Athletes
The Value Of Hypnotherapy For Athletes
The Value Of Hypnotherapy For
Athletes
There are many different
reasons why an athlete of any status or level may want to improve his or her
performance. This is true for professional athletes as well as those that like
to play on local leagues or on community teams for fun and exercise. Regardless
of your level of competition, if you want to improve your game you may want to
consider hypnotherapy for sports improvement.
What Is Sports Hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy for athletes is
sometimes known as visualisation or guided imagery, but it is still a form of
hypnosis. Professional teams, Olympic athletes and amateur players in all types
of sports and all over the world have used this technique for over 60 years for
entire teams, as well as with individuals.
The goal of sports hypnotherapy
or guided imagery is to allow the athlete, and the coaches, to develop the
ability to relax and focus the mind both on and off the playing field. When the
mind and body are relaxed, the hypnotherapist, and later the coach or athlete
on their own, can visualise and practice actions in their mind to improve their
performance when they are actually engaging in the activity.
Sports hypnotherapy is also
essential to help reduce performance types of anxiety including stress, fear of
failure or losing, fear of injury orlack of self-confidence in their own
abilities. The hypnotherapist works to create positive suggestions that the
athlete or coach visualises, creating powerful images of success to overcome
whatever blocks or obstacles the individual may be creating in their mind that
are limiting their abilities.
What Can Hypnotherapy Do For
An Athlete?
Hypnotherapy can mentally
prepare an athlete or a coach to deal with stressors, fears and performance
issues that are not related to physical injuries or limitations. A good example
is overcoming anxiety after a significant loss. The next sporting event,
regardless of the type of sport, is going to immediately trigger memories of
that humiliating, embarrassing and stressful loss. If this is what is in the
mind of the athletes they are not able to focus on what they have to do to
create the win in this particular event.
Hypnotherapy will allow each
athlete to think back over their successes in their career and see these images
in place of the images of the loss. Since the athlete is now focused on the
positive and what they did to be successful, they are able to let go of the
negativity and fear and play the game.
Hypnosis has also been used
relaxation and concentration development leading up to and during a sporting
event. This includes being able to block out distractions such as crowd noise
or activities that are going on around the playing field. The individual
athlete will work with the hypnotherapist in setting the particular goals they
want to achieve during the sessions.
By having the ability to
visualise success, including the mechanics of the motion of kicking the ball, a
golf or tennis swing, body movement during running or any other physical
movement, the athlete, after completing hypnosis, is primed to do their very
best without the mental images and issues that may have plagued them in the
past.
Posted by: Philippe Jacquet