In my brochure on Self Hypnosis I make a quip that the process is so powerful it can even improve your tennis game. Tongue-in-cheek aside, it may well be true. More and more world class athletes in every sport are using the technique to enhance their performances.

Picture the scene at a past World Cup Track Meet. One of the participants in the 400m race, Iwan Thomas, gently tugs on his left ear before the start. It's a subtle movement he uses to help block out the noise of the crowd and the runners on either side of him. Evidently it works; he wins in record time. Thomas uses hypnosis to help keep calm and focused. The action of pulling his ear lobe is known as an associative post-hypnotic command, which brings him into a heightened state of concentration.

This concept of "creating an anchor" or visualizing a positive experience, is called "going into the zone" in the parlance of the sports world. The process works as follows. While fully relaxed in a hypnotic trance - the space between sleep and consciousness - the athlete is able to gain access to his or her unconscious mind and the emotional state associated with the sporting event.

The connection between the feelings from the past and the anxieties undermining the performance necessary to succeed in the sport, become linked. By recognizing the connection, a change in how the athlete performs when confronting a pressure situation, is possible. Previous "failures" are revealed as automatic responses to a long ago trauma, not the result of athletic shortcomings. The competitor realizes there is no reason to be stuck in old, self-destructive patterns of behavior. Winning becomes "permissible."

Too bad former Bears coach Dave Wannstedt wasn't a believer in the technique. The season before he was fired, I wrote him a letter offering to help the players visualize winning. He never answered. The team finished with four wins and twelve losses! I'm not promising you'll break par or become the club tennis champion, but hypnotherapy might be worth a try. Call me if you're interested.

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