Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Joe DiMaggio are well-known for their use of self-hypnosis. Sports Performance Anxiety

Championing Solutions For Sports Performance Anxiety

I want athletes to have fun playing their sport and excel at their play. No matter what the sport—tennis, golf, hockey, soccer, wrestling, football, swimming, fencing, or horseback riding—I can teach athletes to teach themselves how to decrease their stress, stay focused, and participate at a consistently higher level.

Don’t get me wrong: A certain level of stress can promote excellence and can push a person to try harder, to focus better, and to have more fun. But when people push past their “good stress” threshold, it can lead to second-guessing, misjudgments, and poor performance. Then, it’s the enemy of excellence.

Need examples? Players make bad shots, or bad plays, and can’t get those mishaps out of their minds. Players practice-practice-practice, and still cannot “get it right.” They lose focus, get mad at themselves, and often give up.

Many people tell athletes, “Relax, relax, you’re too tense.” Other people suggest that athletes should “try harder,” especially when they are in a slump. I don’t agree with either of those pieces of advice.

To play well, athletes need to play with a certain amount of intensity. By that, I mean they need to be in their “zone of optimal performance.” But everybody’s “zone” is different. For example, on a scale of 0 to 10, where zero means a person is so relaxed that the tennis racket falls out of his/her hand and 10 means he/she is wound up so tight that he/she can barely swing the racket, some players’ “zones” will be 5, while other players will be tearing up the court at 3 or 7.

How do I help athletes find their “zone”? First, I meet with the athlete’s parents to discover what they think their child’s challenge is. Second, I meet with the athlete to discover what he/she thinks it is. Third, in a medical hypnosis session, I teach the athlete the technique of self-hypnosis. Finally, I assign homework.

The homework consists of an individually designed program to help athletes think about and visualize their game challenge in different ways. Homework utilizes self-hypnosis and mental imagery to help create an experience in athletes’ minds that empowers and enables them to do things they previously were not aware they could do.*

Self-hypnosis is like any other athletic skill in several ways:

It must be practiced;
The more you practice, the better you get at it;
The more you practice, the easier it gets; and
The more you practice, the faster you get at it.

Athletes are great candidates for medical hypnosis because they are so motivated. Typically, there is improvement after only two or three visits. Moreover, there’s a huge spillover into other areas of their lives because the results from self-hypnosis show athletes that they have the ability to gain control over other life challenges. This raises self-esteem and awareness, builds confidence, and gives them a sense of mastery and
hope.

*Yapko, M., Trancework **From Olness, K., and Kohen, D., Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy with Children

To Learn More

Download “Sports Performance Enhancement: Strategies For Managing Sports Performance Anxiety" (PDF)

Download Advice for Young Athletes from Nomar Garciaparra(PDF) Dr. Lazarus met baseball legend Nomar Garciaparra at a fund-raising event hosted by Brandi Chastain and had an opportunity to ask him a few questions.

View Dr. Lazarus speaking at Nike Coach of the Year Conference To contact Dr. Lazarus, you may phone him at: 650-322-5333. Or, email him a brief form.

To contact Dr. Lazarus, you may phone him at: 650-322-5333. Or, email him a brief form.