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Professional Athletes
Using Hypnosis to Enhance Mental Toughness and Peak
Performance
by Dr. Jack Singer |
As they get older and put more mileage
on their bodies, proactive thinking professional
athletes look for an edge. Much of the training and
coaching that professional athletes receive works on the
logical brain, the left brain. Game plans, strategies,
knowing what to do in a specific situation…all fire up
the left brain.
Jay Hieron, IFL and UST veteran, #2 in the world in the International Fight League welterweight division and a part of Randy Couture Xtreme Couture MMA in Las Vegas and a proud client of Dr. Jack Singer.
Frequently, the right brain is ignored. Balance, music,
emotions, visualization and self-hypnosis all
involve the right brain. The smart athlete practices
skills that tap into both the left and right
brains.
I receive calls weekly from professionals who recognize
that their bodies will not always be able to support the
wear and tear and therefore, they would like to learn
mental skills to compensate. There are many techniques
that Certified Sport Psychologists use to help such
athletes, but by far the most powerful technique in my
arsenal is Hypnotic Sport Psychology.
Those Sport Psychologists who teach hypnosis and
self-hypnosis to athletes help them with such skills as
intensity, focus, consistency, concentration and anxiety
and anger control. Moreover, hypnosis can be used with
teams to enhance team dynamics, intra-team
communications, mutual goal setting and intra-team
cohesion.
A favorite technique that I use with huge success, I
call the hypnotic mental toughness game plan. I
use this technique with athletes whose sport involves
going up against an opponent(s), such as football,
basketball, boxing, motor sports, tennis, soccer,
wrestling, hockey, etc.
I ask the athlete to describe in detail everything
he/she knows about her/his opponent. For example, for an
NFL football player, I want to know what specific
techniques and moves the opponent has used in the past
against my athlete. Accordingly, what specific
techniques and moves has my athlete used with success
against him? For a tennis player, I want to know how the
opponent has won games from my athlete in the past, what
she/he does in certain game situations (such as moving
toward the net), and what strategies have worked for my
athlete against this specific opponent (even if only a
few games were won against him/her).
The same data that would be obtained in breaking down
film is very valuable for me (utilizing the athlete’s
specific language) in designing a hypnotic program aimed
at overcoming the opponent when they next meet.
This hypnotic technique goes well beyond “visualization”
that is often taught to athletes. While under hypnosis,
my athlete is not only visualizing success in his next
game, but he is planting optimistic seeds in the
beautiful garden of his subconscious mind that are each
related to specific moves and strategies that are
designed to work against a specific opponent, whom he
can visualize defeating.
So, with the athlete’s help, we design a mental
toughness game
plan each week and (if the athlete is not local) I
fed ex a CD series of that game plan each week for the
athlete to master. This certainly gives the pro athlete
an edge and I refer to it as the athlete’s “unfair
advantage!”
(Obviously, these techniques are not simply reserved for
professional athletes, but the use of game films, for
example, to design my game plans are harder to come by
with junior athletes. In such cases, I rely on the
athlete and coaches to give me the information I need.)
Call Dr. Jack for a FREE 30 minute
phone consultation.
1-888-731-1168
Phone Therapy Available Also.
Because of my concern for
your complete confidentiality, I do not use an answering
service and I am the only person with access to my
voicemail messages. If I do not answer the phone when
you call, you may leave me your name, number and the
reason you are calling and I assure you that I am the
only person who will hear that message. I will return
the call just as quickly as I can.
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