CLINICAL HYPNOTHERAPY | Performance Hypnotherapy
Sports Hypnotherapy
and Mental Rehearsal: From Coaching to
Better Performance
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By Michael Greaves, Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist, 1You, Caulfield
North.
Mental rehearsal under hypnosis lets an athlete practise the exact movement
a coach has taught, in a state of deep focus, between physical sessions. It
adds repetitions of the right movement to your training, and it works alongside
coaching, never in place of it. Studies of hypnosis in sport report improved
performance, including in motor skill learning. This article explains how the
approach works, what the research supports, and how to build a rehearsal plan
for your own sport. For how I work with athletes in Melbourne, see sports
hypnotherapy in Melbourne.
Is there a perfect
technique in sport?
Elite athletes performing the same skill often move differently, and a
technique that suits one athlete may not suit another. Technique is shaped by
anatomy, strength, mobility, coordination, experience and the demands of the
sport. Runners have different strides, tennis players have different service
actions, and golfers develop swings that reflect their own build and habits.
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal hit forehands with markedly different grips and
swings, and both won at the highest level. The analyst John Yandell (2006) made
the same observation, noting that the two share some features, including a
straight hitting arm.
Successful technique is individual, which is why the aim of coaching is to
improve your own movement, not to copy somebody else's. Coaches lead that
process, drawing on informed observation, technical knowledge and feedback.
Physiotherapists and other qualified professionals contribute when movement,
injury or rehabilitation is involved. My part begins where theirs leaves off:
once your coach has decided what to change, I help you rehearse it.
Why does practice
alone not guarantee improvement?
Repetition strengthens whatever pattern is being repeated, whether or not it
is effective. Practice makes permanent, so it is better to practise perfect. A
golf coach might change the sequencing of a swing. A running coach might
recommend a change to cadence or posture. A physiotherapist might prescribe a movement
as part of a rehabilitation programme. In each case you practise the
instruction, assess the result and adjust. The quality of the guidance decides
what you are learning, which is why every rehearsal I build starts with your
coach. If repetition is not producing a visible or measurable change, look at
the instruction and the feedback before adding more repetitions.
What is mental
rehearsal of a movement?
Athletes often visualise winning or crossing the finish line. Mental
rehearsal goes further. It works on the movement that produces the result, and
it adds hypnosis to the picture. You imagine the movement from your own
perspective, attending to sequence, timing, rhythm, balance and bodily
sensations. A tennis player rehearses the preparation, toss, rotation and
follow-through of a serve. A runner rehearses a controlled rhythm, and a golfer
the sequence and tempo of a swing. The imagery comes straight from the
instruction your coach has given you, so the rehearsal reinforces exactly what
your coach wants.
The meta-analysis by Driskell, Copper and Moran (1994) found a positive
effect of mental practice on performance, with the size of the effect depending
on the task and the length of practice. Alongside physical practice, it gives
you more repetitions of the right movement between sessions, when you would
otherwise be waiting for your next lesson.
Where does the idea
come from?
Rehearsal under trance is not a new protocol. It adapts a principle found
across the Chinese martial arts, including Tai Chi and kung fu, in which fast,
precise movements are practised slowly, with attention on the breath and on
what the tradition calls the flow of chi. Lau Gar kung fu sifu Shan Lau, author
of Kung Fu, The
Theory of Force, describes this slow, focused repetition as the way a
movement becomes embedded. Trance applies the same logic to the sports skill,
with the added step of rehearsing the adjustments your coach has identified.
What does hypnosis
add?
Hypnosis gives you a state of deep focus in which imagery becomes vivid and
easy to hold. Away from the distractions of training, you work through the
movement repeatedly, with your attention on its key components, and I adjust
the rehearsal each time your coach gives new feedback.
This matters most when you are replacing a familiar habit with a new
movement. The old pattern feels natural because you have practised it for
years, and the new one feels unfamiliar. In trance, we rehearse the new movement
slowly and in detail until it stops feeling foreign. Then you take it back to
your coach and test it in training.
In a session, we start from what your coach has asked for and agree how the
movement will be described. I then rehearse it with you in trance, often tying
a simple cue to one point in the movement. One tennis player who kept double
faulting on match points used the image of a green light at the peak of the
toss as his cue to release the serve. His results improved over eight weeks of
sessions, and he reported that his serving had improved. I also work on
thoughts that interfere, replacing a warning such as do not fault with an
action such as swing free.
What does the
research show?
Mental practice improves performance. Driskell, Copper and Moran (1994)
found a positive and significant effect, and the review by Schuster and
colleagues (2011) found motor imagery beneficial when combined with physical
practice. A meta-analysis of 17 studies found that imagery and hypnosis based
mental preparation improved both performance and flow.
The evidence for hypnosis in sport is building. Miró and colleagues reviewed
13 studies and found hypnosis associated with better athletic performance,
better injury recovery and lower psychological distress. Franquelo and
colleagues (2022) reviewed 45 studies, and most reported positive effects of
hypnosis compared with other techniques. Pelka and colleagues (2016) reviewed
21 randomised trials and found hypnosis among the most effective techniques
across a range of performance measures.
The individual trials are specific. In a randomised study of 59 collegiate
soccer players, three sessions of hypnosis improved wall-volley performance and
confidence, and the difference was still there four weeks later (Barker, Jones
and Greenlees, 2010). A single 10-minute hypnotic session focused on the target
improved overhand throwing accuracy, and the gain was still present five to
eight days later while a control group stayed at their pre-test level (Jalene
and Wulf, 2014). In a randomised study of 20 university basketball players, the
hypnosis group improved free throw percentage significantly more than the
control group, with a large effect size (Muñoz-Avendaño and colleagues, 2024).
Combining cognitive methods with hypnosis is how I work, and two controlled
studies support that combination. Howard and Reardon (1986) randomly assigned
32 male weightlifters to four conditions over four weeks, and the
cognitive-hypnotic-imagery approach beat every other condition, including hypnosis
alone. In a trial of 30 players aged 14, eight sessions of group cognitive
behavioural therapy with hypnosis and positive imagery produced better
performance than a control group on shooting to a target, fixed passing and
moving passing (Hormozgan Medical Journal, 2018).
How do small gains
add up?
A marathon repeats the same movement tens of thousands of times. A runner
finishing in about three hours and forty five minutes, at about 175 steps a
minute, takes roughly 39,000 steps. An elite runner finishing in about two
hours and five minutes, at about 185 steps a minute, takes closer to 23,000.
Every one of those steps is a chance to run better.
Take a round figure of 40,000 steps. Saving one hundredth of a second on
every step saves 400 seconds, which is six minutes and forty seconds. That is a
personal best hiding inside your stride, and it is why small improvements in
foot placement, cadence and running form are worth chasing. A genuine
biomechanical improvement of even 2% in the effectiveness of your stride,
repeated across many thousands of footfalls, pays off in running time and in
energy retention, and it can support injury prevention.
Small margins matter in other sports too. Roger Federer told Dartmouth
graduates that he won almost 80% of the matches he played while winning only
54% of the points. A margin that thin built one of the great careers in sport.
Small improvements make for large gains, and the capacity to leave failures in
the past and focus on the point at hand, combined with talent and training,
produces significant success.
When your running coach identifies an adjustment for you, you practise it
physically, take the feedback and see what it does. Mental rehearsal adds
repetitions of the instructed rhythm and movement sequence between sessions,
until the pattern feels like your own. Research on choking under pressure,
including the well-known study of golf putting by Beilock and Carr (2001),
shows that well-learned skills run best when you are not monitoring each
component of the movement. Rehearsal does the work in preparation, so on race
day the movement runs automatically and your attention stays on the race.
Is sports hypnosis
only about confidence?
Sports hypnosis is often used for confidence, relaxation, motivation and
performance anxiety, and it can also support mental rehearsal of a specific
movement. The two uses address different problems, and most athletes gain from
both.
Take a tennis player who tightens up on the important points. I help that
player build ways to manage pressure, keep attention on the task and recover
quickly after a mistake. This is work on the mental side of performance, and it
holds whatever your technique looks like. Calm, focused attention on the big
points is a skill, and it can be trained.
Now take the same player working with a coach to refine a serve. The coach
sets the target: a particular sequence, rhythm or body position. You rehearse
that instructed movement in trance, on its own or alongside the work on
pressure, and every time your coach adjusts the instruction, I adjust the
rehearsal. The movement your coach wants becomes the movement you own.
If you perform well in training and lose it in competition, we start with
anxiety and attention. If you are steady in competition and working on a
technical change, we start with rehearsal. Your first sessions show us the
right order. Before your first appointment, try this: for one week, note each
time your performance drops, whether in training or in competition, and what
you were thinking just before. The record shows us straight away where to
start.
How do you build a
mental rehearsal plan?
The plan has six steps, and it repeats as new information arrives.
First, agree on one technical objective with your coach or other relevant
professional. Choose one movement, or one part of your technique, that you are
working to improve, specific enough to rehearse and to see. It might be the
sequence of a golf swing, the rhythm of a tennis serve or one element of a
swimming stroke. Your coach decides what to work on, and I build the rehearsal
around it. I do not prescribe technical changes and I do not interfere with
rehabilitation advice.
Second, define the intended movement. You and I establish exactly what your
coach wants practised, including the sequence, timing, rhythm and the bodily
sensations that go with it. If any part of the instruction needs sharpening, we
take it back to your coach first, so the rehearsal starts from a clear picture.
A useful question for your coach is whether the change can be described in one
sentence you can repeat to yourself. That sentence becomes the heart of your
rehearsal.
Third, rehearse under hypnosis. In a guided session, you imagine the
movement repeatedly with deep focus, from a first-person perspective, attending
to the sequence and sensations that matter for the task. You practise the
instructed process as well as the successful result. Schuster and colleagues
(2011) found that the successful imagery interventions in their review were
typically added after physical practice, so the best time to rehearse is after
a physical session, building on what you have just done.
Fourth, return to physical practice. Take the movement back to training.
Your coach watches, gives feedback and confirms that the change is taking hold,
and what you see and feel in practice shapes the next rehearsal.
Fifth, review and refine. Each rehearsal builds on the last. When your coach
adjusts the instruction, the rehearsal updates with it, and when something is
working, we do more of it.
Sixth, measure your progress. Where you can, you and your coach choose a
measure in advance, such as consistency, accuracy, timing or another outcome
for your sport. Numbers give you proof of progress, and they show you where to
push next.
What does one cycle
look like?
A tennis player's coach asks for a more forward toss on the serve. The coach
demonstrates the change, and the player practises it on court. After the
session, the player and I rehearse the toss and the movement that follows it,
using the coach's description. At the next lesson the coach reviews the serve,
notes the more consistent toss and refines the instruction, and the rehearsal
updates to match. The measure agreed beforehand, perhaps the proportion of
first serves landing in, is recorded before and after each cycle.
The cycle runs from instruction to physical practice, feedback, mental
rehearsal, physical testing and refinement. Every adjustment earns its place
against your actual performance, so you keep what works, build on it and move
on to the next improvement. For a running change, time the same route in
similar conditions before and after, and repeat it several times, because
weather, sleep, pacing and fatigue all move a single run. Your times across the
repeats show the gain.
Will my performance
improve?
If you do the work, and I have the right instruction from your coach, I will
give you your money back if it does not.
What should I ask a
sports hypnotherapist?
Ask what instruction the rehearsal is built on, who gave it and what measure
will show the result. At 1You the answers are your coach's instruction, your
coach, and a measure we agree before the first session.
Where to start
One movement, one adjustment and one measure. Rehearsal works alongside your training, coaching and recovery, and adds a layer of preparation to each. Bring your coach's instruction to a first session and we will build your rehearsal from it. To find out how this works for your sport, or to book, see sports hypnotherapy in Melbourne.
Research and
Further Reading
Barker, J., Jones, M. and Greenlees, I. (2010). Assessing the immediate and
maintained effects of hypnosis on self-efficacy and soccer wall-volley
performance. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 32(2), 243 to 252.
Beilock, S.L. and Carr, T.H. (2001). On the fragility of skilled
performance: What governs choking under pressure? Journal of Experimental
Psychology: General.
Driskell, J.E., Copper, C. and Moran, A. (1994). Does mental practice
enhance performance? Journal of Applied Psychology, 79(4), 481 to 492.
Franquelo, M.A., Hernández-Mendo, A. and Capafons, A. (2022). Eficacia de la
hipnosis en psicología del deporte: una revisión sistemática. Cuadernos de
Psicología del Deporte, 22(1), 81 to 99. doi:10.6018/cpd.481041
Howard, W.L. and Reardon, J.P. (1986). Changes in the self concept and
athletic performance of weight lifters through a cognitive-hypnotic approach:
an empirical study. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 28(4), 248 to 257.
Efficacy of cognitive behavior therapy with positive imagination of success
during hypnotism on athletic performance. Hormozgan Medical Journal (2018),
22(4). doi:10.5812/hmj.86481
Jalene, S. and Wulf, G. (2014). Brief hypnotic intervention increases
throwing accuracy. International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, 9(1),
199 to 206.
Metaanálisis: efectos de técnicas de preparación mental basadas en
imaginería e hipnosis sobre flow y rendimiento deportivo. Pensar en Movimiento
(2020), 18(1). doi:10.15517/pensarmov.v18i1.39287
Miró, A., Mesperuza, M., Jensen, M.P., Day, M.A., García, F. and Miró, J.
Therapeutic hypnosis and sports performance: a systematic review. International
Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology.
Muñoz-Avendaño, M. et al. (2024). Efecto de la hipnosis y mindfulness sobre
el rendimiento deportivo en baloncesto. Cuadernos de Psicología del Deporte,
24(3), 145 to 161. doi:10.6018/cpd.584861
Pelka, M., Heidari, J., Ferrauti, A., Meyer, T., Pfeiffer, M. and Kellmann,
M. (2016). Relaxation techniques in sports: a systematic review on acute
effects on performance. Performance Enhancement and Health, 5(2).
doi:10.1016/j.peh.2016.05.003
Schuster, C. et al. (2011). Best practice for motor imagery: a systematic
literature review on motor imagery training elements in five different
disciplines. BMC Medicine, 9, 75. doi:10.1186/1741-7015-9-75
Yandell, J. (2006). Rafael Nadal's Forehand. TennisPlayer