By the time athletes reach an elite level, they have been training for years; dedicating hours and days to their chosen sport.

This is not just physical.

Athletes need a level of commitment to train consistency, including consistent habits. They need a regulated nervous system that serves them in times of high pressure. And they need to spend time on skill acquisition; something that relies on attention, nervous system regulation and repetition.

Using sports performance hypnotherapy as a tool in a training regimen can complement physical work. It can help you get to the session on time, focused and ready to go, and help improve consistency, focus and confidence during the session.

One athlete I worked with went from “I think I want to retire from professional sports” to coming fourth in the World Championships for her chosen sport shortly after we worked together. Building mindset, commitment and capacity for joy in training made the difference for her.

Hypnosis has been used to make, break and replace habits for many years. For athletes, habits can be useful for training consistency, eating healthily, completing the physio exercises, recovery behaviours, and much more.

Habit formation is often harder when energy is limited, so hypnosis can support behaviour change without relying on willpower alone at the end of a long session. For para-athletes going through a period of illness or flare-up, or returning to training after this, building the habit to train can make a huge difference – not just to the training regimen but also to the confidence and self-efficacy that are so important to athletes’ mental health.

Using suggestion and imagery, sports hypnosis helps to build the self-belief to make or break a habit and mentally rehearse it until it becomes second nature.

Hypnosis also works with the autonomic nervous system: keeping us mentally and physiologically in a space where we feel calm and confident. Practising hypnosis and mindfulness techniques, my clients’ nervous systems learn how to remain regulated. Learning in this felt sense of safety improves motor learning, especially for athletes whose nervous systems spend more time in vigilance due to pain or disability.

Often athletes find they know what the technique is – they’ve seen the videos, their coach has explained it, they’ve practised hundreds of times – but time and again they default to something less effective because of muscle memory. Sports performance hypnosis can support mental rehearsal of technique, which activates similar neural pathways to physical practice. This can be useful both in addition to physical practice, to build those neural pathways, and also when physical training time is limited. For para athletes, this can be particularly valuable during periods of illness, flare-ups, travel disruption or reduced access to facilities.

Hypnosis for habit forming, nervous system regulation and skill acquisition is something that athletes can learn to do on their own, so they can benefit from self-hypnosis long after they finish working with a hypnotherapist.

As the Paralympics heats up, it’s worth remembering that elite performance is built not just on physical hours, but on how consistently and effectively those hours are used.

If you’re curious to learn more about how hypnosis could benefit you, I’m offering a complimentary session, during the month of March, for anyone who would like to explore this work in more depth. You can book your session here.