Stephen Hendry: Having the ‘yips’ contributed to my decline

Seven-time Snooker World Champion Stephen Hendry has opened up to William Hill’s podcast, Up Front with Simon Jordan, about how his case of ‘yips’ ultimately brought about the deterioration of his game.

Featuring on William Hill’s Up Front with Simon Jordan, a podcast hosted by the former Crystal Palace owner who speaks to sports stars and celebrities and challenges their opinions whilst scrutinising their careers, Hendry said: “The first time it ever happened (the ‘yips’) was around 1998 – I would play a shot and my hand would tighten up, and I wouldn’t go through the shot. I’d think, ‘that was weird, I didn’t like that’.

“Then it would happen maybe two tournaments after that, then it would happen a couple more times until I started to avoid playing certain shots in case it happened again. I had two or three coaches that had different ways of trying to solve it. Some tried to shorten my backswing and make me hold the cue tighter, and I got back to number one doing that, but it was still happening.

“It got to the point where I was playing and there were shots where I already knew it was going to happen; it was completely debilitating. When I’m playing on my own I don’t do it, so it has almost become like stage fright.

“I’ve not gone deep into sports psychology and perhaps I should have done. One guy asked me to try and watch past videos of myself winning and I just said to him that all that does for me is show me how bad I am now – I took it in completely the wrong way!”

Higgins relationship turned sour

Hendry then talked about the early stages of his career, revealing how two-time world champion Alex Higgins was an initially welcoming figure in tournaments, before a series of incidents affected his relationship with the Northern Irishman.

“When I turned professional, Alex Higgins would ask me to come and practice with him at every tournament,” he said. “I don’t know whether he could see something in me that he liked, but I used to go and practice with him even though we were two very different personalities. I wouldn’t have said anything to anybody because I was so shy and they were all my heroes.

“However, we then had some run-ins throughout the years, because once he’d had a drink, he wasn’t a nice character. I’ve never seen someone turn the atmosphere in a room as quickly as when he would walk in. We had a situation the last time I beat him in the UK Championship – in the morning session, he walked up to me and stuck out his hand and said, ‘shake hands with the devil’, and I thought ‘this is going to be a long day’, and that I’d better win it quickly.

“I was 6-2 up heading into the evening session. Steve Davis was on the table next to us and he was just standing there like a statue. Alex Higgins staggered up to Steve, whilst I’m in earshot and said, ‘I’m going to f**k him tonight, Steve’.

“We carried on and I beat him 9-2, and he shook my hand and said, ‘up your a*** you c**t’. I was a bit scared, and it wasn’t nice. I went and told my manager, and he went and told the press. They brought it up in the press conference and Alex said. ‘all I said was well done and you got a bit lucky’. That pretty much sums up Alex.”

O’Sullivan is in a different class to Higgins and White

In relation to Alex Higgins, Hendry stated that Ronnie O’Sullivan is the greatest of all time and he is in a different class to Alex Higgins and Jimmy White.

“In 1992, Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Willimas came on the scene as three outstanding talents, and Ronnie was the most talented of the three,” he said. “Each of them had one thing that was better than the other two, but Ronnie is the most outstanding talent that the game has ever seen.

“People talk about the likes of Alex Higgins and Jimmy White but Ronnie O’Sullivan is in a different class to both of them,” he continued. “Ronnie has taken the game to a better level than I did, there’s no doubt about that. He is a true winner and he’s the best I have ever seen at adapting to conditions and opponents.”