Sports Hypnosis: You’re Not Getting Sleepy!

Let’s be realistic – practicing Hypnosis won’t help you become a better athlete by itself.

Using Hypnosis with your sport can, however, help you understand more about yourself and provide an opportunity for highly effective mental rehearsal. For instance, with Hypnosis you can see and feel yourself playing with great technique and competing more consistently under pressure.

It may also help you acquire the mental toughness and mental discipline that are important in becoming a top athlete.

When you get a chance to listen to a few samples of sessions on Hypnosis for Sport, you’ll see that many Hypnosis for Basketball simply provide a nice set of images for you to work with. The Hypnotist will put you on the field (in your head) and take you through a series of positive images and feelings of you playing your sport with great efficiency and skill.

The best Hypnosis for Sport sessions will combine positive self-statements with the imagery of sport-specific situations and you handling those situations with aplomb.

Research on Hypnosis in Sport

So can Hypnosis really help you improve your performance? Here are a few important research results on Hypnosis in Sport:

Hypnosis substantially enhances imagery intensity and effectiveness (Am J Clin Hypn, 2000 Oct;43(2):149-57).
A Hypnosis intervention can improve Basketball jump- and set-shooting performance and increase feelings and cognitions that are associated with peak performance (J App Sport Psych, 2001, 13(1): 84-10).
Case studies involving efforts to enhance performance in athletes by means of hypnosis appear to be universally successful. Also, there is evidence that imagined exercise under non-hypnotic conditions is associated with physiological changes that resemble those noted during actual exercise. The outcomes have been shown to be dependent on imagery perspective (i.e., internal vs. external). Responses tend to be greater for internal (i.e., first-person) compared with external (i.e., third-person) imagery perspectives (Hypnosis in Sport and Exercise Psychology. By Morgan, W. P. (2002). Exploring Sport and Exercise Psychology (2nd ed.), pp. 151-181).
Hypnosis can be used to induce flow states and enhance athletic performance (Pates et al., 2002: The Sport Psychologist, 16, 34-47).

How Hypnosis can Help Your Performance

So chances are Hypnosis can improve your sporting performance – start by using it to enhance the quality and vividness of your mental imagery. Use it to practice skills you’ve already learnt. Visualize yourself practicing skills on the field alone and then progress to visualization of a range of skills against different opponents in tough games.

These sites have recommended Hypnosis sessions for many sports including golf, tennis, baseball, basketball, cycling, football, martial arts, running, triathlon and many more!