Sports Therapy
Glenn Catley used mind games with chilling effect to destroy Neville Brown mentally and physically in one of the best British title fights in recent history. Bristol Evening Post, January 1998
Engaging in athletics with any degree of intensity involves a large measure of physical control and mental concentration. It is now accepted by many enlightened sportsmen and women that hypnosis can provide both of these with an extraordinary amount of efficiency. It is also the only area of intervention that can increase our skill and flair.
Increased Confidence
Coaches and managers the world over are all aware that the difference between a confident athlete and one in doubt is recognisably profound. “Sportsmen can do better than they think…when they think they can do better.” This obviates the problem known in modern day parlance as “choking”.
Maximising Drive, Determination, Commitment, Motivation
“Winning isn’t everything…but wanting to is.” Any contest between individuals or teams of equal ability will be decided by who has the greatest will to win. One quality that will set an athlete apart from his lesser peers is in the intensity of his motivation to improve.
Regulating Stress and Anxiety
Obviously we need a certain level of stress to perform and when we increase stress, performance will initially improve but will then reach a point beyond which it will begin to deteriorate. Maximum performance must depend on maximum tolerable arousal. Understandably athletes are not necessarily exempt from the anxieties and depression that affect most of us from time to time.
Skill Enhancement
Our subconscious mind does not differentiate between imagination and actuality. This has tremendous and largely unexplored implications. We all have inherent skills that we develop and commit to memory by practising them. Often a sportsman does not have the time or stamina to physically practise sufficiently to continue increasing this skill. It is now fully understood that mental rehearsal is as improving as physical practise, the muscles “remember” the action in exactly the same way, and so much more time efficient.
The other obvious advantage of mental rehearsal, of say passing a ball, we can get it right every single time.
If two teams are equal in terms of skill then it will be the difference in their mental preparation that will determine the outcome. What, however, if as England found in Euro 2000, that almost every team was mentally well prepared, skill now becomes a priority.
Hypnosis is not new in Sports Achievement the Russian Olympic teams, in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, took no less than 11 hypnotists to develop mental clarity and help the athletes with visualisation. Most Champions use some form of hypnosis whether it’s visualisation or affirmation and many seek the help of a professional hypnotist or sports psychologist to assist in their mental training.
This type of preparation will typically include a whole package of approaches tailored to the athletes requirements and will nearly always include methods such as:
- Visualisation
- Mental rehearsal
- Increased confidence
- Increased self belief
- Increased motivation
- Increased concentration
- Increased focus
- Reduce nerves
- Better sleep pattern
