliefs, a somersault is impossible to achieve. Sometimes, I do come across a child who believes in the coach but does not believe she is capable of it. What can the coach do to overcome this? During my coaching I have sometimes praised and exaggerated my gymnasts’ abilities and performances to give them the necessary boost to top up their confidence and enable a movement to be performed. Yes, I have discovered that there is value in exaggeration and encouragement. For, it is especially in gymnastics that I discover the need and the importance of believing to achieve improvement. Some of my gymnasts brought back medals from national schools’ gymnastic meets.

Well, that was a true story of how the power of believing can help humans achieve something in their lives.

Do you have a story to tell? Let us hear it.