November 25th 2023.
Tom Ford has had an incredible year and is now in the world's top 16 for the first time at the ripe age of 40. The Englishman has been playing professionally since 2001, and has made five professional 147s and three ranking finals.
Two of those three finals have come in 2021, with the latest at the International Championship this month which has seen him climb into the top 16. Ford believes he is improving thanks to his work on the mental side of snooker.
Ford has been working on his mental capacity and understanding why things wind him up. To do this, he has been working with mental coach Sabrina Francis from Mind Set Match. Ford explains: "She worked with Dr. Steve Peters before on the Chimp Paradox book. I've been working with her for a few years. She doesn't tell me things, she talks me through them, I answer them and that helps me work it out myself.
"She's there to guide me to figure it out, she's been really good. It's sometimes good to just speak to somebody if you're struggling. Sometimes as soon as I've said something out loud I've answered my own question. She's helped me understand how the brain works and why I was getting so angry with myself when I was missing balls. It's ok to try and keep yourself calm, but if you don't know why you're getting angry then you can't fix the problem."
Ford is also looking at the positives from his defeat in the International Championship final. He took a chance to win the biggest title of his life against Zhang Anda and although he was disappointed, he realised he should be happy about reaching the top 16.
Ford has had success in the past, but he feels he is not given credit for it. He has won two Players Tour Championship Events in 2010 and 2011 which had ranking points, were best-of-seven throughout and boasted impressive fields. Ford says, "It annoys me a little bit, to be honest, because I have won two events, but when people say I've never won a ranking event, I've won two PTCs and they had ranking points, they were ranking events and they never get mentioned."
Ford is looking forward to the UK Championship this weekend, and hopes that other events on the circuit can start to catch up with tournaments as prestigious as the UK Championship. He says, "We need to try and get the bigger venues and make it all feel more professional. We're in our waistcoats and kids are walking around ready to go swimming. Having China back is starting to improve, don't get me wrong, but let's hope it keeps going."
Ford takes on Noppon Saengkham in the first round of the UK Championship at 7pm on Saturday 25 November. He is confident of success, but knows that anyone in the top 32 is capable of playing well on the day. He will be hoping to make it to the semi-finals for the third time in the last five years and prove to people that he is one of the best players in the world.
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