We Can Help With ... Sports Performance

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Sport in the 21st century is moving into a new era, where an athlete's mental performance is as equally important as their physical performance. The difference between winning or losing, between enjoying the game or struggling to achieve a satisfying result, can depend on it.

Hypnosis cannot turn the average person into a world champion. But it can help you achieve better results, no matter what your sport is.

Power of the Mind

As we learn more about the human brain, we begin to appreciate just how strong our mental skills need to be to support our physical skill. Every thought and every action emanates from our brains, so how we think and act is determined by what happens in our heads. That's why it pays to devote time and effort to improving our mental performance, as well as working on our physical conditioning and skills.

To train the body to the limits of its capabilities without simultaneously training the mind is to invite, at best, mediocrity. Sports psychologists have claimed that, for Olympic teams, 80% of an athlete's performance is in the mind. This belief has been echoed by championship players in virtually every form of competition.

What the Mind can do

Mental rehearsal, or visualization, can create and reaffirm the confidence necessary to achieve top performance. The picture visualized in the mind can convince the subconscious that achievement is possible. The automatic nervous system performs in exactly the same manner followed during a physical rehearsal. Neuro muscular coordination improves. What your mind can conceive, you can achieve. What you can think and see in your mind, you can do.

What can be accomplished through the powers of the mind? Perhaps most important is the development of positive attitudes. Negative thoughts about performance can be changed or eliminated. Enjoyment of the sport will be enhanced to a major degree as skills improve to the point where intermittent incidents of poor performance no longer arouse irritation, anger, discouragement or detrimental emotional reaction. Concentration, coordination and technique can all improve, as well as awareness of proper form and posture.

Sports enthusiasts face the same stumbling blocks that people have to deal with in all areas of life – business, personal relationships, achievement of goals and ambitions. But the biggest of all is fear, and fear comes in many forms. Fear of failure is always restrictive and is very common in sports, but so is its hidden partner, fear of success. This is an apprehension that success can create the expectation (among others) of further improvement.

Fear of humiliation can also be strong. Many golfers experience near terror on the first tee where people may be watching. Competition can produce sensations of intimidation resulting in deterioration of skills.

Hypnotherapy, or properly learned and applied self–hypnosis, can work to reduce or eliminate the mental obstacles to peak performance in sport activities.

The Steps to Achievement

The goal of hypnosis is not learning or acquisition of the basic skills involved, though these could be helped through hypnosis to enhance learning skills. The goal is to enable the participant to achieve the best personal level, performing at peak. As with virtually all hypnosis, the first step is relaxation. Relaxation to a level appropriate for the implanting of hypnotic suggestion is deep rather than restful, and can be brought about through a hypnotherapist.

Goal–setting is also essential. Without having an objective, it is pointless to begin a task, project or trip. Athletes, coaches or therapists may set goals. It is important for goals to be specific and focused on the area in which improvement is desired. Playing better tennis is not a valid goal, but improving a serve or backhand is. Goals must be achievable in the short–term and be built up step-by-step, so that both success and completion are experienced.

Concentration is vitally important, and sometimes difficult to develop. Hypnotherapy has long been an effective means of improving concentration capabilities. Distractions must be eliminated. Post–hypnotic cues may prove useful in stimulating both concentration and specific skills.

Visualization, not just in mental rehearsing but also at the moment of performance can produce dramatic results. Mental rehearsal is perhaps the ultimate key to superlative performance. It can prove more productive than physical practice. Imagery is not merely visual in nature; it can include all the senses.

In a diving competition, the form of the dive is visual; the smell of the chlorine water is olfactory; the wetness of the entry is sensory, the cheers of the crowd are auditory. Perfection requires the use of all senses.

Our Approach

We employ a fresh, new approach to the "mental game", utilizing the participant's own internal resources. It combines the latest thinking in sports psychology with Hypnotherapy, NLP & EFT techniques that stimulate the subconscious mind, mobilizing its tremendous power to unlock the door to successful performance.

Everyone, whether a champion or not, has internal resources. The secret to fulfilling your potential is to access those inner resources and put them to work. Employing Sports Hypnosis techniques leads to improved performance and the opportunity to play to your true abilities. With sufficient effort, it enables you to play consistently "in the zone".

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