The History of Sports Hypnosis
There is a long history of hypnosis in sport proving how athletic performance is increased dramatically in many areas; style correction, increases in endurance, speed and strength enhancements are particularly effective.
Having won back the 'ashes' from Australia after over twenty years it is interesting that many English Cricketers have used Hypnosis.
2009 Twenty20 Cricket cup winners Pakistan had been hypnotised to 'bring back' the cup and to forget past failures.
Previous to this, in a tour of Australia, England cricket captain Mike Brearley consulted a Sports Hypnotherapist to improve his game.
Most Champions use some form of hypnosis whether it's visualisation
or affirmation and many seek the help of a professional
hypnotist or sports psychologist to assist in their mental
training.
Sports Hypnotists differ from Psychologists in that they
work directly with the Subconscious part of the brain the
part that controls our behaviours, so change with hypnosis
is often rapid.
The Power of Hypnosis - the Olympics
The use of hypnosis in sports has been around for hundreds
of years. There is alot of research in this area.
In the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, the Russian olympic
team took no less than 11 hypnotists to develop mental clarity
and help the athletes with visualisation. In addition out
of 20 Australian swimmers named in one Olympic
team 12 had been using Les Cunningham’s tapes
for two months previously. – ‘Hypnosport’ by Les Cunningham.
Also in 2009
British Shot Put champion and Olympian Alison Rodger used hypnosis to focus deeply on where she wanted to go in her sport.
In the same year Football was also tainted by the hypnosis bug with Ipswich Town and Swindon Town enjoying successes following sessions utilising football hypnosis with a sports therapist.
In The Beijing 2008 Olympics USA Olympic Skeet Gold Medalists worked with a hypnotist.
Boxing hypnosis has been used by many Champions throughout the years. In 1996 Steve Collins beat Chris Eubank for the World Boxing Organisations Super-middleweight title.
Much of his sports success being attributed to the focusing
of attention created by hypnosis administered by Dr Tony
Quinn, himself a former Champion bodybuilder. Collins was
programmed to deliver two punches to Eubank’s one.
In the fight Eubank threw 300 punches,
Collins threw over 600.
Nigel Benn, WBC Super Middleweight Champion and Frank Bruno, WBC Heavyweight Champion both used Sports hypnosis for Boxing performance enhancement.
Previous to this
(in 1959) Swedish boxer Ingmar Johannson used Hypnosis to take the heavyweight boxing title from Floyd Patterson, he floored Patterson seven times in the third round before knocking him out. In 1973 Ken Norton used hypnosis to defeat Muhammed Ali. Ali then also began using hypnosis.
Athlete Iwan Thomas and Golfers Ian Woosnam and Tiger Woods were hypnotised. Indian golfer, Gaganjeet Bhullar qualified for the 2009 British Open by using Golf Hypnosis administrated by a hypnotherapist to program a winning mind set.
Sports Hypnosis Today.
A lot of the most effective techniques (such as imagery) used in Sports Psychology are themselves forms of hypnosis. Psychological developments such as 'active alert hypnosis' have been used by Hypnotherapists for decades, particularly in shooting sports such as in Archery Hypnosis and even Clay Pigeon Shooting. |
