Sports hypnosis, in its essence, is exactly what the name suggests. It’s a form of hypnosis specifically designed for the purpose of improving an athlete’s performance in their desired sport. It has been used by every level of sportsperson, ranging from amateur to professional, and has the ability to enable greater results in just about every type of sport. You may be wondering how hypnosis, which is a form of therapy dealing with the mind, assists in sport, which is dependent on the physical output of the body.

The concept of the mind having a role that is equally important to that of the body is not a new one, and may be as old as the act of playing sport itself. During the 20th Century, this way of thinking was refined by the science of psychology. ‘Sports psychology’ as an expression has been used since the 1920s approximately. It has been documented that the Soviet Olympic squads of the 1950s notably utilized teams of experts in the field of sports psychology. Over time, this discipline started being taught in universities and has progressively developed into a big business, culminating in major league players and teams hiring sports psychologists as full-time employees. Sports hypnosis is part of this shift and can be viewed as a pragmatic sports psychology strategy for achieving results.

The use of visualization and mental rehearsal

Some of the fundamentals in the field of hypnosis lend themselves to the improvement of performance in sport; in particular, visualization and mental rehearsal. Visualization is hypnotic in and of itself due to the fact that an athlete must use their imagination to rehearse what will happen in the future. Humans actually do this every minute of every day to create simple outcomes of the seemingly mundane from waking up in the morning and making breakfast to brushing our teeth. Hypnosis lays out the framework for this ability and sports hypnosis focuses its laser precision for the purpose of advancing a player’s abilities.

A cricket player, for example, might use sports hypnosis to imagine bowling the perfect wicket in vivid detail. A boxer might hypnotically experience a sharp and effective knockout combination. A soccer player could use this form of hypnosis to visualize kicking penalties, while a golfer could mentally rehearse a calm and focussed resolve when they are on the green. In each of these events, the visualization provides the same structure for success. This is due to the fact that the brain does not know the difference between events that have occurred and events that have been imagined. The identical neural pathways and muscle reactions are set in motion whether you imagine shooting a winning basket or have actually done so on the basketball court.

Using hypnosis for mental rehearsal is, in essence, a method of gaining additional practice with the bonus that you can frequently rehearse success in your own mind, which is not always the case in a physical practice session.  Much more about spots hypnosis to come in the next blog about Positive expectation in the context of sports hypnosis.  How would you like to quieten your mind and begin the process of getting better sporting outcomes?  Click the button below to get your free hypnosis mp3 to get the most out of what you put into your training though the power of hypnotic relaxation.