There is a long and fruitful history of hypnosis in sport, sometimes recorded under different names such as mind conditioning or autogenic training. For the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, the Russian team took with them no less than 11 hypnotists and during the 1978/79 tour of Australia, Mike Brearley, the English captain, sought the services of a medical hypnotherapist. In the early 1980s, hypnotist Peter Siegel worked with bodybuilder Lee Haney who won the Mr. Olympia title eight years in a row! In 1985 he also worked with bodybuilder Mike Christian who managed to conclusively win the Mr. America and Mr. Universe titles.

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Hypnosis in Sport - a Brief History
There is a long and fruitful history of hypnosis in sport, sometimes recorded
under different names such as mind conditioning or autogenic training.
For the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, the Russian team took with them no
less than 11 hypnotists and during the 1978/79 tour of Australia, Mike
Brearley, the English captain, sought the services of a medical
hypnotherapist. In the early 1980s, hypnotist Peter Siegel worked with
bodybuilder Lee Haney who won the Mr. Olympia title eight years in a row!
In 1985 he also worked with bodybuilder Mike Christian who managed to
conclusively win the Mr. America and Mr. Universe titles.
Even heavy-weight boxing champion Mike Tyson had his very own personal hypnotist named John Halpin.
Players from the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Raiders,
New York Islanders, Dallas Cowboys, Florida Marlins, New York Rangers have all used hypnosis as part of
their training. Yet, a lot of athletes who use hypnosis will not freely admit it mainly due to the myths surround
hypnosis and it’s ‘magical’ power of making you do things you don’t want to do. Or turn you into a chicken!
Hypnosis needn’t be limited to the champions of the sporting world or the
high flyers. It can be mastered and put to work by anyone, at any level. A
few key self hypnosis techniques are Visualisation, Focusing on Success
(Getting in the Zone), Overcoming Fear, Reinforcing Positive Thinking etc.
Each and every thought that goes through your mind impacts every cell in
your body, almost instantaneously, through chemical and electronic
changes. Your muscles are impacted directly and instantly by our inner
thoughts. Sports psychologists teach athletes techniques of silencing or
controlling their inner dialogue. "Don't double fault" is often followed by a
double fault. "What if I lose the next game" is often followed by losing thenext game. This is where hypnosis
established itself as the leader in ‘pre-performance’ practice. It silences negative thoughts whilst disciplining
the mind in accessing positive thoughts and images.
As you have seen, many well-known athletes have worked with highly trained hypnotherapists to achieve
significant gains in their personal performance, regardless of their sport. Since the subconscious mind is driving
force between most of our beliefs and behaviours, it makes sense that a technique which elicits change at the
subconscious level can be highly effective.
Tennis star Andre Agassi, worked extensively with Anthony Robbins, utilizing NLP and hypnosis whilst Phil
Jackson, coach of the Chicago Bulls, says that they practised daily self-hypnosis when he coached Michael
Jordan and the Bulls to their six NBA Championships.
Of course, hypnosis or self hypnosis cannot turn a complete novice into a multi world championship winning
superstar, certainly not overnight! It will amplify and improve existing talent/performance and build on it through
eliminating self imposed or acquired barriers to that performance. It can be the difference between that gold
medal and 5th place. Self belief and confidence are essential to high performance and hypnosis has been
proven time and time again to help expand that realm of possibility. Removing anxiety and self doubt, you can
access an abundance of new resources that would have been out of reach.

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It is often said that sports are 90%, 95%, or even 99.9% mental. Athletes are
exceptional individuals. Dedicating their lives to becoming the best at their
discipline of choice. Throughout history it’s become evident that mental
training and mental coaching are just as important as fitness.
“What do you do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.”
- Dean Smith (US Olympic Men’s Basketball Coach). You can be the pinnacle of
fitness and if you get stuck in negative thought cycle that prevents you from putting
that strength and that skill to work, it can mean the end of your career.
Hypnosis has been prevalent in sport for so many years and across so many
disciplines because hypnosis works. And it works regardless of the type of sport or
the athlete’s physique or social status. It works because the mind is the driver, the
muscles follow and perform based on the mind’s game.
All athletes need to be doing some form of mental training to be keeping up with the
opposition, sport is changing and you need to change with the times.
Local, National and International programs including on-line programs are available through the Athlete’s
Secret Weapon website atwww.atletessecretweapon.com.

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About Stuart | Australia's #1 for Sport Hypnosis
“You are what you choose to believe you can be”
• Professional Clinical Hypnotherapist
• Australia’s No. 1 for Sports Hypnotherapy
• Published author of ‘The Dear Diary Process’ book
• Creator of the ‘Meta 4 Kids’ program
• Co-creator of the FitMind program
• Presenter and speaker
As a professionally trained hypnotherapist, I specialise in elite athletes and
sporting teams. Incredibly the same way athletes work allows me to integrate
my abilities and awesome processes into business performance, working with
people to maximise performance and attitude.
My sporting clients include Olympians, National, Commonwealth and 25 World
Champions and… add to this a collection of professional golfers, footballers
from every code, surfers, netballers and motorsport drivers and teams.
Within the walls of my professional offices in Brisbane, Australia many lives have been transformed forever by
releasing their potential. Once we remove blockages, doubts, fears, beliefs and old habits that are restricting them,
life becomes awesome.
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