When it won't go in, how to make it go in
I would have written about this yesterday but the previous day I’d already stated what yesterday’s writings would be about. It’s now two days ago since West Ham beat Liverpool in an FA Cup replay to end that particular campaign for Liverpool this season, but it wasn’t all bad for Liverpool. Daniel Sturridge came on as a substitute marking his return from injury and Christian Benteke started the game and played well having quite a few chances to score but as they say, when it won’t go in, it won’t go in. The rest of the team, some of whom are up and coming youngsters and not experienced first team players, showed they were worthy of their place on the squad. The “old guard” need to bear in mind the players to replace them may already be at the club, work harder. How could hypnotherapy have had an effect on this game? Let’s take Christian Benteke for example, he is obviously a striker going through a dry spell. All strikers do at some stage and a manager has to make the decision as to how long to give him before dropping him. Hypnotherapy can reduce the time he needs and hears how. The problem is a confidence one, it’s the self-fulfilling prophecy thing again. I’ve covered this in other blogs so I won’t touch on it much in this blog. I would start by regressing Benteke back to some of the chances he’s had recently to score but failed to do so. I would ask him to describe how he’s feeling, thoughts and emotions before he takes the shot. I would then do the same but regressed back to goals he actually scored during a prolific scoring period. There would likely be a difference. In the prolific period he would probably be thinking along the lines of “easy, another goal” or not consciously thinking anything at all, but during the dry spell “do I go left or right, hope I don’t miss, must not miss” may be running through his mind. The difference is during the prolific period he’s confident, doesn’t even contemplate not scoring but during the dry spell he may feel under pressure from the press, club and fans to score and his thoughts actually increase that pressure tenfold. He tries to make conscious decisions when he should be just let the subconscious decide where to place the ball and letting his muscle memory take over. In other words he should just do it, not think about it. So after identifying the differences in his thinking and thought process I would keep him regressing too and re-living those successful goal scoring experiences to re-establish a positive self-fulfilling prophecy. After that as footballers are people just like everyone else, some are superstitious and have a pre-game good luck routine. I don’t know if Benteke does but if he does I would give him a post hypnotic suggestion that as he goes through that routine he will enter the same positive frame of mind he had during his prolific goal scoring period. He could also be given a post hypnotic suggestion to say, clench his right hand when having an attempt on goal and immediately enter that same prolific period frame of mind. It’s not important what the actual post hypnotic suggestion is, it is important it works and if it requires him doing anything to trigger it, such as clench a fist, it’s practical so it can actually be done. The other thing to remember is not to overload the client with post hypnotic suggestion in one session. The more you give in one session the less likely they are to take hold, so I’d keep them to a minimum. Other suggestions which may be helpful would include “if you miss, forget it, let it go there will be another chance” or “I want you to play every game as if you’re the best striker in the world” (this won’t make anybody as good as the best striker in the world, but will make them as confident) or something along those lines. Christian Benteke is of course Belgian and as such English is not his native language. I mention this only because hypnosis can be less effective for people hypnotised in a second language. The better the command of the language used the more affective hypnotherapy will be.
This technique can not only be used for any position but also for any sport. The trick is setting the correct mind set and choosing and appropriate, practical post hypnotic suggestion. So if you play sport and would like to see improvement, or feel you could do with boosting your confidence in some other area, why not give hypnotherapy a try.