SPORTS HYPNOSIS IN LOS ANGELES  - MENTAL GAME REINFORCEMENT - GOLF, TENNIS, BASEBALL, RUNNING, SWIMMING

What do Tiger Woods and Wayne Gretzky have in common? Both men have used hypnosis to successfully increase their sports performance. A 2000 study conducted at the Sheffield Hallam University showed how Sports Hypnosis aided the performance of five golfers. The study compared the average putting score of the golfers prior to having hypnosis and following hypnosis. The results showed that the average putting score of the golfers consistently increased following hypnosis. The golfers also reported feeling less anxious about how they would perform and more confident in their putting abilities.

How well you play or compete has everything to do with the associations and automatic responses that are stored in your subconscious mind. The moment you go to hit, throw a ball, or run, your mind — without rationalizing — responds with whatever pattern it holds. Through sports hypnosis and guided imagery, we can train your subconscious mind to automatically perform like a pro because succeeding in any sport is not just about a specific movement but most of all about your mindset. It is by training the subconscious mind that the well-trained athlete enters what is often referred to as "the zone" — that peak area of performance in which all movements flow without conscious thought.

Removing Blocks

Just as positive associations can be formed in the subconscious mind, so can negative ones. For example, a football quarterback may have been unable to advance more than ten yards in the rain during a spectacularly bad game. This quarterback might thereafter subconsciously associate rain with playing poorly. Negative associations such as this make it harder for the athlete to find that perfect place where mind and body become one, and their performance ultimately suffers. Negative associations such as this make it hard for the athlete to perform because the mind subconsciously wants to continuously go back to that previous negative – but familiar, hence reassuring – pattern. This often leads to anxiety as the athlete stops believing in himself and starts anticipating the worst. Sports Hypnosis can reveal all those hidden associations that have been holding you back and break them by tapping into the powerful subconscious.

Mastering The Mental Game

Creating new positive associations and patterns is important in enabling reliable and lasting performance. With Sports Hypnosis and guided imagery, we can condition your mind to enter "the zone" when playing. By mentally rehearsing your performance under hypnosis, you can lastingly input motivation and self-confidence into your game. Science has shown that when a person mentally rehearses playing a sport, the body areas used in that sport receive electrical signals. This shows that the mind truly does affect the body. In many ways, the mind is like a muscle: the more you exercise it, the stronger it will become. 

An interesting experiment has validated this fact. An experimenter randomly divided a large group of men into three smaller groups. One group practiced shooting free-throws into a basketball hoop for several weeks, the second group visualized shooting free-throws but did not actually practice, the third group didn't practice or visualize. Not surprisingly, the last group made no improvement; in fact, they got worse. The group who practiced actual free-throws for several weeks improved the greatest, but only slightly better than the group who just visualized shooting free-throws. In other words, what we script or imagine becomes automated by the subconscious mind. 

Even if you are not training for the Olympics or competing as a professional athlete, Sports Hypnosis can help you attain higher levels of performance in whatever sport you play. And like many of my clients, you may find your performance improving much more than you thought possible.