On Friday, I came across an interview on BBC Sport with the British tennis superstar Emma Radacanu.

Emma famously won the US Open in 2021 as a complete outsider. She stormed to victory as an unseeded qualifier, took down a cool $2.5 million and did it all at the tender age of 18.

But it hasn’t been smooth serving for Emma more recently.

Since that fairytale fortnight in New York, Emma’s hired and fired seven different coaches, battled a bunch of injuries and seen her ranking slip to outside the world’s top 50.

That’s the context for the interview and this quote from Emma:

Right now, it's more about bringing my instincts back out and getting back in touch with myself. I have had a lot of people telling me what to do, how to play, and it hasn't necessarily fit. So I want to come back to my natural way of playing. That takes time to relearn because that's something that has been coached out of me a little bit

That might be the best description of the Subtraction Method I ever did hear.

It’s a great description of LIFE too.

At the moment, Baby Grundy is one bubbly ball of curiosity and gut feel. But it won’t be long before her teachers tell her how to think, so-called “experts” tell her what to do and society tells her what success looks like.

I’m sure her parents will have a few ideas too!

None of this is bad per se.

But as the external voices get louder, our internal voices start to get crowded out.

That was certainly the case for me when, at the ripe old age of my early 30s, I realised that despite some sensible decisions and decent career, something was still missing. 

It felt like I’d drifted away from myself.

Cue the books, the podcasts, the courses, the productivity systems, the therapy and the coaching.

All of which turned out to be premium editions of exactly the same game.

As I discovered more recently (and as Emma discovered too), the way back to yourself isn’t through more advice, tactics, templates, strategies or goals.

It’s the opposite.

It’s by subtracting all the things we think we need instead.

Emma took down the US Open before any of her seven coaches had the chance to change her forehand, adjust her tactics, tell her to be more aggressive, less aggressive, to stand further back or whatever other pearls of wisdom they decided to impart on the chalky white lines.

Her free, unscripted, instinctive play was what got her lifting the trophy.

i.e. simply playing tennis instead of thinking about playing tennis.

So no wonder Emma wants to get back to this more natural way of playing.

But it’s not something she has to “re-learn”, like she says in the interview. It’s impossible to re-learn your instincts and it’s impossible to re-learn the real you too. 

After all, you can’t re-learn what’s pre-programmed. 

You can only uncover it.

So the trick, if there is one, is unlearning everything that isn’t you and subtracting all the beliefs, expectations, scripts and outside noise which we all innocently pick up along the way.

Hence the Subtraction Method which I coach.

I know that coaching via subtraction instead of addition might sound like quite the plot twist from the typical coaching formula. Especially as the Subtraction Method doesn’t come with goals or action plans attached. But unlike Emma’s seven coaches, my job as coach isn’t to offer you advice or tell you what to do. My job is to help you see through the noise that stops you from hearing yourself.

Hence a previous coachee describing me as “the anti-coach”.

Perhaps you think the whole idea of “hearing yourself” or “getting in touch with yourself” is a load of old gobbledegook.

More power to you if so.

But if you’re part of the small but spirited minority who feels like life is drifting despite looking good on paper, The Subtraction Method is firmly on your side of the net.

All the details are here:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

To fulfilment,

Tom

p.s. if you’re reading this Emma, you’ve got to jump on the wait list just like everyone else…