HYPNOSIS AND SPORT

HYPNOSIS AND PERFORMANCE: EXPERIENCES FROM THE SPORT’S WORLD
EFFECTS OF HYPNOSIS ON ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE.
The interest of athletes toward psychological aspects of performance grew since when it became clear that, together with physical training, the athlete’s performances depend on the mental state in which he faces training and competitions1,2. The ideal condition is often described as a pleasant state in which unpleasant sensations such as pain or fatigue are perceived “on the background”, performances are completed almost without apparent effort and the action seems to happen more slowly than usual. It is therefore a complex psychophysical state that integrates a functional tension state with highly focused attention and a general sensation of well being and self efficacy3. Research defines this state as “Flow” or “Zone”. Some authors report many analogies with hypnotic trance, being the latter a state in which attention resources are mobilized to promote change and the attainment of a condition that is functional to the person’s life4.  This correspondence, along with the effectiveness of hypnosis in improving the athlete’s performance, was studied in a research conducted thanks to the participation of the Badminton team of an English university [ibid.]. During hypnotic sessions, hypnotists aimed to create an association between mental representations of the best possible performance to the act of holding the racket, in order to promote the emergence of useful resources during the target event. Results demonstrated that hypnotic interventions, while having favoured the attainment of that specific above-described state of mind, actually improved the participant’s serve precision. They reported of feeling more calm, relaxed, quiet and concentrated during the game.
Another very important variable associated to performance is obviously self-confidence, a characteristic that is often called “self-efficacy” and that can be defined as the “confidence in one’s own skills to plan and execute the necessary sequence of actions in order to achieve specific results”5. Research shows that this component can influence aspects that are crucial for athletes, such as the commitment to long-term activities, thoughts, beliefs, emotions and the degree of effectiveness of performances6,5.
A recent study7 used hypnosis to act on self-efficacy and on free-kick precision in a sample of football players. Subjects were divided into two groups: in the first one, participants were exposed to three hypnotic sessions to empower self-efficacy, whereas, in the other one, videos of effective actions led by professional players were showed. Results show that subjects in the hypnosis group had remarkable improvements both psychologically, reporting higher levels of self-efficacy, and on the quality of the performance, improving precision compared to both previous trials and those of the control group. Improvements remained stable even in an assessment made four weeks after the intervention. Participants declared that hypnosis allowed them to be more confident and quiet – before and after the task – and of not having negative thoughts.  This study, confirming on a randomized sample what was already suggested by previous research on single cases that involved professional athletes, indicates that subjects in a hypnotic state are more sensitive to interventions aimed to improve self efficacy and athletic performance8,9. One last consideration about this research: the intervention was carried out on groups of several subjects at the same time, qualifying hypnosis as an effective and cheaper tool to support teams, compared to other individual approaches.
Hypnosis can also enhance the effectiveness of other training techniques, such as imaginative techniques. Their efficacy is broadly supported by research3 and they consist in imagining performances in detail before competitions.
The application of these techniques allowed to improve adherence to training programs, to increase training duration and to motivate the athlete toward more ambitious goals. Combining this approach with hypnosis, as it has been showed in many kinds of disciplines2, allows to obtain more vivid and detailed images, so that the athlete can re-live a more realistic experience of the competition.
In conclusion, the authors we cited confirm how psychological states are important to performance. It is clear how this is especially true when a problem arises, increasing the athlete’s stress level during performances: in such situations, being able to rely on solid grounds and to maintain a high degree of concentration is crucial.
Masters10 notices that psychological approaches that base themselves just on rational learning of notions are not entirely effective in stressful situations. Hypnosis, using also implicit learning strategies, which facilitate unconscious control of certain functions, allows athletes to use their cognitive resources in the most functional way for themselves. This aspect is particularly relevant when facing high-risk activities, in which concentration and cold-bloodedness are literally vital to the athlete, such as mountaineering. This kind of activities need a stable state of alert and self-consciousness, with a controlled level of tension to find a balance between panic and carelessness9. In this kind of contexts, hypnotic training can be a very useful resource to maintain focus during the whole performance.
Finally we report that hypnosis and self-hypnosis, because of the fact that they offer a way to gain control on the autonomous nervous system, can be used to favour better management of anxiety and physical and psychological healing after injuries, events, in addition to somatic consequences, may postpone the return to training and competitions3,9.