A pivotal moment that led John Higgins to seek out a sports psychologist is identified.
The 48-year-old hasn’t played poorly this season, but he is struggling to win crucial games. This season, he has lost a lot of close games and failed to get past four semifinals without making it to the championship game.
Although virtually all players would still consider this to be a very successful season, the four-time world champion finds it disappointing as he looks to win his first ranking championship since the 2021 Players Championship.
His quest to overcome the negative thoughts that have seeped into his playing has led him to speak with a sports psychologist. The Wizard of Wishaw claims that his opponents’ sympathy for him—”the last thing you want” in his situation—inspired him to take this action.
Regarding his effort on the mental aspect of the game, Higgins told Eurosport, “I’ve never done it before, I’m going down that route a little bit.”Speaking with someone is beneficial. In the past few years, I haven’t really experienced that. It’s beneficial to communicate your feelings to someone.
You can tell yourself, “Well, you’ve got to try and do something,” if players are expressing sympathy for you. After all, the last thing you want is for others to feel sorry for you. That’s not what you want to happen to you. I’ll take that path and see whether it helps me.
Mark Allen, who defeated Higgins at the Masters, expressed his sadness about “the way Higgins is now.” In the first round of the Masters last month, Allen and Higgins faced off. In the decider, the Pistol defeated the Wizard 6-5 with a break of 86.
Understandably, Higgins gave some somewhat dejected interviews following the loss, and Allen expressed sadness over the Scot’s apparent inability to rediscover the killer instinct for which he had once been renowned.”I feel for John not out there; I didn’t want him to miss every shot he played, but I know that he had his chances,” Allen told the BBC.
He appears to be a truly nice guy who is just having trouble crossing the boundary. He would be winning tournaments once more if he just had a little more faith in himself. “He’s too good to be talking the way he is,” he continued on Eurosport. Anyone would be thrilled to have a career similar to John’s because he is one of the all-time greats.“Seeing him the way he is now is depressing.” I want him to miss every shot when I’m out there, so no. It’s not fun to lose a bunch of close games, so I do feel bad for him. Higgins acknowledges that he has been tormented by negative thoughts lately and thinks that engaging with a mental expert would help eliminate it.
He told Metro.co.uk, “I’m speaking to someone because there have been negative thoughts.” There’s no hiding the fact that I’ve lost a few significant matches in the past week; they always come up, so I’m attempting to talk to someone about it and think more positively, but who knows?
Even though it’s early, I think I need to improve on it because everything else in my game is strong. When things start to get a little challenging, it just appears to be the mindset. I don’t think I’m good enough anymore to ignore that aspect of the situation. Why not me when everyone else seems to be doing it?