Hypnotic Enhancement of Athletic Performance

References to the use of hypnosis to enhance sports performance have been made in the literature for a long time.

In 1964, Narcuse found that of 125 Japanese Olympic athletes, only 20% had invested time found in developing a means of coping with performance anxiety, and few of them had done this systematically or reliably.In contrast, today cognitive training and hypnosis training are widely utilized with Olympic athletes and a wide variety of professional athletes.

It is my practice to individually design hypnotic training for athletes based on their particular needs.

A training plan may be formulated by determining which of ten overall strategies are needed with the individual athlete:

Enhance sensory awareness and muscle control.

Increased concentration, control internal dialogue, and decrease awareness of unimportant external stimuli.

Control anxiety and anger.

Enhance motivation and enthusiasm.

Increase energy, feelings of invigoration, and endurance.

Enhance performance skill.

Increase self-esteem, confidence, and self-efficacy.

Control perception of time and focus on the present experience (time contraction or expansion).