What is sports hypnosis?
Being a successful athlete is about more than just maintaining high levels of fitness - mental ability is equally as important in helping athletes stay on top of their game. Experiencing performance anxiety and stress or lacking self-confidence are just some of the reasons why athletes may not always perform at their best. While setbacks do happen, hypnotherapy aims to limit these setbacks, helping athletes enhance their sporting performance.
Hypnotherapy for sports performance aims to change limiting beliefs that can hold us back and stop us from reaching our full potential. If we believe we can only run a certain distance or lift so much weight, it’s easy to fall into a fixed mindset - never reaching beyond this target. In order to progress in sports, the key is to let go of these limitations and work towards achieving a winning (or growth) mindset.
Rather than necessarily becoming fitter, faster or stronger, hypnotherapy for sports performance helps reframe athlete’s attitudes towards their performance, encouraging them to believe they can succeed.
Sports hypnosis combines cognitive methodologies with sports science to help athletes change the way they approach their sport. It aims to teach athletes ways to cope with - and reduce - stress, improve their focus and concentration, improve their self-belief and confidence and support their recovery. This in turn helps optimise their performance.
Happiful spoke with cognitive hypnotherapist Sophie Parker (DipCHyp, NLPMP, HBCE, MNCH (Reg) about fixed vs growth mindsets.
How can hypnotherapy help with sports performance?
A fixed mindset often comes with a lack of self-belief. This poor self-belief can lead to sports performance anxiety. Performance anxiety is where the stress and pressure lead to a decrease in athletic performance.
Performance stress can happen for many reasons. You may feel worried about the pressure of an audience watching you, or you may doubt yourself when facing a tough opponent. The pressure that you put on yourself, and your worries about how others see you, can have a significant impact on how you perform.
As our limits manifest in our subconscious, they can feel particularly tricky to tackle. This is where hypnotherapy can help. By helping you to access your subconscious mind, a hypnotherapist can help you to move towards a growth mindset.
Sports performance hypnosis can help:
Focus on success and strategy
Successful athletes are often able to control their state of mind so they have a psychological advantage, which prevents them from underperforming or giving in to their nerves. This means they can become totally absorbed in what they are doing, barely noticing outside distractions when performing at their best.
Hypnosis can often help individuals access the ‘zone’ and engage an athlete’s mind in a positive way to help them focus on their goals and achieve them.
Reinforce self-belief
Being able to control negative thoughts and emotions is the basis of sports psychology. Hypnotherapy can help to remove negative thoughts or beliefs from your subconscious mind, replacing these with feelings of confidence and self-belief.
Maintain healthy habits
Hypnotherapy can be very helpful for instilling habits that will have a positive impact on training and performance. For example, hypnosis can help you to maintain or improve good nutrition. If your relationship with food is negatively impacting your performance, hypnotherapy can help you view food as a source of fuel for the body.
Self-care and relaxation are important for all of us to make time for but particularly so if you are putting yourself through rigorous training to achieve sporting success. We need our minds and bodies to be equally well-rested to perform at our best.
Hypnotherapy is a well-recognised form of relaxation therapy. It can reduce stress chemicals and bring the body back to balance. Regular sessions ease built-up pressure and tension, helping you to learn how to look after yourself before, during and after a sporting performance and control anxiety.
Perfect technique
Picturing future success in your mind is incredibly important for instilling self-belief and this can be achieved by various hypnotic techniques, such as neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Developing the ability to visualise your successes, almost in a trance-like state, can be helpful for athletes who may need to perfect their technique in minute detail, for example in diving or gymnastics. This can help athletes to envision themselves practising in slow motion.
Recover from injury
The use of hypnosis techniques can not only help athletes to perform at their peak but it can also aid in recovery from injury. Sports injuries can often invoke negative feelings, as the process of recovery can be long and frustrating. However, it is thought that by using specific mental skills and maintaining a positive growth mindset, injured athletes can build resilience and better place themselves for recovery.
Can hypnosis increase physical strength?
Because hypnosis focuses on changing subconscious thought patterns, it cannot directly increase physical strength. However, it can improve an athlete’s existing physical capabilities through mental conditioning. For optimum results, hypnotherapy can be used alongside areas such as biomechanics, nutrition, physiology and sports psychology.
Techniques used in sports hypnosis
Hypnotherapy for sports performance works by reprogramming subconscious thoughts so that athletes are better able to respond to high-pressure environments and enter the ‘zone’ – maintaining mental clarity and ignoring distractions. This is done by guiding the athlete into a deep state of relaxation and focused concentration, which allows them to be more open to suggestions.
In sports hypnosis, common techniques used include guided imagery, visualisation and positive affirmations which can help athletes overcome mental blocks.
- Guided imagery or visualisation can involve picturing successful performances or rehearsing a particular scenario or skills to help the athlete set themselves up for success. Revisiting a previous winning performance can be helpful. A hypnotherapist can help you set up mental anchors to trigger that resourceful state again when required.
- Affirmations and positive suggestions such as “You can perform well today” can help build athlete’s self-confidence and reinforce their belief in their abilities.
The deep relaxation in sports hypnosis can also help athletes to reduce stress and performance anxiety.
“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.”
- Dr John Pates (PhD, Mphil, BA, PGCE, PDipASC, EHyp,NLP, Psy.D)
Who is sports hypnosis for?
Sports hypnosis can be extremely beneficial for individual athletes as well as sports teams. It’s not only professional athletes that can benefit, though.
Amateur sportspeople can benefit from sports hypnosis just as much as professionals. Perhaps you have committed yourself to a tough physical challenge like a marathon and are worried about completing it. Whatever your reason, if you are looking to improve your physical performance, changing your mindset with the support of hypnotherapy can help.
Sports hypnotherapy can also be helpful for coaches and managers, too. Relaxation techniques taught through hypnotherapy can help you learn valuable skills you can use while working with your athletes.
Finding a sports hypnotherapist
Whether you’re a manager or coach, a professional athlete or you’re just getting into sports, hypnotherapy could help you enhance your performance. If you’d like to explore how you can improve your sports performance with hypnosis, reach out to a professional to get started. Ask around for recommendations if you know of someone who has had sports hypnosis, and don’t be afraid to ask questions to ensure they’re the right fit for you.
Take the time to explore our profiles and search for those who specialise in sports performance or work with athletes. Hypnotherapy could be that additional tool you need to help you achieve your sporting goals.
