Hypnosis for Sport Performance

The Sporting Mind

Whether we’re playing sport professionally or for fun, the competitive nature of sport helps us meet our goals, strive for success and push ourselves to achieve more, which is a great mindset to apply to all parts of our lives. The misconception occurs when we think that sporting ability is all about physicality, there are in fact three key factors to sporting success; 

• Fitness

• Technical skill

• Mental skill

It’s commonly known that practice makes perfect, many sports people will spend lots of time improving their fitness and refining their technical skills, however the mental skill is often neglected. Our mindset holds a lot of power over us and can influence our performance positively or negatively. If we enter a sport doubting our ability or focusing on how tired/stressed/annoyed we are, our performance will be impacted negatively. Concentration, reaction time, confidence and memory can be affected leaving us to expect failure rather than success. 

By dedicating some time working on the mental skill of sport, we can change how our minds approach the challenge. We will be able to focus, believe in our ability, respond better to errors and improve our overall performance. 

Over the years we’ve worked with many sports players to help them refine their mental skill and achieve their goals. From footballers to golfers, to darts players - positive mindset can be the difference between winning and losing.

How can Sport Hypnosis help me?

There are many damaging thoughts and feelings that can affect sporting performance, if you relate to any of the below, hypnotherapy may be the answer you’ve been looking for.

• You perform well when practising but when it comes time to compete, you seem to lose the abilities you practiced

• You can’t focus your mind when you’re competing, it feels hectic and distracts you from your performance

• You feel too much pressure when there are other people watching you compete/practise and it puts you off

• You don’t fully believe in your ability so you accept the fact you may lose before you’ve even finished

Hypnosis works by altering the perceptions of the subconscious mind which are holding us back and replacing any limiting thoughts and beliefs with more positive and helpful ones. It can help you enter a focused state, give you the confidence you need to put your skill to work no matter what situation or who’s watching.

How does hypnosis work?

Your hypnotherapist will guide you into a relaxed state, and they will repeat positive affirmations to your subconscious mind to replace any of your current limiting thoughts and beliefs. With sporting hypnosis, your therapist will focus on creating a mental image of success, focusing your mind on strategy, overcoming any mental blocks and reinforcing self belief and confidence in your abilities. You’ll be conscious during your hypnotherapy session and will remember everything that has taken place. If you want to know more about the process of hypnotherapy, please read more here.

You don’t have to compete professionally to take advantage of the benefits of sporting hypnosis. Whatever ability, level or sport, hypnosis can help you to improve your sporting performance by changing your mindset.