The story of Harry Redknapp, a hypnotist and ‘Britain’s best worst team’ sounds as though it should be confined to the world of make-believe.
But this is the very true story of how Cwm Albion, Swansea’s oldest football team, have turned their desperate fortunes around.
Last season, the Welsh minnows lost every game and ended the season with a goal difference of -191. Those struggles were nothing new, either. Goalkeeper Jamie Macdonald has never kept a clean sheet in the decade he has been at the club.
Next, with the help of Specsavers, they enlisted the expertise of leading hypnotherapist Zoe Clews to help tackle some of the mental baggage which some of the players had accumulated during that losing streak.
Harry Redknapp signed up to help Cwm Albion – the worst football team in Britain – earlier this season
After bagging their first win in three years, they’ve taken the extra step by hiring a hypnotist – and that’s had a transformational effect on their form
‘This is what is amazing about Cwm Albion, they’ve got this incredible resilience,’ says Clews, who has over two decades of experience in her field.
‘They lost all those games (but) they just keep going and going. That resilience is one thing but it’s really tiring. It’s mentally exhausting because there’s no positivity. It’s just sheer grit.
‘And then also, when everyone starts to feel like that, it’s a team sport so it’s infectious.’
So, how can hypnotherapy transform amateur footballers who are more used to the bitter taste of defeat than sweet victory?
Clews reassures Mail Sport that there was no stage hypnotherapy – the kind that would make them ‘think they’re a dog, on all fours and barking’ – used on Colin and Chris, two of the team’s players.
‘What you’re doing with hypnotherapy is you are clearing the negative stuff and then you’re anchoring these really positive states,’ she explains.
‘But people do have specific triggers. Colin had a lot of anxiety. He would catastrophise and imagine the worst thing happening. He would have a specific trigger, so when he went to get his kit ready on match day, he would feel that real butterflies in the stomach feeling.
‘That was very different from Chris, whose issues were more around concentration and focus. He would start focusing on what everyone else was doing. My job was to put that into his subconscious to keep that energy up.’
Cwm Albion’s players have had issues such as anxiety which have made participating in sport more difficult for them
Jamie Macdonald has been at the club for 10 years without managing to keep a clean sheet
Last season, the Welsh minnows lost every game and ended the season with a goal difference of -191
The blend of coaching (Garry Monk pictured, left) and therapy has helped Cwm Albion achieve better things
While this may have looked like one of Clews’ toughest assignments to date, the results speak for themselves. Since working with Clews, Albion beat FC Bonymaen 3XI 7-1 and last weekend they won 4-2 against St Thomas Stars FC.
‘I’m used to working with difficulty because I’ve been doing it for 20 years and I get really strange problems. They were really great to work with and they really wanted change,’ says Clews.
‘This is the great thing about hypnotherapy and hypnosis: you don’t actually have to believe in it for its work. You just have to want to change. I didn’t find it difficult to work with them, I just found it really enjoyable and rewarding.’
This season, Specsavers’ Best Worst Team, Cwm Albion, have had an unforgettable season. Follow their progress on the Best Worst Team YouTube channel.
