What separates a good sports performer from a true champion? ‘THE MIND’!!!
You can calculate and formulate a plan to be at your very best, train hard, eat right and rest to allow your body to recuperate. However without the right mind set you will never perform to your true potential.
The mind is as important as the body in obtaining victory.
Hypnosis is being used by more and more sports people to improve their game. This is because it is the ideal way to get both the physical and mental aspects working together.
There is a long history of hypnosis in sport proving how performance can be radically improved in many areas, style correction, speed, time distortion and strength enhancements are just a few of the benefits. One of the most closely guarded secrets of professional sports players is hypnosis.
When it comes to working with sports enhancement Elliott’s unique background gives him the advantage to understand exactly how the mind can either limit or enhance the ability of the sports player. ‘Hypnosis Expert’ Elliott Wald was a competitive bodybuilder for over ten years, competing at both British and European championship level. His personal experiences led him to study the path of human behavior, hypnosis and modern psychology in the pursuit of excellence.
Elliott works with elite sports people across a wide range of sports and his clients include, among others, Premier league footballers, rugby players, ABA amateur boxers (formally Golden gloves champions), professional boxers, PGA golfers, world power lifting champions, International swimmers, professional dart players.
Elliott’s clients have included Olympic athletes and World medalists; he currently works one-one with four premiership footballers, seven PGA golfers, two professional boxers, five top ranked amateur boxers. Over the last thirteen years of helping sports players with a combination of hypnosis and success coaching he has helped over fifty professional sports players from an array of sports and sixty amateurs who have achieved outstanding success in their sports.
The use of hypnosis in sports has been around for hundreds of years. In the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, the Russian Olympic team took no less than 11 hypnotists to develop mental clarity and help the athletes with visualization.
In 1996 Steve Collins beat Chris Eubank for the World Boxing Organizations Super-middleweight title, his success being attributed to the focusing of attention created by hypnosis. 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, Golfers Ian Woosnam and Tiger Woods were hypnotized. Along with numerous other top professional sports men and women that I have and continue to work with.
Hypnosis is and has been used by many professional boxers. Elliott himself was an amateur boxer and his son began boxing at the age of 6, by 9 years old he was regularly sparring twice a week with juniors 12- 14 years old, now almost at the age of 11 he’s waiting to be of age for his ABA licence.
Elliott says, ‘I have seen many technically excellent boxers not perform at their best simply because their head is not in the game, they feel under pressure, allow their opponent to dictate the fight, they get in a brawl they are not in the zone. I have taken these very boxers taught them visualization and self-hypnosis techniques and seen phenomenal changes’.
Positive psychology is crucial for boxers it is one of the most physically and mentally tough sports, you must remain mentally focused, while using your adrenalines correctly at the same time thinking like a boxer whilst delivering a flurry of punches, ensuring that your guard is up and anticipating your opponents next move, a sport where a wrong move could result in there being no second chances…. A sport where when a boxer is down on points or even a knockdown with the right mind set they still have the potential to knock their opponent out it is a true sport of mental champions, like a carefully played game of chess.
When a boxer learns hypnosis techniques to instantly switch themselves into the zone, the boxer unconsciously seems to anticipate almost every move from the opponent - early, easily, If you are boxing and not using hypnosis - be aware because it is almost given that your competition probably is!
If you think of your mind like a computer the results it gives you is dependant on how its programmed, I have met many boxers who have tried visulisation or inner dialogue to achieve the right state, often they achieve some improvement however what they have not done is create the right positive emotional state that they possibly could. Research indicates that successful fighters demonstrate positive emotional profiles before competition (5,6). Such studies typically assess emotions an hour before competition and then compare winners and losers by emotional profiles. The accuracy of these predictions of winners from pre-contest emotions is remarkably high. In one study, it was possible to predict winners with 95% accuracy (5).
All of the above factors plus emotional control, confidence and mental toughness in being able to give and receive punishment are important factors for success which is why when Elliott works with a boxer they are always amazed at the difference in their boxing performance when he show them how to use these techniques combined with self-hypnosis they are then putting the correct data into their boxing ‘mental’ programme to get the right results.
Hypnosis is being used by more and more sportspeople to improve their game. This is because it is the ideal way to get both the physical and mental aspects working together. If you cannot imagine it - you cannot be it! To be able to perform you need to believe you can do it. Often, the problem lies in you subconsciously focusing on your past failures, rather than your future successes.
The point is to practice physically and mentally. The physical bit I can't help you with - you need to get out there and practice. Now the mental bit is my specialist subject.
References
1. Athletic Insight. Retrieved September 2008, from http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol6Iss2/Professionalboxing.htm
2. Athletic Insight, 3, volume 8. http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol8Iss3/Reflections.htm
3. Application of Sport Psychology for Optimal Performance in Martial Arts. In Dosil, J, The Sport Psychologist’s Handbook, Wiley & Sons, 2006, p353-374
4. The Winning Mind. Wellingborough, Northants,
Thornsons, 1989
5. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 81, 275-286, 1995
Clients visit The Hypnosis Expert Elliott Wald from all over the UK and Europe. If you want to be rid of your anxiety then contact Elliott today, his clinic is conveniently located in Luton Bedfordshire, just 5 minutes from the M1 Junction 10 click here for a map.
For clients coming by train 0.5 mile from either Luton parkway station or Luton Mainline station.
For clients flying in from Europe the clinic is only 10 minutes from Luton Airport.
Watch Elliott in his TV show 'Instant Changes' as he demonstrated his extraordinary skills using hypnosis to help people overcome a variety of phobias.
Over 4 million people watched Elliott help Nicola overcome her addiction to chocolate on the BBC2 television programme ‘Alternative Therapy: Hypnotherapy’ with professor Kathy Sykes.
