“See your future, Be your future” - Joe Namath, American Football Quarterback

Most sports psychologists and indeed athletes themselves realise the value of the use of imagery for enhancing actual performance in sport. Imagery is also now widely used to help practice or rehearse a technique and many well-known athletes, such as skier Jean-Claude Killy, tennis pro Chris golfers Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods and Evert have all benefited from the power of imagery to help enhance their performance.

The most important element when using imagery for technique rehearsal is that the image is of the performance you want to achieve. Although imagining success may not always produce success, if you imagine yourself in doubt or failure, it is highly likely to interfere with good performance. Whilst this type of imagery can of course be done in a normal waking state, imagery done in a state of hypnosis is reported to be significantly more vivid and powerful and therefore has more impact on the end result.

It is also true that the brain is not able to distinguish between THINKING about doing a movement and ACTUALLY performing the movement as the brain sends the signals to the same muscles used in actual practice.

When practising imagery yourself, it is useful to ask yourself the following questions:

• How vividly did you see the images?
• How vividly did you hear any relevant sounds / voices?
• How much did you feel physically?
• How much emotion did you sense?

We all use our senses differently when we interpret the world around us, so when working with athletes, I make sure the client is responsible for their own imagery rather than imposing something which may they may not be able to associate with.

If you would like to find out how hypnosis could help you with technique rehearsal, email Christy today: Christy@christyhypnotherapy.com or call 01252 334377