Sports Fear or Timidity

QUESTION:

          Hi Del, The situation is this:  my 12 1/2 year old son plays on a highly competitive soccer team. He only joined the team last fall after making tryouts, which was his urging and desire to do.  He has always had a natural aggression for the ball and a passion for the sport.  He would not have been selected for the team if had not had the aptitude.  Skillwise, he  has grown tremendously-- starting out last season as a substitute and working his way to a starter position during the winter training sessions and scrimmages. He likes his coach, his teammates, and continues to enjoy the game for the sheer thrill of it. However, since he has played for this team,  he seems to get "stage fright," or more appropriately, "game fright," and doesn't play nearly as well as he does in practice or scrimmages that "don't matter". 

          When I asked him what goes on his mind on the game field, he said  that when he makes one mistake during a game, he thinks, "oh no, I can't do it again,"  and then he "does it again,"  -- paradoxically talking himself into performing poorly.  Please make no mistake -- I do not have a particular need for my son to be a soccer star.  However, I do think he needs to work through this self-defeating behavior in some manner because it's affecting the very thing he loves most to do, but I have no idea how to help him or not help him.  Out of the game situation, he is poetry in motion on the soccer field.   In short, can hypnosis help for this kind of thing?  Thank you. 

ANSWER:

            Yes, hypnosis is extremely helpful for athletes.  Many professional athletes use visualization on a regular basis, which is a form of hypnosis.  There are various methods like this that can reach the deeper mind, the unconscious self, to change whatever habits, fear, or lack of confidence is interfering in better performance.  Hypnotic methods can help any player become more consistent, and move beyond mistakes to continue to play well.  It can transfer good practicing into good playing by learning, more regularly, to trust what one has learned. It can get a player beyond fear due to injury, where they regain their aggressiveness without harming themselves or others.