Paul Lewis: Mental strength brings rewards

Look no further than the performance of the New Zealand cricketers against Australia in the one-day series for proof of the power of belief in sport. The hesitant, fretful bunnies of the test team were transformed into purposeful athletes who set about their much-vaunted opposition with efficiency and spirit. Yet they were, for the most part, the same players who failed so dreadfully in the tests.

One of the most important aspects of all sport is the bit you can't see. Golfers call it the 15th club (pro golfers can only carry 14 clubs). One of those Australian cricketers, Glenn McGrath, doesn't believe in talent - he says 60 per cent of talent is mental strength.

For the Black Caps, it was the knowledge that they had won three out of the last four one-dayers in Australia. They knew they could negate the greater man-to-man talent of the Australians by functioning as a team. Maybe it was also the re-appearance of Chris Cairns, the quite outstanding bowling of Daniel Vettori - a man who has until recently been struggling with his own self-belief and the fight in a comparative rookie like Kyle Mills.

We also saw the power of belief in All Blacks Tony Woodcock and Dan Carter. Woodcock's selection against France was criticised by many, including this writer. But you could see his self-belief growing to the extent that, having dominated his more highly-rated opponent in the scrums, he started charging around the ground. It was a display that drank deep from the well of self-belief and which may lift his career to the next level.

Carter was supposed to be too quiet to "boss" an All Black backline. By the end of the game against France, he was jawing away like an auctioneer and waving his arms at them like a pointsman. Again, belief had grown and some in Britain were hailing him as better than Jonny Wilkinson. Improbable though that might sound - Carter will need a few more matches to claim that title - it's an example of how self-belief is catching. Spectators are infected by the bug.

You can see belief in the efforts of Everton - an ordinary football team of has-beens, never-was's and might-never-be's - who are in third in the English Premier League because they believe they can beat anybody if they work together.

You saw it when Chelsea striker Mateja Kezman scored against Newcastle recently. Kezman, a hugely expensive member of a club derided as buyers of expensive failures, was enduring a goal drought made all the more severe by the size of his price tag. When he chipped the goalkeeper to break the drought, the whole Chelsea team ran to him. Kezman said later: "You could see the spirit in our team when I scored. They believed in me, so I believed in me. "

Belief rose high in Kelly Holmes, the British athlete who won the 800m and 1500m track double at the Athens Olympics. Aged 34, and written off as an athlete with talent but hounded by injury and failure, she won the 800m after an extraordinary mental preparation, consisting of listening to Alicia Keys' If I Ain't Got You (referring to the gold medal) and crying every time she thought of not winning. Once the 800m crown was secure she became a tower of self-belief and overwhelmed the 1500m final.

But my favourite example of self-belief stems from one of the most unpleasant people in sport - British golfer Nick Faldo. Famous for a personality that began at nasty and went south from there, Faldo cultivated his persona, channelling it into self-belief and focus. He operated on the basis that if his opponents knew him, he would be weakened. He ignored them or distanced them with the arrogance of his statements.

"Playing with Nick Faldo is like playing by yourself, only slower," said US golfer Mark Calcavecchia.

Once Faldo and another pro were on a training run in Zimbabwe. As they ran into the entrance to the hotel, an armed guard yelled: "Stop." One stopped. Faldo kept going. He took no notice. He knew where he was going and nothing would stop him. He played golf the same way. He did not have the natural talent of some but he had self-belief and ability to ignore a loaded gun.

Now that his swing and hopes of another major have gone, a new, affable Faldo has emerged. Many cynically assume that he is just looking for friends on the downward slide. But Faldo has nothing left to prove. He has unpacked his 15th club, and with it, the personality that he used to win - if not a winning personality.