What is Sports Hypnosis?
Sports Hypnosis is the process of using hypnotherapy on athletes to improve their performance. It is generally known that athletes not only need to train their bodies but they have to mentally prepare as well. Gone are the days that hypnotherapy is considered as quackery, and looked upon as pseudo-science.
Today, high-profile athletes such as Micheal Jordan, Tiger Woods, and even Kevn Mcbride, the boxer who defeated Mike Tyson in his last fight, use sports hypnosis. The golf master and champion Tiger Woods is known to have started using hypnosis from a very young age of 13. Micheal Jordan on the other hand, went on to win six straight historic basketball championships for the Chicago Bulls during his heyday.
Clearly, this type of mental preparation may have tremendously helped them reach the pinnacle of their careers. The least that the skeptics could say is that, hypnosis may have actually helped them in the mental aspect. Nevertheless, there is definitely more to this practice than anyone can conclude, notwithstanding its benefits.
Sports hypnosis today has already evolved into a conglomerate of methodologies that combines sports and cognitive science. It also already has branched out into nutrition, sports psychology, and other sciences of similar persuasion.
Does Sports Hypnosis Work?
Yes, it does. Sports hypnosis works through various techniques that will help improve the athlete’s game in any given sport. So far, the following are the most popular names given to certain types of hypnosis.
Mental Imagery
This process involves recreating events or experiences in your mind using stored memory. The practicing athlete will retrieve memories in his mind and use them to recreate specific images that will allow him to refine certain muscle movements. It is said that the mere act of visualizing a movement even when there is no actual motion on the muscle, may create that perfect swing in golf, or that perfect arc to make that shot using the proper form of your shooting arm in basketball.
You may also use that image as if seeing through the eyes of an external spectator. This is to further enhance the experience and increase the success of the execution of the movement. Thereby, a mental image or picture is created as symbol of the desired outcome.
Revivification
Regarding this type of hypnosis, the hypnotist will help you relive a positive sports memory in your mind. It should evoke good and happy feelings that are true and unique to that successful event. It could be the time when you won a championship or any event of similar nature.
Or, the hypnotist may also help you create an imagined or made up victory in your relaxed mind. It should likewise evoke the same desired feelings necessary to eventually make it into a reality at the time that you will need it.
Visualization
The goal of visualization is to continually visualize the desired outcome in your mind until the feelings of such an outcome manifest themselves. Therefore, in this practice, it is essential to consistently anchor or connect those positive feelings to the visualized desired outcome. With practice, together they are expected to manifest during gametime.
Non-Awareness Set
This practice involves mental disassociation to an actual event. A good example would be the sweltering heat of the sun on race day. Non-awareness hypnosis will allow you to temporarily dissasociate yourself from the pain of the present situation so you can completely concentrate on doing the 100-meter dash with the goal of completing and winning the race.
What are the Benefits of Doing Sports Hypnosis?
Apart from directly enhancing your performance in sports, there are many other positive effects in doing hypnosis of which eventually stretches to the the different facets of an athlete’s life.
• Helps the athlete stick to, and follow through with their sports goals.
• Helps the athlete manage stress
• Helps in maintaining concentration
• Keeps the athlete steady and overcome anxiety
• Keeps the athlete relaxed
• Stops sports phobia reactions
• Helps build confidence, focus, better memory, positive self-talk, and rational thinking. This is especially for high-performance athletes in high-profile sports where there is more pressure than usual.
• Helps in the management of pain.
• Increases motivation and the drive to compete and win
• Increase the potential of the athlete in and out of the court
• Athletes will have the ability to Immediately relieve fatigue and recover their energy. faster
Two Examples Among Many Sports that Utilize Hypnosis
Golf
Sports hypnosis in golf focuses on the player being relaxed and in control of his mind and bodily responses. The goal is to keep composure and calm, with the ability to have greater access to the “zone.”. Golf has none of those aggressive priming rituals like in other team sports that require fast and rugged physical contact.
Through hypnosis, the golf player should be able to visualize the perfect swing and deliver the ball to the green with ideal execution in a consistent manner. They can even envision a hole-in-one if they so desire.
Rugby
In contrast, Rugby is a rough and tumble team sport. You have to be calmly self-aware of yourself as well as your teammates. But then, you are fast and in constant movement . Sports hypnosis is especially useful inthis game when it comes to conversion kicking.
This allows the player to shift from constant movement to steady focus in getting the ball through to the goal while handling the pressure of doing it alone. Aggressive priming hypnosis for the whole team also comes in handy before the start of the game. It is to set the right energy and motivation for the whole team to win. Also, hypnosis will help manage the physicality and pain that comes with the game’s violent nature.
Rugby and golf are just two contrasting examples of the many sports that use sports hypnosis. All the same, they all follow the same principle of keeping a relaxed and mindful mind ,ready and open to achieve peak performance.
What Makes a Good Hypnotist?
Sports hypnosis is not limited to high-performance athletes only. It is, in fact, available for everyone. If you are into sports, or if you are a professional athlete, performance enhancements are possible through hypnosis. This applicable even in areas of pain tolerance or maybe getting back your confidence that may have been lost.
It is also important to note that athletes need a customized program that is unique to their current state of mind. Hence, the hypnotist must make a proper and thorough diagnosis before drawing up a hypnosis schedule for each athlete.
Contact your nearest reputable hypnotist. Ensure that he or she talks to you and gather some details about yo before any session begins. And that’s how you would know their quality as therapists. He must be able to directly pinpoint the issues that are holding you back as an athletic performer, and come up with the best program for you to overcome those problems..
You may also find a good hypnotist online if there is none in your area. Good luck, play hard, and play well.
