Empowering your athletic abilities.

• Author: O'Briain, Cathal
• Position: Sportscene

SELF-HYPNOSIS can help an athlete to sharpen locus, increase skill, and develop mental and physical strength. Rather than just relying on mere chance, hypnosis brings you naturally and easily into the zone: providing energy at the appropriate time and delivering just the right amount. These controlled bursts allow an individual to conserve his or her strength--minimizing effort where it is not needed and maximizing power where it is.

The zone basically is a heightened state of awareness, where concentration is total, uninhibited by internal or external distraction. In the zone, a feeling of time distortion can occur, slowing down reality enough to anticipate what is coming next, helping you to plan your moves. A boxer will see gaps in his opponent's defense\s where he can get through, and a soccer goalie can jump in the right direction as the player is striking the ball. When the mind has grown accustomed to being in the zone, it will seek and manifest the same experience every time you play your game, providing you believe it will happen and expect it to.

With hypnosis, performance preparation can be done in the home as well as on the field, but there is more to sports psychology than just using guided imagery and relaxation techniques. The overall psychological well-being of the athlete also must be considered. Family, social life, work, and relationships all can work with, or against, an athlete. All aspects of living must be addressed in therapy if you wish to gain insight into what is required to reach your lull potential.

Many athletes dedicate a lot of time to improving their physical condition without paying enough attention to their mental needs. They often spend hours on end putting their body through rigorous training, without setting aside a mere 15 minutes a day to strengthen and locus their mind. This is why some find it harder to move into the zone than others. Mental conditioning is what moves a person into the zone. Yet, this alteration in perception only can occur once menial interference and distraction have been rendered practically nonexistent. Even if the athlete is surrounded by people and distraction, sell-hypnosis can be used to minimize noise, while at the same time increasing focus. Those who employ trances regularly to experience the feeling of being in the zone can trigger the same response when required, by means of post-hypnotic suggestion.

Being too effortful--pushing themselves too hard--is one of the main...