In my last post I outlined the ways mindset can make or break sports performance.

Specifically, mindfulness, self-efficacy, mental practice and self-talk have all been shown to improve performance, while tension, anxiety and fatigue have a measurable negative effect.

I work on both ends of this scale with my clients: teaching mindfulness and self-hypnosis techniques to improve sports performance, while supporting them to release tension, overcome anxiety and teaching practices that improve sleep and reduce post-exertional malaise.

Sports performance hypnosis works on a basis of 4 key things: attention, regulation, suggestions and imagery.

In hypnosis, we focus our attention on one thing: the breath, a sensation in the body, an idea or thought. This single-pointed focus means that everything else – the “what-ifs” and the thoughts about the audience or the cameras – fade into the background and the only thing is what’s important.

Once our attention is caught somewhere more useful, this opens the doorway to regulation.

Hypnosis is inherently regulating. It regulates our nervous systems to a state where anxiety decreases and positive, confident beliefs feel more reachable. This regulation can reduce performance anxiety; improving decision-making and movement efficiency. When we are more regulated more often, we also sleep better and experience less fatigue.

When we are regulated and focused, we can focus on positive suggestions, or self-talk, much more easily – and believe them much more consistently. That could be a phrase such as “relax and win,” in competition, for example. Practising that positive self-talk means that in moments of pressure you can focus on that, feeling more confident and capable.

As well as suggestions, we focus on imagery, or mental practice. This could be rehearsing a competition or race in the lead up to it, or rehearsing a technique.

Many athletes say that mental rehearsal helps with their sense of self-efficacy: they’ve practised it in their mind’s eye so many times, so they believe it is possible.

Others like to rehearse the competition step-by-step, including the competition environment, the routines, and the responses to challenges. Then, in competition, it happens automatically, adding to flow state.

Still others actually rehearse to feel anxiety in the lead up, reframing it, and maybe even befriending it, means that it simply isn’t a problem on competition day. Rock climber Alex Honnold, who recently climbed Taipei 101 without ropes, describes exactly this approach:

When I visualize a climb like Taipei 101, I'm thinking about what it'll feel like, and that's kind of the whole point of doing the visualization, is to experience those emotions ahead of time so that I don't experience them while I'm doing the climb.

For para athletes, this mental rehearsal can include managing uncertainty, adapting to changing conditions and maintaining confidence despite interruptions.

For a para-athlete who has experienced equipment failure at competition - like the client I mentioned in my last post [link post 5] who arrived to find her wheelchair lost by the airline - mental rehearsal can include practising exactly that scenario: staying calm, rehearsing solutions, adapting, and competing confidently anyway.

For an athlete managing chronic pain, meanwhile, mental rehearsal might mean rehearsing a flare-up on competition day. Practising breathing, pain control self-hypnosis, self-talk, and the decision to compete anyway. So that if it happens, it's already familiar.

Used consistently and combined with CBT, mindfulness and somatics, sports performance hypnotherapy can help you perform at your best across training, competition and recovery.

Ready to find out how? I’m offering one free session during March – book here.

Across this series we've explored the unique challenges para-athletes face and the tools that can help. If any of this resonates, here's where to start.