Obviously, sports are a physical endeavor. There’s motion, coordination, balance, learned physical skills, and so on. But there’s more to it. It’s a mental endeavor as well. I would suggest that playing sports is MORE mental than physical. To be the best at your game, you need to integrate these two, the physical and the mental.
When you’ve learned something and learned it well, it moves to the realm of “unconscious competence.” For example, you know how to ride a bicycle now, you don’t need to think about it. You don’t need to think about balance and pedaling and steering. You just hop on and GO, although you once had to learn those things. So it is with any sport. You’ve trained. You’ve practiced. Your body knows the moves. The problem impeding your best performance is your conscious mind, and the thoughts, worries and lug wrenches it throws into the works. It can and often does interrupt the natural flow of your body’s performance of the sport.
Through hypnosis, you learn to calm your conscious mind, and allow your best unconscious game to shine forth. Whether it’s the golf course, or the basketball court, or karate dojo, or any other sports venue where you do your thing, hypnosis improves your performance, and gets you back in touch with your best unconsciously competent game.
I’ve worked with all skill ranges from hobbyists to “big name” professional athletes. Here’s a simple anchoring technique I’d like to share with you to grab that “zone” state of best play. We all know it. That amazingly “on” day when everything goes right in the game. You’re focused, you’re oozing confidence, you’re having fun with it, and so on.
Step into that memory of fabulous performance. Live it, as though it is happening now. What do you see, feel, hear? Revel in it! This is GREAT play. And you are great in this moment. The home run, the hole in one, the amazing shot from mid-court! When the good feelings are alive in you, touch your thumb and middle finger together and hold for about a second. Let go. Repeat the process. Step back into the memory again. Feeling good?? Touch, hold briefly, and then let go. You have just set what is known in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) parlance, as “an anchor.” A stimulus response. Now, here’s how to use it.
Run the upcoming game or event in your mind, while HOLDING your thumb and middle finger together. You are associating your zone state of play with the event–your mind is making linkages. This goes with that! When you step into the moment for real, your mind brings back the zone state of play. It really is that easy. Standing at the golf tee, losing focus? Feeling distracted? Touch and hold the anchor for about 30 seconds to a minute. Voila! The focus and confidence is back.
With NLP, we automate this process. So you just play harder, smarter, better. Whatever brings you pleasure and the win. As an extremely competitive person myself, I know the joy of winning. You can have it, too, in your life’s passion sport or just-for-fun sport du jour.
Go for it, and enjoy!
Connie Brannan, CHt.
Neuro Linguistic Hypnotherapist & Licensed Trainer of NLP®
You can also find out more general information of the successes to be had with these mind technologies of hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming here: