Train the Human, Not Just the Athlete | Ep 295

🏆 What if peak performance isn't about pushing harder — it's about learning to play freely? In Episode 295, I sit down with Denise to explore her journey from playing international netball to coaching Scotland's national team, and the realization that completely transformed how she understood pressure, performance, and the mind. 🧠✨ We dive into her book PlayFreely®️: The Spiritual Key to Athletic Excellence, the Three Principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought, and her fascinating 50-50 approach to developing athletes — training the human dimension alongside technical and tactical skills. 🌟 We explore perfectionism, identity, expectations, intuition, and the difference between constantly striving and learning to thrive. Whether you're an athlete or simply someone placing enormous pressure on yourself to perform, this conversation may change the way you see your potential. 💫 Free gift: A free digital download of PlayFreely®️ - The Spiritual Key to Athletic Excellence. To access this, please email Denise at [email protected], and she will send you a one-time purchase code, so you can access the book for FREE! My Non-Profit – Girls Matter - https://girlsmatter.ca Our Book (episode 249) - Empowered: The Journey From Victim Island To Solution City: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1989849776?psc=1&smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp” Introduction video about Girls Matter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R3-xqzJLZW14om1PhFClcU_oRSZ8zgip/view Personal Growth and CertifiacatonTrainings: Impact Maker Alliance: https://ima-hub.base44.app/explore?ref=melissa DHARMA PATH™ 4 – in – 1 designation trainings: https://amplifyimpactacademy.com/quantum-life-mastery-school Meet Your Unconscious Mind Workshop: https://amplifyimpactacademy.com/um FREE 7 Day Trial: NuCalm Products to recalibrate your nervous system / improve your sleep:: https://nucalm.com Use my promo code at checkout: YGHJ to get 15% off your monthly subscription, every month. Episode Summary: Key Topics: Athlete Experience: As a shooter for the 1995 Hong Kong national netball team, Denise experienced intense pressure and poor performance despite talent. Coaching Frustration: As Scotland's national coach (2008–2013), she saw the same pressure-induced underperformance in her athletes. Traditional techniques (NLP, CBT) were inconsistent and "hit or miss." Epiphany: After being let go from her coaching role, reading books by Jamie Smart and Michael Neal led to a profound insight: "I am making all this up." This revealed that reality is a projection of the mind, not a camera-like recording of external circumstances. This insight connected her to the work of Sidney Banks and the Three Principles (Mind, Consciousness, Thought). The "50-50 Program" & Play Freely Career Shift: After her epiphany, Denise initially attracted clients with life struggles (addiction, illness) rather than athletes. She followed this "divine calling" for seven years before returning to her sports focus. The Book: Play Freely: The Spiritual Key to Athletic Excellence applies the Three Principles to sports. Structure: Personal story → Three Principles in sport → Real-world issues (retirement, grief). The Program: At the University of Kent, Denise implemented a "50-50 program" for netball. Goal: Dedicate 50% of training to technical/tactical skills and 50% to the "human dimension" (mind, consciousness, spirituality). Concept: Develop a "spiritual muscle" alongside physical conditioning. Key Concepts from Play Freely Identity: The book helps athletes see their true identity as creative potential, free from the need for external approval. Expectation vs. Exploration: High expectations are self-created stories that lead to disappointment. Example: Denise's club was initially indifferent to her return from Scotland. By not taking it personally and understanding their state of mind, she grew the club to 188 junior members and doubled revenue. Perfectionism: The "pressure illusion" stems from a belief that one is "not enough" unless they are the best. This creates a fork in the road: Striving: Grinding, determination, struggle. Thriving: Effortless flow, curiosity, intuition. The book helps athletes identify and release the thoughts that create this pressure. About the Guest: Denise Holland is a State of Mind Performance Specialist for youth, talent and elite sports. She supports talent and elite performers to understand the state of mind behind, clarity, confidence and flow. A former international netball athlete, National Coach for Scotland Netball, England Superleague coach and author of PlayFreely® – The Spiritual Key to Athletic Excellence, Denise brings over 35 years of lived experience in high-performance sport to her work with talented athletes, coaches and parents. Through PlayFreely®, she points athletes towards a fresh understanding of performance, one that does not rely on mindset training, mental toughness or techniques for controlling the mind. Instead, her work helps athletes see where their experience is coming from in the moment, and how pressure, overthinking, fear of mistakes and the need to prove themselves begin to settle when state of mind is understood more clearly. This understanding is especially relevant for young athletes in clubs, academies, universities and talent pathways, where selection, expectation, confidence and identity can become closely tied to performance. Contact: Website: Www.playfreely.co.uk (book website) Website: Www.deniseholland.org Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] About the Host: Melissa is an Integrative Health Practitioner and a Board Designated Master Trainer of Hypnotherapy, Trainer of NLP, Time Line Therapy®, and NLP Results Coaching, helping people get to the root cause of their health issues and then get lasting results. Melissa neither diagnoses nor cures but helps bring your body back into balance by helping discover your “toxic load” and then removing the toxins. Melissa offers functional medicine lab testing that helps you “see inside” to know exactly what is going on, and then provides a personalized wellness protocol using natural herbs and supplements. Melissa’s business is 100% virtual – the lab tests are mailed directly to your home and she specializes in holding your hand and guiding the way to healing so that you don’t have to figure it all out on your own. Melissa has launched Amplify Impact Academy, with business partner, Billie Aadmi and together they train other coaches, practitioners and counsellors in the 4 mind-body healing modalities mentioned above, giving them powerful tools to use with clients to get results with greater ease, speed and grace. These courses teach life skills and anyone can take them, if you want to be a better leader, parent, partner, be empowered in your own life, these courses are for you! Melissa’s passion project is her non-profit, Girls Matter (www.girlsmatter.ca), breaking the poverty cycle 1 girl, 1 family, 1 village at a time. The mission is to keep girls in school and stop teenage marriages, because school isn’t free in over 50 countries around the world and when parents have to make the difficult choices of feeding their kids or paying for school, food wins. And when the girls hit their teen years, they will often be married off so that someone else becomes responsible to feed them. Keeping girls in school instead creates a generational ripple effect, because an educated girl is more than twice as likely to ensure her own children are educated. Educating girls also grows the GDP of countries, when they get into the workforce. This is how together, we can change the world.Guests on this podcast are invited to donate to this important cause. Learn more here in this short video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R3-xqzJLZW14om1PhFClcU_oRSZ8zgip/view?usp=share_link Melissa is also the winner of the 2024 Women in Podcasting Awards in the “inspiration & motivation” category and the 2021 & 2022 Quality Care Award by Business From The Heart and is also the recipient of the Alignable “Local Business Person of the Year “Award 2022, 2023 & 2024 for Whistler. Melissa has been featured at a number of Health & Wellness Summits, such as the Health, Wealth & Wisdom Summit, The Power To Profit Summit, The Feel Fan-freaking-tas-tic Summit, the Aim Higher Summit and many more! She has also guested on over 90 different podcasts teaching people about the importance of prioritizing our health and how to get started. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/yourguidedhealthjourney Thanks for listening! If you know somebody who would benefit from this message, or would be an awesome addition to our community, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a note in the comment section below! Subscribe to the podcast! If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe on the podcast app on your mobile device. Leave us a review! We appreciate every bit of feedback to make this a value-adding part of your day. Ratings and reviews from our listeners not only help us improve, but also help others find us in their podcast app. If you have a minute, an honest review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes goes a long way! Thank You!!