Sports hypnosis

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Sports hypnosis refers to the use of hypnotherapy with athletes in order to enhance sporting performance. Hypnosis in sports has therapeutic and performance-enhancing functions. [1] The mental state of athletes during training and competition is said to impact performance. [1] Hypnosis is a form of mental training [2] and can therefore contribute to enhancing athletic execution. Sports hypnosis is used by athletes, coaches and psychologists. [2]

Contents

History

Hypnosis has been used in various professions including dentistry, medicine, psychotherapy and sports, as a performance enhancement tool. Sports hypnosis incorporates cognitive and sports science methodologies. Hypnosis in sports therefore overlaps with areas such as biomechanics, nutrition, physiology and sports psychology. [3] Generally sports hypnosis is studied within the field of sports psychology, which examines the impact of psychological variables on athletes' performance. [4] While sports psychology began to be studied around the 1920s, [5] the study and use of hypnosis was not documented until the 1950s. [1] Members of the Russian Olympic team are said to have made use of hypnosis as a performance-enhancing tool around this time. [1]

Application

Although not referred to as hypnosis, professional athletes and teams have used an approach called guided imagery, which is much similar to techniques used in sports hypnosis. [6]

Hypnosis is one of several techniques that athletes may employ to accomplish their sporting goals and it is equally beneficial to coaches as well as athletes. [1] Hypnosis may do for the mind what physical activity does for the body of an athlete. [7] The theory behind sports hypnosis is that relaxation is key to improved sporting performance and athletes may perform better if they are able to relax mentally and focus on the task at hand. Hypnosis may help athletes attain relaxation during practise and competition. [1] Hypnosis may also help to control anxiety and manage stress in athletes. [1] Athletes may develop auto-response to preestablished stimuli which is geared towards achieving optimal performance levels. [8] Sports Hypnosis can also eliminate phobic responses, such as 'Trigger Freeze' in the Clay Pigeon Shooter, 'Target Panic' in the Archer and Fears of further injury in sports people following injury.

The impact of hypnosis on various aspects of sporting performance has been studied. Research has studied the role of hypnosis in enhancing basketball skills, [9] on flow-state and golf-putting performance, [10] its impact on long-distance runners, [11] [12] on archery performance [13] and on flow states and short-serve in badminton. [14]

The use of hypnosis in sports offers the following potential benefits that may help athletes handle personal challenges that would otherwise negatively affect sporting performance. Hypnosis:

Related Research Articles

Hypnosis State of increased receptivity to suggestion and direction

Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention, reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.

Hypnotherapy is a type of mind-body intervention in which hypnosis is used to create a state of focused attention and increased suggestibility in the treatment of a medical or psychological disorder or concern.

Self-hypnosis or auto-hypnosis is a form, a process, or the result of a self-induced hypnotic state.

Michael Persinger American-Canadian professor of psychology

Michael A. Persinger was an American-Canadian professor of psychology at Laurentian University, a position he had held from 1971 until his death in 2018. His most well-known hypotheses include the temporal lobes of the human brain as the central correlate for mystical experiences, subtle changes in geomagnetic activity as mediators of parapsychological phenomena, the tectonic strain within the Earth's crust as the source of luminous phenomena attributed to unidentified aerial objects, and the importance of specific quantifications for energy, photon flux density, and small shifts in magnetic field intensities for integrating cellular activity as well as human thought with universal phenomena.

Choke (sports) Sports term

In sports, choking is the failure of a person, or persons, to act or behave as anticipated or expected. This can occur in a game or tournament that they are strongly favoured to win, or in an instance where they have a large lead that they squander in the late stages of the event. It can also refer to repeated failures in the same event, or simply imply an unexpected failure when the event is more important than usual.

The Mozart effect refers to the theory that listening to the music of Mozart may temporarily boost scores on one portion of an IQ test. Popular science versions of the theory make the claim that "listening to Mozart makes you smarter" or that early childhood exposure to classical music has a beneficial effect on mental development.

Sport stacking

Sport stacking, also known as cup stacking or speed stacking, is an individual and team sport that involves stacking 9 or 12 specially designed cups in pre-determined sequences as fast as possible. The cups are specially designed to allow for speedier times. Participants of sport stacking stack cups in specific sequences, by aligning the inside left lateral adjunct of each cup with that of the next. Sequences are usually pyramids of 3, 6, or 10 cups. Players compete against the clock or another player.

Mental rotation

Mental rotation is the ability to rotate mental representations of two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects as it is related to the visual representation of such rotation within the human mind. There is a relationship between areas of the brain associated with perception and mental rotation. There could also be a relationship between the cognitive rate of spatial processing, general intelligence and mental rotation.

Hypnodermatology is an informal label for the use of hypnosis in treating the skin conditions that fall between conventional medical dermatology and the mental health disciplines.

Motor imagery is a mental process by which an individual rehearses or simulates a given action. It is widely used in sport training as mental practice of action, neurological rehabilitation, and has also been employed as a research paradigm in cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology to investigate the content and the structure of covert processes that precede the execution of action. In some medical, musical, and athletic contexts, when paired with physical rehearsal, mental rehearsal can be as effective as pure physical rehearsal (practice) of an action.

Sport psychology

Sport psychology is an interdisciplinary science that draws on knowledge from many related fields including biomechanics, physiology, kinesiology and psychology. It involves the study of how psychological factors affect performance and how participation in sport and exercise affect psychological and physical factors. Sport psychologists teach cognitive and behavioral strategies to athletes in order to improve their experience and performance in sports. In addition to instruction and training of psychological skills for performance improvement, applied sport psychology may include work with athletes, coaches, and parents regarding injury, rehabilitation, communication, team building, and career transitions. Also closely associated with Sports psychiatry.

Athletics is a term encompassing the human competitive sports and games requiring physical skill, and the systems of training that prepare athletes for competition performance. Athletic sports or contests are competitions which are primarily based on human physical competition, demanding the qualities of stamina, fitness, and skill. Athletic sports form the bulk of popular sporting activities, with other major forms including motorsports, precision sports, extreme sports and animal sports.

The interplay of exercise and music has long been discussed, crossing the disciplines of biomechanics, neurology, physiology, and sport psychology. Exercise and music involves the use of music before, during, and/or after performing a physical activity. Listening to music while exercising is done to improve aspects of exercise, such as strength output, exercise duration, and motivation. The use of music during exercise can provide physiological benefits as well as psychological benefits.

Bruce Ogilvie (1920–2003) was an applied American sport psychologist. Ogilvie is often referred to as the "Father of North American Applied Sport Psychology."

Body cathexis is defined as the degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction one feels towards various parts and aspects of their own body. This evaluative dimension of body image is dependent on a person's investment of mental and emotional energy in body size, parts, shape, processes, and functions, and is integral to one's sense of self-concept. First recognized by Jourard and Secord, body cathexis is assessed by examining correlations between measures of self-concept or esteem and bodily attitudes. An individual's evaluation of their own body tends to drive various behaviors, including clothing choices and weight management, and the existence of a universal ideal for certain dimensions of body type is, in many cases, a source of anxiety and insecurity.

The Vineland Social Maturity Scale is a psychometric assessment instrument designed to help in the assessment of social competence. It was developed by the American psychologist Edgar Arnold Doll.

Clutch (sports)

Clutch performance in sports is the phenomenon of athletes under pressure or "in the clutch", usually in the last minutes of a game, to summon strength, concentration and whatever else necessary to succeed, to perform well, and perhaps change the outcome of the game. It occurs in basketball, hockey, football, esports, and other sports but the phrase is most common in baseball. The opposite is "choking": failing to perform as needed, when under pressure.

Spatial ability

Spatial ability or visuo-spatial ability is the capacity to understand, reason, and remember the spatial relations among objects or space.

Intellectual disability sport classification is a classification system used for disability sport that allows people with intellectual disabilities to fairly compete with and against other people with intellectual disabilities. Separate classification systems exist for the elite athlete with a disability side affiliated with the Paralympic movement and Virtus, and the sports for all model affiliated with Special Olympics. People with intellectual disabilities have issues with conceptual skills, social skills and practical skills. They have IQs of 75 points or lower, limitations in adaptive behaviour and their disability manifested and was documented prior to turning 18 years of age.

Coaching psychology

Coaching psychology is a field of applied psychology that applies psychological theories and concepts to the practice of coaching. Its aim is to increase performance, achievement and well-being in individuals, teams and organisations by utilising evidence-based methods grounded in scientific research. Coaching psychology is influenced by theories in various psychological fields, such as humanistic psychology, positive psychology, learning theory and social psychology.

References

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  2. 1 2 Liggett, Donald R. (2000). Sport hypnosis. ISBN   978-0736002141.
  3. Hall, C. R. (2001). "Imagery in sport and exercise". In Singer, R.; Hausenblas, H.; Janelle, C. (eds.). Handbook of research in sport psychology. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 529–549.
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  14. Pates, J.; Palmi, J. (2002). "The effects of hypnosis on flowstates and performance" (PDF). Journal of Excellence. 6: 48–61.
  15. Robazza, Claudio; Bortoli, Laura (1994). "Hypnosis in sport: An isomorphic model". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 79 (2): 963–973. doi:10.2466/pms.1994.79.2.963. PMID   7870522. S2CID   20783801.

See also