Sports Hypnosis

Take your game to the next level.

Sports Hypnosis can help you take your game to the next level in two ways:

1) By taking your conscious mind out of the way and letting your subconscious mind, that knows what to do, take over.

2) Mental rehearsal, or visual imagery.

Sports hypnosis is not going to take a rank amateur and make them play golf on par with Tiger Woo…errr, I mean Phil Mickelson, but if you already know how to play golf it can give you tools to get out of your own way.

Ask any golfer and they will tell you that sometimes when they get over a ball they “feel” uncomfortable. Like they can’t make the swing correctly. Like something is out of whack. What is happening is the conscious mind is trying to control the situation and is not letting the subconscious and muscle memory take over.

Remember, the subconscious mind controls our breathing and our heart rate and all of the organs in our body. We consciously wouldn’t know how to begin to do this. If keeping our body alive was up to our conscious mind, we would be … well, it wouldn’t be pretty.

When you have talent and know your game and you take your conscious mind out of the performance and let your subconscious mind take over, you perform at a much higher level with far more accuracy than when you try to control and end up over thinking. This is true in all aspects of our lives, not just in sports.

Additionally, mental rehearsal is proven in study after study to be extremely effective for athletes. American scientists decided to study the sports hypnosis field after it was leaked that the Russian Olympians, who were unstoppable, were using this visualization technique. The results of the studies were phenomenal! Mental rehearsal, or visual imagery is almost as effective as physical practice.

Senator John Mc Cain is a testament to mental rehearsal. He claims visualization was what got him through his time as a prisoner of war. Every day he would play golf mentally at his local golf course. When he was finally released and came home, one of the first things he did was go play a round of golf. After years of not playing physically, his golf game had improved.

Mental rehearsal is so effective, our Olympic athletes all perform it daily.

The scientific evidence in favor of mental rehearsal that is first patterned with sports hypnosis is astounding. Here are some of the studies done which prove it’s effectiveness:

Feltz, D. L., & Landers, D. M. (1983). The Effects of Mental Practice on Motor Skill Learning and Performance: A Meta-analysis. Journal of Sport Psychology, 5,
25-57.

Isaac, A. R. (1992). Mental Practice- Does it Work in the Field? The Sport Psychologist,
6, 192-198.

Martin, K.A., Hall, C. R.  (1995).  Using Mental Imagery to Enhance Intrinsic
Motivation Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 17(1), 54-69.

Murphy, S. (1990). Models of Imagery in Sport Psychology: A Review.  Journal of Mental Imagery, 14 (3&4), 153-172.

Orlick, T., Zitzelsberger, L., LI-Wei, Z., & Qi-wei, M. (1992). The Effect of Mental-Imagery Training on Performance Enhancement With 7-10-Year-Old Children. The Sports Psychologist, 6, 230-241.

Pavio, A. (1985). Cognitive and Motivational Functions of Imagery in Human
Performance. Journal of Applied Sports Science, 10, 22-28.

Porter, K., Foster, J.  Visual Athletics. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Publishers, 1990.

Roure, R., et al. (1998). Autonomic Nervous System Responses Correlate with Mental
Rehearsal in Volleyball Training. Journal of Applied Physiology, 78(2), 99-108.

Suinn, R. Psychological Techniques for Individual Performance. New York, New York:
Macmillan, 1990. p 492-506.