Sports Hypnosis

Sports Performance

Professional or Amateur – are you getting the best out of your game?

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, depends on it!

For the average person hypnosis cannot turn you into a world champion. Other things other than mental training are involved such as skill, physical attributes. However, no matter what your sport is, hypnosis can you help you achieve better results.

Power of the Mind

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


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 forOlympic teams, 80 percent 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, also termed 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. If you can think it and see it in your mind, you can do it !
What can be accomplished through the powers of the mind ? Perhaps most important is the development of positive attitudes. Negative thoughts pertaining to
performance skills 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, technique all can improve as well as awareness of proper form and posture. Sports enthusiasts face the same stumbling blocks that people have to deal with in other areas of life – business,personal relationships, achievement of goals and ambitions. The biggest of all is fear, and fear comes in many forms. Fear of failure is always restrictive and is very common in sports, as is its hidden partner, fear of success – an apprehension that success can create the expectation (among others) of further improvement. Fear of humiliation can be strong. Many golfers experience near terror on the first tee where people may be watching. The first drives. 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. This is
an area in which the truth of the phrase “what the mind can conceive, the body can achieve” becomes highly evident.

The Steps to Achievement

The goal of hypnosis in its applications is not learning or acquisition of the basic skills involved, though these could be helped through hypnosis as used in enhancing
learning skills. The goal is to enable the athlete to achieve the best personal level, performing at peak. As with virtually all hypnosis, the first step must be
relaxation. Relaxation to a level appropriate for the implanting of hypnotic suggestion is not really resting. It is deep, and can be brought about through a hypnotherapist. Goal – setting is essential. Without having an objective, it is pointless to begin a task, project or trip. Athletes, coaches or therapists or a combination there of may set goals. It is important for goals to be specific, focused on the area in which improvement is desired. Playing better tennis is not a valid goal. Improving a serve or backhand is a goal. Goals must be short – term Achievable and 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 at the moment of performance can produce dramatic results. Finally, mental rehearsal is 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.

My Approach

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

Every athlete, 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 an athlete to play consistently ‘in the zone’.

Why not give me a call or drop me an email to see if I can help you improve your game.

Until next time

Neil