John Higgins on seeking help to conquer negative thoughts: 'I feel a lot better now'

02/07/2024 04:41 AM

John Higgins is already feeling the benefit of linking up with a sports psychologist in a bid to conquer negative thoughts, admitting he needed to change something to return to winning ways.

The 48-year-old is still ranked number 12 in the world and has been to four semi-finals this season, but has not picked up a ranking title since the 2021 Players Championship.

Nearly three years without a ranking title is a serious drought by the four-time world champion’s standards and he admits that negative thinking has crept in and hampered his game.

The Wizard of Wishaw has lost a number of close matches in big tournaments and at the business end of events in the last couple of years, and he says that the more that has happened, the more the intrusive thoughts have emerged.

Still keen to improve and get back to winning ways, Higgins has been talking to a sports psychologist about the issue and already feels an improvement in his game.

‘I’m trying to introduce a different mindset into my game,’ Higgins told Metro.co.uk. ‘I’ve been too open. I think in this game you can’t afford to be. Everybody else is giving it 100 per cent and I feel as if I’ve maybe not been giving it my all.

‘I’m speaking to someone because there has been negative thoughts. There’s no beating about the bush, obviously in the last wee while I’ve lost some big matches and they would always surface, every time, so I’m trying to speak to someone about that, having more positive thoughts and who knows?

‘It’s early days just yet, but I feel as if I need to work on that because every other part of my game is good. It just seems to be mindset when it’s getting a little bit difficult. I’m not good enough now to think that I can’t look at that side of things. Everybody else seems to be doing it, so why not me?

‘Early days, but I’m enjoying it. It’s just good to bounce off a different person because it can be a lonely sport when you’ve not really got anyone with you, speaking about certain things. I sought him out, read about it, gave it a go.’

Over 30 years into his professional career, Higgins admits he wasn’t sure about the idea of help on the mental side of the game, but it was advice from people close to him that encouraged him to do so.

‘People have said I should in the past and I thought no, but nothing ventured nothing gained,’ he said. ‘You can get really negative, it would be good to get some positive thoughts.

‘People watching you, close to you, they can see it. You think you’re fine, but people see the chaos on you. So the first step is realising it. But I feel a lot better now.’

It was not an easy step to take, though, with the Scot feeling that he had to accept he could no longer do something he once could.

‘It seemed to be you’ve always been in control of your own destiny,’ he said. ‘So it’s as if you’re admitting you’re not as good as you were. But I’m not [as good as I was].

‘In the past I’ve said I’m still feeling great but obviously I’m not winning anything, so you can’t keep on thinking you can do it your own way. I’m not winning anymore. So I need to get back to what those feelings are like.’

As mentioned, Higgins is hardly having a disaster of a season, sitting at number 11 on the one-year list, so it is not panic stations, but he has identified the problem he wants to fix.

‘I can’t be thinking about getting too downbeat,’ he said. ‘Think of the positives, try and get up and try and win. When that’s all you’ve done in the career, win, I’ve got to try.

‘I’m trying because if I haven’t got as many years left. Even if I’ve just got two years left, I want to try and give it everything while I can still do it. While I’m still playing I’ll try and do everything I can to maximise it and see where it goes.’

Higgins is not just tinkering with his mindset, but has also made another change to his cue, which went against some advice he took, but he is backing his own decision on going back to measurements he used as a teenager.

‘I’ve always tinkered with my cue and different things,’ he said. ‘The decision after the Masters, I had my old cue under the table in my house, the cue I had 30 years ago, and I’ve put it back to exactly the same size.

‘It was always an inch or half an inch bigger, but I’ve gone back to that. That’s the way I want it. It’s the exact same size. People would tell me it’s too small, but at the end of the day it’s about you.

‘Maybe over the years you’re not always listening to your own mind. In some ways it’s good to, in some ways it’s not good to listen to your own thoughts as I’ve said, you’ve got to try to strike a happy balance, I think.

‘I feel better at the table for it. That might mean I look more confident, I’m hoping it’ll be a whole collective coming together and I can get back to winning ways.’

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