I feel privileged to have worked with many sports men and women over the years, helping them achieve their goals, stay focused and be at the top of their game. Sports performance – a winners mindset.

Enhancing sports performance with hypnosis is nothing new, its been used to enhance sports performance since the 1920’s and the reason it’s been used for such a long time, is that it works.

Competitive athletes will be determined to do almost anything that will give them the edge. To win, to be the best in their chosen field, to win medals, trophies, silverware.

While there are still a few sceptics out there, who label hypnosis trickery or mind control, hypnotherapy (the use of hypnosis with a therapeutic endpoint) is recognised as a legitimate therapeutic modality proven to be highly effective in bringing about positive change, getting rid of old habits and making room for new ways of thinking, both logically and creatively.

Sport hypnosis works on the principle of the mind-body connection, and as advances in neuroscience and psychology have been made and the science studied, we now know that the two are unequivocally linked. Our minds and our bodies are in constant communication with a flow of neurotransmitters from the brain to the cells of the body and back again. In short, your body responds to the way you think, feel, and act.

Hypnosis can be used to encourage the right messages are transmitted from the mind to the body, for instance, having a more relaxed stance when taking a golf swing, accurately judging the trajectory of a football as it flies through the air, increased focus and an extra degree of determination to overcome any physical or psychological resistance in any sporting event.

The primary objective of hypnotherapy, is to bring the physical body and the subconscious mind into balance, which is why it’s so well suited to enhance sports performance. Athletes often refer to being ‘in the flow’ or in ‘the zone’ and during this time they are in fact in a hypnotic trance. Attention is fixed, focused and the subconscious mind goes into autopilot in order to get the job done. And so its no surprise that hypnotherapy provides sports men and women with an invaluable “secret weapon” that can dramatically improve overall performance.

There are many well-known athletes who have worked with hypnotherapists to achieve significant gains in their performance, regardless of their discipline. Hypnotherapy helps athletes to perfect their skills, finely tune their technique, improve their self-confidence and overcome self-doubt or performance anxiety. 

Tiger Woods is a fine example of a top sportsman who has used hypnosis to achieve a phenomenal level of success. He has reportedly been using self-hypnosis techniques and mental imagery, since his early teens.

Another way in which hypnosis can be utilised in competitive sport is in dealing with pain and injuries. Learning to disassociate from pain can help you cope better with it, and perform in spite of it.

French International footballer Andre-Pierre Gignac worked with a hypnotherapist during his goal scoring drought. After a few sessions he found the back of the net and went on the complete his next game with a hat-trick (November 2016 Tigres Liga MX quarterfinal second leg against Pumas) Gignac went on to celebrate his goal by pretending to fall asleep in hypnotic style.

Boxer Steve Collins attributed his 1995 shock defeat of Chris Eubank to hypnotherapy and as a direct result of his success fellow boxer Frank Buglioni prepared for his world title challenge using the same sports psychologist and hypnotherapist.

If you would like to know more about clinical hypnotherapy for enhancing sports performance, get in touch today.

For an in depth look at hypnosis and your amazing subconscious mind, my book “Health, Wealth & Hypnosis” is available now on Amazon and at all good bookstores.