Hypnotherapy, the child mindset and athletic performance

As a performance psychologist, my work revolves around unlocking the potential of elite athletes, top executives, and high achievers. I’ve spent my career blending hypnotherapy with cutting-edge psychological interventions to break barriers and spark transformation.

I don’t just work with mental skills. I work with states of being. At the heart of my method lies flow—a state of altered consciousness where time melts, the effort feels effortless, and the mind and body move as one. Athletes often describe this state as being "in the zone." I’ve dedicated my career to understanding and triggering this elusive experience. My research has revealed a fascinating truth: flow and hypnotic states are closely linked.

When I work with elite athletes, I see how their minds are often fixed on results. This is no surprise. In most sports, the result of a performance dictates how much they get paid. For example, in tennis and golf, you can't create an income if you don’t perform in competitions. But when athletes become overly focused on results, it can lead to stress, anxiety, and even depression. Why? Because results are often out of their control. You can play the best game of your life in sports and still lose. That’s why I emphasise to my clients that the result is irrelevant to the performance.

Jack Nicklaus, the world’s greatest golfer, provides a perfect example. He once said his best game was his match with Tom Watson at the British Open at Turnberry in 1977. Both players played the game of their lives, but Jack lost with an outstanding score of 66. Tom Watson, the winner, shot a 65. Nicklaus recalls the so-called “Duel in the Sun” as the most fun he ever had on the golf course.

Fun—that’s the critical word here. The fun of playing is often lost in competitive sports because there is no fun in losing. But fun is fundamental to peak performance. Fun triggers what psychologists call an autotelic experience—a pleasurable, intrinsically rewarding, exciting feeling. Feelings associated with autotelic events increase the ability to experience flow—a state of mind where the impossible becomes possible, and peak performance manifests.

How can adults learn to trigger autotelicism, peak performance, and flow? My answer is simple: “Watch children.” Play sports using the child’s mindset.

Children have no problems triggering autotelic states because they see sports and every other activity in life as fun. As children, we learn that playing sports is fun. When children play any game, they play with total absorption. They are curious, passionate, and focused on learning. In a child’s mindset, you work harder, are more creative, and are more adaptable.

This mindset is the heart of peak performance in sports. Athletes can enthusiastically face important competitions without fear of failure or the unknown. Competitions become rewarding, fun, exciting, and opportunities for learning. On the other hand, athletes in a serious state are often stricken by anxiety and quickly demoralised. The greatest gift I can give my clients is the confidence to play like a child. This is the secret many of our greatest athletes understand. The child mindset enables athletes to optimise performance under pressure.

I remember a private conversation I had with Gabriel Batistuta, Argentina’s all-time leading goal scorer. He told me, “When coaches give me instructions on how to play, I cannot score goals because the information they provide me stops me from reacting quickly enough to get rid of the defenders. I score goals when I use memories of how I played as a child. As a child, I would not think about strategies or tactics; I would just run into spaces based on my intuition and gut feelings. I just knew exactly where I should run when I followed my feelings. I would then score for fun because I would always find myself a step ahead of the defenders.”

Another powerful example comes from Novak Djokovic. Days after losing in the 2010 French Open, he told his coach, Marián Vajda, that he decided to quit playing tennis. He was No. 3 in the world, a Grand Slam winner, and a favourite to win Wimbledon.

Vajda asked him, “Why did you start playing this sport?”

He immediately sensed the problem: Djokovic was focusing on rankings, titles, and external expectations. As a result, Djokovic said, “I was mentally at one very messed up place.”

As Djokovic thought about Vajda’s question, he realised many of his childhood memories included his “most beloved toy”—a mini tennis racket and a soft foam ball. He started playing, answering Vajda’s question, “Because I just loved holding that racket in my hand.”

“Do you still love holding a racket in your hand?” Vajda asked.

Djokovic thought about it, got excited, and said: “I do. I still love holding a racket in my hand. Whether it’s a Grand Slam final on the centre court or just playing around on a public court, I like playing for the sake of playing.”

Vajda nodded. “That’s your source. That’s what you need to tap into. Put aside rankings, what you want to achieve, and what you think others expect of you.”

Djokovic agreed that he would. “And I never looked back ever since that moment.”

The following season, Djokovic enjoyed one of the greatest seasons in sports history. He won 43 straight matches, including his first Wimbledon title. And he finished the year as the No. 1 player in the world.

“I started to play freely,” he says. “I became the kid that I was when I started playing.”

Hypnotherapy has been one of the most effective tools in my practice. I use it to guide athletes into a state of heightened focus, reducing mental clutter and fear of failure. Through regression techniques, I take my clients back to a childlike mindset. Why? Because children play for the sake of play. They’re not burdened by external pressures or overthinking. They embody the autotelic experience—finding joy and purpose in the activity itself.

The autotelic experience is a key part of the flow state. When athletes tap into this, they’re unstoppable. Their performance peaks, not because they’re chasing medals or recognition, but because they’re immersed in the moment, fully absorbed by the act itself. Hypnosis helps them rediscover this purity of focus. It quiets the noise of the outside world and reactivates a mindset that thrives in the now.

In my research, I have shown how hypnotic interventions can reliably trigger flow states. Athletes in flow enter a realm where their best performance unfolds naturally—without force or strain.

The parallels between hypnosis and flow are striking. Both are altered states of consciousness. Both dissolve the ego and heighten focus. And both allow access to parts of the mind that are otherwise out of reach. By guiding athletes into these states, I enable them to unlock their potential, breaking free from mental blocks and entering a world of limitless possibility.

Through hypnotherapy, I’ve learned that peak performance isn’t about pushing harder. It’s about shifting deeper—into a state where excellence becomes effortless, and the joy of the game comes alive once more.