Shadowing Practice: How to Think Like a Champion | Bill Beswick's 1% Mentality - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
What do you want?
2
Do you want to be a celebrity?
3
Or do you want to be the best player you can be?
4
If you want to be the best player you can be, forget that.
5
Concentrate on your training.
6
When faced by challenge, the mind skips into the future and says, what if I fail, what if I'm embarrassed, what if I get injured, what if I...
7
And I have to give them a different way of thinking.
8
And the thinking is, I may get failed, I may get embarrassed, I may get injured,
9
but I can deal with it.
10
Because I'm strong.
11
And because I prefer to be the kind of person who steps up and faces the challenge,
12
than the kind of person who stays below the line and avoids the challenge.
13
What kind of person do you want to be?
14
What do you want?
15
How badly do you want it?
16
How much are you willing to suffer?
17
Those three questions our high performers face every day.
18
Anybody can change at any stage of their life.
19
We are writing our own story, our own life story, but there's no reason why we can't stop, have a mental time out and go, and go, what do I really want?
20
And start from that moment on rewriting your story by facing the challenge,
21
achieving for yourself and putting your fears and anxieties to one side.
22
I would never give up on somebody, never.
23
There's a thousand excuses, but not a single reason.
24
When you step into the challenge zone, the number of excuses for getting out, back into your comfort zone from there, multiplies.
25
I'm too tired, it's too difficult, I'm having a bad day, nobody likes me.
26
I would teach them to face up to those excuses and refuse to be a victim and teach them a fighter mentality.
27
I'm still gonna do it, I'm gonna deal with it.
28
A thousand excuses but not one reason not to achieve
29
but there's an awful lot of players playing in the Premier
30
League football in this country who are B for talent but A for attitude.
31
And attitude is something anybody can have, anybody.
32
Talent is something that may be a little bit God-given but attitude is anybody's.
33
You can decide to improve your attitude any day.
34
You're in control.
35
You're in control of your mind.
36
It's your mind.
37
You decide what you think.
38
We're going to decide we want something different.
39
What do you want?
40
How badly do you want it?
41
How much are you willing to suffer?
42
If you don't have the dream, then you're not really going to go anywhere.
43
But you have a dream and then I have to help them translate the dream into commitment.
44
and then translate the commitment into belief, into action, into challenge, into resilience, into fighter mentality.
45
There are many exercises, many exercises, but they're all the same.
46
They're reframing your thinking from negative to positive.
47
It's the process, not the outcome.
48
It's the process of sport that makes it so meaningful and valuable in life.
49
It's the things you learn on the journey
50
that are the key things in your life that help you be a better husband, father, friend, granddad.
51
Some people will go all the way and win. And fantastic.
52
Brilliant.
53
But many people, 90% of people in the challenge zone will only go part way, but it's still rewarding.
54
Because it's the process that gives you the benefits.
55
The outcome is just cake on the end of the meal.
56
Everything begins with taking responsibility.
57
If you take responsibility, the number of excuses diminishes because it's your responsibility.
58
If you don't take responsibility, it's always somebody else's fault.
59
You've always got a way out.
60
You're looking for people who go, So, okay, it happened, I will deal with it.
61
I will learn from it, I will move on.
62
So taking responsibility is the start of controlling your mindset and your life's journey.
63
When you try to achieve something in life, it's inevitable there will be setbacks.
64
If it was easy, everybody would do it do it.
65
So it's tough.
66
It's tough raising and rising to the top of your career.
67
It's tough holding a relationship together.
68
It's tough buying a house.
69
It's tough being a champion.
70
So there will be setbacks.
71
So we need a process for dealing with setbacks.
72
And we have to develop the resilience to handle that situation.
73
There's a great story of Colby Bryant, the basketball player, his first year as a professional, his team reached the playoffs and he was the superstar, the young superstar.
74
And in the last minute of the game, he had three shots to win the game for his team and missed all three.
75
And at the end of the game, the interviewers, the commentators were astounded.
76
This great talent missed all three shots
77
and he was sat down on the bench
78
and his head was in his hands and they were talking about how he must feel, he must feel dreadful and
79
when he got up to come off the court they managed
80
to get an interview with him said Kobe he was sat
81
on the bench with your head in your hands you must
82
have felt terrible he looked at me said what's feeling got
83
to do with it I was working out why I missed those shots
84
and now know why I missed those shots
85
that can do something about it and that's a great coping strategy when you have a setback.
86
Setbacks knock you emotionally off balance
87
but you've got to you've got to work beyond the emotion to get to why did I have that setback?
88
What can I learn from it?
89
How am I going to avoid it in the future?
90
And go on.
91
Preparation is the key to confidence.
92
If you are in the tunnel at Manchester United many of the players used to tell me,
93
if you've done a good week's work work in preparation for the game,
94
you feel ready to play.
95
If you've had a poor week's work, you feel less ready.
96
And that can be vital in terms of confidence to face the challenge.
97
The world is full of those professional athletes who are not quite as big as they should be, strong as they should be, quick as they could be,
98
but you love them for their attitude.
99
Fighters, fighter mentality through and through.
100
Never let you down.
101
Battle to the end.
102
They're the ones who win.
103
You can really be who you want to be.
104
Maximizing on yourself, it's about dealing with your own doubts, fears and anxieties.
105
About letting the positive you defeat the negative you.
106
Because, really, psychology is a battle of you versus you.
107
We think the opposition's over there in the other dressing room, but actually it's in here.
108
Who am I going to be today?
109
Am I going to be my best self or my weaker self?
110
So a lot of my psychology with teams and athletes and coaches comes down to fighter versus victim. And that's life.
111
We wake up every morning and make a decision who we're going to be.
112
I have to make a decision.
113
Am I going to be a fighter today or am I going to be a victim?
114
I mean in a sense we're all high performers.
115
I tend to ask athletes three questions when they come to see me
116
and I've had a lot of distinguished athletes come to see me and my three questions are what do you want,
117
how badly do you want it and how much are you willing to suffer?
118
And very often everything revolves around the first question, what do you want?
119
Because a lot of people are unclear what they want from life.
120
They don't sit down and think through.
121
We are writing our own life story every day and yet we don't think about it.
122
Who do we want to be?
123
Where do we want to live?
124
What life do we want to be?
125
When we've finished our life, come to the end of our life and look back, what do we want to say that we've done?
126
So what do you want is a very powerful question.
127
And then if an athlete says I want to be the best, but fine.
128
How badly do you want it?
129
Because it's going to, you've got to pay a price to be the best.
130
The best pay a big price.
131
You've You've got to work harder, you've got to commit more, you've got to take more responsibility, you've got to deal with more ups and downs.
132
And if we can deal with that question, how much do you need to suffer?
133
Because I work with gold medal champions and they suffer every day.
134
They work enormously hard, they sacrifice enormous things in order to get that success.
135
an everyday commitment where you wake up every day and say, just like Clint Eastwood, you say, today I'm going to be a champion.
136
I work with Adam Peter, the gold medal swimmer, and he arrives at the swimming pool at six o'clock in the morning,
137
and before he goes in, he stops and says, today I will train like a champion.
138
And he trains for two hours like a Nobody in the pool can get near him.
139
He works so hard.
140
And he comes back again at 6 o'clock in the evening and he stops outside the arena and says, Tonight I'm going to train like a champion.
141
And he trains like a champion.
142
I gave a talk some years ago when Adam was younger about attitudes to training.
143
And I said there's various types of attitudes to training.
144
There's the just turn up.
145
So you get athletes who just turn up.
146
It's training tonight, I'll just turn up.
147
You get athletes who turn up to compete.
148
Or turn up to train, sorry.
149
Turn up to train.
150
They'll do the requisite amount of work, but that's it.
151
Athletes who turn up to compete, they put a bit more effort in.
152
They try, they try to be the best amongst their group.
153
Then there's the athletes who train to win.
154
They train every day, every session, so they win on match night.
155
And then, I remember saying to Adam's group, there are just those very few players who train to dominate.
156
They train so hard that winning is inevitable on race night.
157
And Adam said, that clicked with me.
158
I decided I was going to train to dominate.
159
So he said, when I go into the Olympic final, I know, I know I'm going to win.
160
I know I've done more than anybody else.
161
I feel so good.
162
And race day should be inevitable.
163
Winning should be inevitable.
164
That's the price that athletes pay.
165
But race day is fun because there's a crowd, there's cameras cameras, is your family, your friends and it's nice to do that.
166
What they don't see, the people in the arena don't see is you on your own at six o'clock in the morning,
167
working out, sweating, struggling and that's what makes champions
168
and the ability to motivate themselves to do the work on their own that leads to success in the arena.
169
I mean they're the tragedies of sport.
170
You see them on the field in the basketball court and they're brimming with talent,
171
brimming with it and you think my goodness how good this kid is but they don't have the attitude
172
so they consistently let you down.
173
Sometimes don't turn up, sometimes leave the fight halfway through.
174
I'm having a bad day.
175
Whereas your athlete with lesser talent,
176
B, B plus, but massive attitude will survive that and go on.
177
And they're the ones it's a pleasure to work with.
178
They're the ones.. the world is full of those professional athletes who are not quite as big as they should be, strong as they should be, quick as they could be.
179
But you love them for their attitude.
180
Fighters, fighter mentality through and through.
181
Never let you down.
182
Battle to the end.
183
They're the ones who win.
184
For me, motivational videos, I used to make them just, I don't know, just to help me really.
185
And I liked to just to post them online.
186
And that's basically how the channel started.
187
I want to bring that back.
188
I just want to say a big thank you.
189
It's been since 2013, so it's been, what, 12 years we've been doing this.
190
So thank you.
191
As a promise, we are going to release two motivational videos a week and inspire change.
192
Thank you.
Why practice speaking with this video?
This video featuring Bill Beswick emphasizes the importance of mindset and dedication, which are crucial in achieving any goal, including mastering the English language. By practicing speaking along with this content, learners can harness the power of positive thinking. Not only does this video encourage learners to challenge themselves, but it also provides a motivational backdrop that can inspire confidence during speaking exercises. Additionally, utilizing this in a shadowing app allows learners to imitate Beswick's intonation and rhythm, improving overall fluency and comprehension. Engaging with this material can help enhance skills for IELTS speaking practice by providing authentic language usage in real-life contexts.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
- “What do you want?” - This phrase encourages self-reflection, a vital skill in both learning and daily conversations. Understanding how to ask about desires or goals will enrich your vocabulary.
- “I may get failed, I may get embarrassed...” - The structure here highlights conditional phrases, teaching learners how to express possibilities—a common grammatical feature in English.
- “How much are you willing to suffer?” - This rhetorical question emphasizes the importance of determination, making it useful for learners aiming to express willingness and commitment in various scenarios.
- “A thousand excuses, but not one reason.” - This structure helps learners understand the art of argument and persuasion, an essential skill for debates and discussions.
Common Pronunciation Traps
In the video, certain phrases and words may pose a challenge to learners aiming to improve English pronunciation. For example:
- “challenge” - The emphasis on the first syllable can often be tricky. Practice saying it in the context of “face the challenge.”
- “excuses” - The 'x' sound can lead to mispronunciation. Ensure you pronounce it clearly, as in “a thousand excuses.”
- “achieving” - Pay attention to the ending '-ing' sound which can be subtle, practicing it in phrases like “achieving for yourself.”
Utilizing a shadowing site or application while focusing on these tricky words can help reinforce correct pronunciation, allowing for smoother speech. By pairing these exercises with the content of this video, you can master the art of shadow speech and boost your confidence in English communication.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.