The rising cost of college tuition has forced many parents and students to depend on the promise of sports-related scholarships to make ends meet. Unfortunately, the lure of taking that financial route may have some drawbacks. For example, the high expectations of pushing for “scholarship performance” can take something that a child loves to do and twist it into something they have to do to please everybody.

 Sports performance issues are something I see with regularity in my office, here at Family First Hypnosis.   The call is almost always the same thing – “My child is great in practice, but when it counts he/she fails in some way”.  That “failing” could be a missed shot, it could be a poor judgment call at a critical time or perhaps the most common complaint, the student-athlete just freezes or “chokes”.

 So, just what is choking?  Most sports experts would say it is a failure to perform that comes on suddenly.  This can happen as a momentary loss of purpose, control of a ball or the ability to act or react in a way that the athlete is capable of.  Choking, is also, the most frustrating thing for a parent or coach to watch because everyone knows the young athlete has the ability, but the hiccups just keep happening. The saddest thing is that as the season progresses, as the tournaments commence and as the college team scouts start their searches, choking can get worse and worse becuase the pressure to perform is critical.  

 Verywellfit.com has a great article on Sports Psychology for Performance Anxiety In their article they say – “Coaches can also help or hinder an athlete’s ability to overcome choking during competition. Coaches often inadvertently reinforce a pattern of choking when trying to encourage (“the next shot is critical”). Such talk only increases the pressure an athlete feels to perform.” You can read more here – https://www.verywellfit.com/sports-psychology-for-performance-anxiety-3119436

 There are libraries full of books on sports advice, all dipping their toes into Sports Psychology, but very few look deeper into the reason why athletes choke. The real reasons why each athlete chokes are buried deep in the subconscious, and to the surprise of many in the sports profession, have little or nothing to do with what happens on the field, court or in the gym.

 You’ll find some more traditional advice sources briefly touching on my point, such as Psychology Today here they wrote – “Athletes need to both play as if they don’t care about the outcome while simultaneously giving the game their all”. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-new-you/201507/how-stop-choking-under-pressure However, getting that concept across to a 14-17-year-old athlete, who feels the weight of their whole social circle’s expectations on their shoulders, can be a bit tricky. 

And so, once again, we are led to the subconscious, where fears and automatic reactions are generated.  Getting into the subconscious, accessing the information there, and getting the necessary insight the athlete needs to shift their perception and their performance is absolutely critical.  The ability to do this consistently with individual clients and their particular sports situation is what separates a good sports hypnotist from an exceptional one.  Book your free telephone consultation right here on www.familyfirsthypnosis.com