Ever wanted to be the best you can be in sports? From golf stars such as Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus to boxers such as Kevin McBride, the top sport performers know the benefits of hypnotherapy in helping them achieve greatness. Here are 7 amazing reasons as to why hypnotherapy can be so beneficial whatever your sports discipline.
1__It turns your reactions into responses
We are not born knowing how to drive a golf ball onto the putting green or sink the black ball into the far right pocket. These are skills that our brain has to learn. The more you throw a ball to a child the better they will become at catching. This is because the brain will start to learn from the random reactions of our bodies to make an intricate formula for success. Suddenly our lightning reactions to catch will be mapped out in the neural pathways of our brains making this skill more of a controlled response – this is a process that hypnotherapy encourages.
2__It improves confidence
Buried deep in all of the positive language patterns of a hypnotherapist’s repertoire is the basic framework of building confidence. This is because hypnotherapists know that healthy confidence is the building block of most of human success and progress. Professional sports men and women know that all the skill and expertise is useless without self-belief and confidence. Through guided hypnosis, a hypnotherapist will instil a confidence blueprint in the mind of the athlete and with this winning formula they will be miles ahead of their competitors.
3__It decreases stress
Stress is a ‘low road function.’ When we suffer from stress we spend time in our primitive minds where our only response options are anxiety, depression and anger. These responses are no good in sports that require mental focus, precision and clarity of thought. Hypnotherapy moves our thought patterns into the intellectual mind which eradicates stress and it’s debilitating effects on sports performance.
4__It creates strong visualisation
Ever heard a footballer discuss how he drove home an impossible penalty shot and say that he ‘just imagined it hitting the back of the net’? Ever been told as a child to just visualise the basketball going through the hoop if you want to score a goal? There is a lot of science behind this. All success starts with a strong visualisation of the outcome and this visualisation has to be hardwired into the complex network of the brain and its neural pathways. Hypnotherapy allows for a direct route into the subconscious meaning these successful outcomes can be compounded at the deepest of levels.
5__It acts as an inner rehearsal
In whatever discipline, people at the top of their game know the importance of rehearsal. Many boxers mentally rehearse every left hook right before going out into the ring. Studies have shown that in many cognitive processes the brain cannot distinguish between imagination and reality meaning that a mental rehearsal is as useful as a physical one. Hypnotherapy provides the ultimate mental rehearsal. What’s more is that it is bespoke. The client, in communication with the hypnotherapist, is in complete control of every aspect of the mental training.
6__It helps manage sleep patterns
When we sleep we use a process called REM to change our emotional memories into narrative memories. We empty our metaphorical buckets of stress and give ourselves more spare capacity to deal with the everyday problems of our lives. When we are not doing this efficiently (due to too much stress or the over-burdening of our cognitive functions) our sleep patterns are the first thing to suffer causing us to become emotionally, mentally and physically tired – all potentially catastrophic for a sportsman or woman. Hypnotherapy replicates to important REM patterns which, in turn, helps us to sleep more efficiently giving us bundles of energy for that all important match.
7__It gets you in the ‘Zone.’
Mental focus is incredibly important to a sports performer. No matter how much skill you have accumulated, if you mind isn’t completely focused during the match then you may as well hand it over to your opponent. Sports Hypnotherapy can help eradicate all other concerns, stresses and worries and promotes absolute focus on the match and, more importantly, on winning it!
