It’s post-match at the World Darts Championship and youngest ever champion Luke Littler is fielding questions from Polly James.
Mid-interview Luke reveals that he watched back last year’s final earlier in the day where he surrendered a 4-2 lead to Luke Humphries.
But in watching the final back, he says, ‘he got the visions!’
He ‘got the visions!’ Whoa!
We get no further immediate questions about ‘the visions’, but it’s pretty clear what he’s intimating.
Muhammad Ali called it “future history” – that extraordinary ability to tap into what hasn’t happened yet, to experience victory before it unfolds.
It’s more than visualization.
It’s a form of time travel in the mind, where champions don’t just imagine success, they feel it in advance.
When Luke says he “got the visions,” he’s describing something that elite performers rarely talk about openly.
It’s that moment when the future reveals itself with such clarity that it feels like a memory you haven’t made yet.
The lines between preparation and destiny blur.
This isn’t about predicting the future – it’s about accessing it.
Champions have learn to step into a mental space where time becomes fluid.
In this special realm, the distinction between ‘what could be’ and ‘what will be’ dissolves.
They don’t just see themselves winning; they experience it so vividly that when the actual moment arrives, it feels like they’re simply walking a path they’ve already traveled.
It’s as if a secret door in their mind reveals itself – one that leads to a place where future victories are stored, waiting to be claimed.
When Ali proclaimed he would knock out Sonny Liston, when he detailed how and when it would happen, he wasn’t predicting – he was remembering something that hadn’t happened yet.
It feels like Luke experienced this same phenomenon.
In those quiet moments watching last year’s final, he wasn’t just analyzing his past performance.
He was opening a window to his future triumph, feeling the weight of the trophy in his hands before he’d earned it, hearing the roars of the crowd before they’d made a sound.
Each dart he would throw had already found its mark in his mind.
This is why some champions appear to compete with an almost eerie calmness.
They’re not wondering what will happen – they’re simply allowing what they’ve already experienced in their mind to unfold in reality.
It’s like they’re following a script they’ve not only memorized but helped create.
This is the secret world of champions – where victory is first claimed in the mind, where future history is written before the present unfolds.
In sight of victory last night at the Alexandra Palace, Luke Littler didn’t falter.
He simply knew that he just had to maintain his concentration to walk the path of destiny.