What an amazing effort in August with our very own women’s soccer team MATILDAS reaching the semi-final in the FIFA world cup in Australia and being fourth overall. It couldn’t help but make me wonder about the importance of mindset, psychology, hypnosis and sports at the elite level.
According to research, sports performance has as much to do with mental abilities as physical abilities. In fact, Tony Robbins goes so far as to say that success in any endeavour, including sports, is 80% psychology/mindset and 20% strategy. So on this basis, success in sports performance is heavily dependent on the mindset of the sports person.
At the elite level in any sport, sports people generally have very similar physical abilities. What sets them apart often relates to their mindset.
Hypnosis is the training of those mental abilities and can therefore contribute to enhancing and improving athletic performance. Mental training for sports people is gradually becoming more recognised and acceptable as attitudes towards sports psychology are changing. More and more sports people are happy to talk about their mental coaching and indeed recognise the need to develop mental skills that may give them that competitive edge.
Sports hypnosis can help anyone – from the young person new into a sport to the elite athlete.
Some famous users of hypnosis in elite sports…
Tiger Woods had a prestigious golfing career. He was able to make shots that no one else could. He used hypnosis since he was 13 to calm his mind, free his mind from worry, pressure, distraction and focus on the pleasure of the game.
Kevin McBride (boxer) is known for beating Mike Tyson in a championship fight. The boxer used hypnosis to unlock his talent at just the right time. He summons his hypnotist before every game, to get into the right frame of mind.
In addition, here some additional example of some not so well known sports people applying hypnosis in sports:
Christina Clemons (100m Hurdle) asked Wendy Merron, Certified Hypnotist at The Center of Success in Wayne, PA, to help her earn a well-deserved place on the US Olympic Team. During the Olympic Trials, she gained her spot on the three-person team and she also achieved her best time ever.
Steve Hooker of Australia won the 2008 Gold Medal in Pole Vaulting after his hypnotist helped him to visualize his success.
Felix Baumgartner became the first person to reach supersonic speed without traveling in a jet or a spacecraft after hopping out of a capsule that had reached an altitude of 128,100 feet above the Earth, in 2012.
2008: The only two shooters who won gold medals for the U.S. worked with a Hypnotherapist.
1984: Mary Lou Retton used hypnosis to block pain in her foot and won the Gold Medal for Gymnastics.
Jim Thorpe became the greatest Olympian of all time during the Stockholm Olympic Games in 1912. He was so talented that even though he had never thrown a javelin or pole-vaulted, he entered the Eastern Olympic Trials in New York and won second place. During the Olympics, he placed first in four of the five events in the now-defunct pentathlon, which consisted of five events in a single day. Thorpe astounded the crowd when he ran the 100-meter dash in 11.2 seconds—during pouring rain- a time not equaled at the Olympics until 1948. Ultimately, Thorpe was number one in four Olympic events in 1912 and placed in the top ten in two more—a feat no modern athlete has accomplished.
Jim Thorpe consistently used visualization to help improve his athletic performance. Newspaperman Francis Albertanti of the New York Evening Mail once saw Thorpe relaxing on a chair. “What are you doing, Jim, thinking of your Uncle Sitting Bull?” he asked. “No, I’m practicing the long jump,” Thorpe replied. “I’ve just jumped 23 feet eight inches. I think that will win it.”
1983: The Chicago White Sox hired a full-time Hypnotist and made the playoffs.
1967: The Swiss Ski Team used a Hypnotherapist and 3 members won medals.
Jimmy Connors is said to have used hypnosis techniques to practice his winning strokes prior to the US Open Championship.
Championship golfer Jack Nicklaus shared that hypnotherapy and visualization techniques were the sole reason for his improved concentration.
What can Sports hypnosis and psychological Interventions help with?
- Confidence Building
- Anxiety Management
- Arousal Control
- Dealing with Self-Talk
- Improving Motivation
- Maintaining Focus
- Competition Preparation
- Improving Mental Toughness
- Performance Enhancement
- Technique Rehearsal
So just thinking about how the semifinal game unfolded between Australia and England, how important would’ve these various mindset skills been:
- With the Matilda’s never playing before in a semifinal, how important would’ve been their competition preparation before the game even started, including technique & mental rehearsal?
- With the huge coverage and attention the game attracted, how important would it have been for the payers to deal with their own self-talk, stayed calm & relaxed and deal with arousal control?
- When England scored the first goal, how important would it have been for the Matilda players to (a) maintain their confidence, (b) remain calm and composed, (c) maintain their focus and (d) their mental toughness!
- In the 2nd half, when England scored their 2nd and 3rd goals, how important would it have been for the Matilda players to just never give up!
- Finally after the game, how important was it for the Matilda players to (a) celebrate their performance and achievements so far, especially given that they had never played in a semifinal before, (b) focus on what they had done well and learnt from the amazing experience and opportunity, and (c) visualise how things will be very different next time they play in the FIFA world cup again in four years time.
Of course, similar examples arose in their game against Sweden to decide who received the bronze medal.
With the AFL football season finals starting early September, as you watch any of these games, really start to reflect and notice the importance of mindset with each game and how it can make a massive difference to the outcome in any game being played!
For more details re our powerful hypnosis sports program, simply visit:
MNHC Sports
OR call us on 1300 983 717 OR send me an email on ian@melbournenlphypnosiscentre.com.au
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To your sporting success!
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Dr Ian Kaminskyj
Melbourne NLP Hypnosis Centre
www.melbournenlphypnosiscentre.com.au
1300 983 717