BUILDING BELIEF IN ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE WITH PERFORMANCE HYPNOSIS

Dr. Keith A. Wilson

On July 10, 1999, the Rose Bowl hosted a pivotal event in the history of women’s sports in the world. 90,185 fans crowded into the Rose Bowl to see the U.S. Women’s soccer team defeat China for the 1999 World Cup. It was a very tough match which the U.S. eventually won by penalty kicks after a scoreless game and overtime.

MICHELLE AKERS

As my family and I sat there in the Rose Bowl that day enjoying this spectacular event, I noticed another game within the game. I focused a lot on Michelle Akers. My eyes kept focusing on her: 1) because of her stature as a soccer player; 2) because I knew her story of enduring chronic fatigue syndrome while playing world class soccer; and 3) because I met her in person at a soccer meeting two years ago.

Akers dominated the midfield. She was simply everywhere. She was a physical presence. But one had to wonder how long she could go on. How long would her body allow her to play with such intensity? You could see her fight through exhaustion and keep going. You could see she was fighting the mental and physical battle of her athletic life.

In the recent Sports Illustrated article (Dec 20, 1999) where the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team was named “Sportswomen of the Year,” part of Akers’ mental battle is chronicled:

For the entire second half Akers was delirious. She was oblivious to
the crowd noise. The only thing she was aware of was the pounding in
her head and the words going through it with every step she took: Only
20 more minutes. Don’t quit. Only 19 more minutes. Track that ball.
Don’t look at the clock. Win this head ball. Only 16 more minutes. Only
15 more minutes. Win this tackle. Get lost in the game. Don’t quit. Don’t
quit. Do not quit. (pg54)

This is an incredible example of a world-class athlete who created such mental toughness through her personal and professional crises that she was able to will her body to play world-class soccer on a day when the chronic fatigue syndrome had zapped her body of strength. Yet Akers believed her mental toughness skills would allow her to play, and play very well, in the most important women’s soccer game in history.

Her example leads us to the question: How do the rest of us build belief in our mental and physical skills? We may not face the challenges of Michelle Akers, but each of us faces the possibility of caving in and collapsing under pressure. We want to believe our mental skills will pull us through a difficult athletic challenge. But often we face the reality that we have not prepared our mental toughness skills to the level we need for success under duress.

BUILDING BELIEF SYSTEMS

Building belief in your mental and physical skills is a long term process. This is why there are so many hours of practice. Doing the task over and over again makes it automatic. Physically the player believes she can strike the ball well and put it where she wants it time after time. This is the foundation of high level performance.

Building belief in mental skills is a good example of how one can acquire skills and then lose faith in them when they fail under pressure. Solid belief systems are built as crisis comes to the system and it fails and the athlete must revamp and learn a higher level of mental skill.

Visualization is a good example. Many athletes have tried it but have given it up because their level of expertise failed under pressure and they did not know how to move to the next level. Many people do not want their belief system to be challenged because it raises the potential question about whether they were wrong to believe in the skill or was the skill level not adequate for the situation at hand?

When crisis challenges a belief system, the athlete could ignore the challenge and wonder why the skill doesn’t work. Or the athlete could choose to look for a different level of the skill and then take the time to learn this new skill as well. After the new skill has been learned, it too must face challenges in order for the athlete to have confidence and belief in the skill.

This is the same process a pitcher goes through learning physical skills of pitching. One does not just introduce a new pitch in the ninth inning of the World Series. Instead, the pitch has to be tested and challenged many times under less pressure in order for the pitcher to have confidence in the new physical skill.

One of Yogi Berra’s famous statements is “Baseball is 90% mental; the other half is physical.” If this statement is even mostly true then the question is still important—how do you build belief in your mental skills? Mental toughness is more difficult to teach. The field of sport psychology has worked to provide structures to help which includes skills like goal setting, visualization, and anxiety control.

Many athletes are skeptical of the power of these skills because it is sometimes difficult to make the connection between these skills and performance on the athletic field. If the connection is not made then it just feels like an exercise to do while bored. It does not seem to help performance on the field.

PAIN CONTROL

Performance Hypnosis helps to build belief in mental skills because of the physical changes the athlete can feel and replicate time and time again. As an example, pain control is vital to most high level athletes because injury is a part of any sport. Often the athlete has to play through pain in order to achieve his goals. Often times the athlete and trainer will go through great lengths to relieve pain in order to let the player play. Some of the time this even happens at the peril of further injury.

Pain control can happen in several ways for the athlete. The most common is through medication. Taking a pain killer or using a spray to deaden the injury is often used. The athlete usually does not control this intervention; the decision is made by another person. The second method is by natural means. Many times we have heard of an athlete playing with broken bones or severe bruises but not realizing he was injured due to the adrenaline flowing in his body. This allows the athlete to ignore or not recognize the pain.

The third option comes from Performance Hypnosis. Clinical hypnosis has long been used to control pain in many situations. Examples range from dental pain to childbirth to even forms of surgery having been performed with only hypnosis as the anesthetic intervention. The mind has the capability to block out pain when the person understands why the pain is there and they understand the risks one takes if not feeling the pain.

One would not want to risk further injury by using hypnosis for pain control. However, Performance Hypnosis can enhance performance if the athlete believes his mind can block out the pain so he can perform well without fear of pain. Belief in the mind’s ability to creatively deal with pain is best illustrated by the Performance Hypnosis technique of glove anesthesia. This is not a hypnotic skill that one learns in one session but usually takes many sessions to perfect this skill.

GLOVE ANESTHESIA

Glove anesthesia is a very powerful hypnotic demonstration of the mind/body connection. The trainer starts the person in a trance and then begins the more difficult procedure of glove anesthesia. The trainer enables the client to make their hand numb to the touch. The hand is so anesthetized that is not able to feel a sharp object run across the hand. When one is very good with this procedure the trainer can stick a needle into the fleshy part of the hand and the client will not feel pain.

The importance of this hypnotic procedure is not that it is a stage trick; instead, it is ratification (confirmation) of the power of the mind to overcome pain. This creates significant belief in the athlete that he can block out unwanted pain and continue his performance. (This leads to a more complex discussion about the use of hypnotic anesthesia and when best to use it but that is not the focus of this paper.) This experience is a deep well from which the athlete can draw strength and courage. The athlete builds the belief that he can endure, modulate or block out the pain completely.

This experience clearly creates a stronger belief system in the mental skills of the athlete. It is a tangible result. It can be touched and felt. The experience is powerful because it can be recreated over and over again. The athlete can probably replicate this process more consistently than he can make 3-point shots.

The athlete most likely will use a modification of this skill when performing because he may want to feel some of the pain. As a marathon runner may want to associate with the pain to know he is pushing his body appropriately. However, he may turn down the intensity of the pain so it is not so distractive.

STRONG BELIEF SYSTEMS

When one is able to build a strong belief system, it is time tested and the athlete knows it will work under many different experiences and situations. A Performance Hypnosis skill like glove anesthesia gives the athlete a reference point in his belief system that he can control or modulate pain. Consequently he will not be as distracted by the pain and his performance should improve because of the power of his mind and his belief system.

When the belief system is solid and strong it invites the athlete to reflect upon their performance and evaluate the mental strength they demonstrated in the competition. Once again Michelle Akers gives us a good example of an athlete who knows her athletic and personal belief system is strong and able to be tested. After winning the World Cup she wrote these words in her journal:

I looked in the mirror last night and saw the weary face of a battleworn
soldier-warrior. But the eyes said it all. Exhausted, but fulfilled, satisfied.
We did it. (pg. 60)

Dr. Keith A. Wilson is a psychotherapist and performance consultant in El Paso, Texas. He works with individual athletes, local club and university sports teams and travels nationally to speak and consult on issues of youth sport parenting and performance under pressure in a variety of venues. He is certified in clinical hypnosis by the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. Dr. Wilson can be reached by e-mail at Wilson@thewinningmind.com.