CONGRATULATIONS to all who contributed to South Africa winning the ICC Under-19 World Cup 2014 on Saturday, with a six wicket victory over previous champions Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. What a brilliant achievement by a great team of guys!

And what a privilege to have played some part in the process, in support of the exceptional vision and implementation of their expert mind coach Tim Goodenough. As part of their preparation leading up to the World Cup tournament, we engaged the team in an inspirational exercise that provided them with the opportunity to experience their win in advance.

Above is a photo taken shortly before the team’s departure for Dubai, together with one of my motorcycle racing trophies, which Tim recognized as looking quite similar to the actual ICC World Cup trophy. He commissioned me to shoot a series of photos at their training grounds that captured the essence of this winning attitude, and to provide each team member with a framed A5 print of the image below, including Tim’s motivational message.

Of course a massive contribution combining a whole range of abilities made this win possible, but there’s no doubt that the mental preparation strategy played a pivotal role. It was fantastic to watch the final overs of the match and see how the team slotted straight into their winning positions during the photo session afterwards with the real World Cup trophy – a true example of affirmation in action.

As an Executive Coach specialising in sports and high performance, Tim holds a trainers qualification in both NLP and Neuro-Semantics. In addition to extensive experience coaching top level sports teams, he is the best selling co-author of In the Zone and Raising Talent, with Michael Cooper. For more insight into their phenomenal work, visit their website at Coaching Unity International.

WELL DONE again to the entire team of players and coaches, and thank you for including me in this amazing experience!