Using Hypnotherapy for Sports Enhancement Part 2
Timothy Gallwey’s influential works on the inner game of sports such as golf and tennis described the mental coaching and attitudes which were required to get into the zone and so fully internalise mastery of the sport. Roy Palmer suggests that “being in the zone” may also influence movement patterns as better integration of the conscious and subconscious reflex functions improves coordination. Many athletes describe the effortless nature of their performance whilst achieving personal bests
The Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna, who during qualifying for the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix gives a prime example. (wikepedia) “I was already on pole, […] and I just kept going. Suddenly I was nearly two seconds faster than anybody else, including my team mate with the same car. And suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel. Not only the tunnel under the hotel but the whole circuit was a tunnel. I was just going and going, more and more and more and more. I was way over the limit but still able to find even more.”
Any intervention that is used by sports psychologists can be enhanced by the addition of hypnosis. By the way, please do not be tempted to call yourself a sports psychologist unless you are accredited by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences. Just as we object to people without sufficient training in psychotherapy using the title, so psychologists are justifiably protective of theirs.
