Working with Groups of Athletes

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Permalink Reply by James Hazlerig - HypnosisAustin on October 26, 2009 at 6:59am

Lemon experiment and buckets/balloons are both great group activities. Just about any of the "suggestibilty tests" that stage performers use will work well in this situation.

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Permalink Reply by Gale Neiderworder on October 26, 2009 at 7:45am

Thank you,

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Permalink Reply by James Malone on October 26, 2009 at 9:52am

Gale, a good icebreaker w/athletes is to do some simple muscle testing or kinesiology. Have a volunteer extend their arm out and you place the fingertips of one your hands on their shoulder and other on their wrist. Tell them to resist your downwards push whenever you say "resist". Then have them say the word "weak" out loud 3X, then say resist and push down, usually the arm and shoulder become much weaker. Then have them say "strong" out loud 3X and test again, usually the strength is much greater. A solid demonstration about how the subconscious responds to self-talk

Another one that works well with groups is to have all extend their righty arm straight out to the side. Have them look down their arm to their fingertip. Then ask them to twist as far to the rights as they can comfortably and to notice where they stop/what they are pointing at. Then have the group face forward, lower their arm and close their eyes. Ask them to imagine that they are twisting around again and able to go much further then they did the last time. Allow everyone a few moments to to do this and then have them imagine returning to the neutral standing position. Have them open their eyes and redo the twisting test as before and usually most will have twisted much further- an illustration of how effective visualization can be.

I also have a free ebook on sports improvement called Unleash Your Inner Winner that you can download at http://www.njhypno.com/sports_golf_hypnosis_new_jersey_.html

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Permalink Reply by Kelley Woods on October 26, 2009 at 12:35pm

Hello Gale,

I use a wonderful imagery technique with groups of athletes that is posted here in the Scripts Group: http://www.hypnothoughts.com/forum/topics/scripts-1?groupUrl=script...

It is suitable once you have done some convincers and group induction. Hope you like it!

Best wishes,

Kelley

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Permalink Reply by Gale Neiderworder on October 26, 2009 at 2:06pm

Thank you great informaiton

James Malone said:

Gale, a good icebreaker w/athletes is to do some simple muscle testing or kinesiology. Have a volunteer extend their arm out and you place the fingertips of one your hands on their shoulder and other on their wrist. Tell them to resist your downwards push whenever you say "resist". Then have them say the word "weak" out loud 3X, then say resist and push down, usually the arm and shoulder become much weaker. Then have them say "strong" out loud 3X and test again, usually the strength is much greater. A solid demonstration about how the subconscious responds to self-talk

Another one that works well with groups is to have all extend their righty arm straight out to the side. Have them look down their arm to their fingertip. Then ask them to twist as far to the rights as they can comfortably and to notice where they stop/what they are pointing at. Then have the group face forward, lower their arm and close their eyes. Ask them to imagine that they are twisting around again and able to go much further then they did the last time. Allow everyone a few moments to to do this and then have them imagine returning to the neutral standing position. Have them open their eyes and redo the twisting test as before and usually most will have twisted much further- an illustration of how effective visualization can be.

I also have a free ebook on sports improvement called Unleash Your Inner Winner that you can download at http://www.njhypno.com/sports_golf_hypnosis_new_jersey_.html

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Permalink Reply by Gale Neiderworder on October 26, 2009 at 2:06pm

Thank you!

Kelley Woods said:

Hello Gale,

I use a wonderful imagery technique with groups of athletes that is posted here in the Scripts Group: http://www.hypnothoughts.com/forum/topics/scripts-1?groupUrl=script...

It is suitable once you have done some convincers and group induction. Hope you like it!

Best wishes,

Kelley

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Permalink Reply by Gale Neiderworder on October 26, 2009 at 2:20pm

It is a team..

Mr Green said:

I'd be interested to know if this is a team or individual athletes?

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Permalink Reply by Pattie Freeman CH.t, MST on October 26, 2009 at 10:43pm

when working with athletes it all depends what you are wanting to achieve I do alot of sports enhancement you should be able to do well with the group

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Permalink Reply by Gale Neiderworder on October 27, 2009 at 6:09am

Thank you I like this...

Mr Green said:

This was before I was a hypnotist.

I worked with a team of football players (Soccer) a time back. After a few sessions with the team in just watching and learning about the team it was apparent that some kind of unconscious pecking order was in place among the players, some were good and some were very good. In a coaching capacity I joined in with their training and would watch and play a bit.

After training the team would sit around in the club bar and share a coke etc and arrange for the next match, this gave me a great idea. I went through the coach to do this so it wasn't some fool (me) introducing a crazy game.

At the end of the training the last thing the team would do was split into two teams and play against each other so I suggested to the coach. Everyone had to bring in an item of clothing that belonged to either their girlfriend, wife, or mother.. after training the team that lost would have to wear the item of clothing in the club bar.. A few of the players looked at us like, "yea right.. like were gonna do that.." but then we started to put a competitive edge on it. soon the players were up for it mostly, and as we were asking every player to bring in an item anyone claiming to not have an item would be lent the most hideous one from a co player.

The next training session went really well, the coach split the team in favor of the weaker players and soon enough the players were all playing for pride, as well as not having to wear the wives bra etc.. The team were all encouraging each other, having a laugh, and most importantly remembering the word 'team'.. we stood on the sidelines waving bra, funny hats and girls T shirts on the sidelines at quite a public park.. After this the team were back to being a unit.. and then I worked more on their goals individually and as a team.

It was a good ice breaker for me and also it got the team together.

When doing this I was invited as a coach to work with the team (long before I was doing Hypnosis)

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Permalink Reply by Yvonne Munshi on October 27, 2009 at 7:47am

Hi, may I add to James Malones reply below: instead of just saying RESIST or WEAK, ask them to think of something they love to eat, or someone they love, and as a contrast to think of something they hate to eat, or a person they hate or deeply dislike. the result is the same, but the effect might bring the message home in a more fun way.
regards Yvonne Munshi

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Permalink Reply by Gale Neiderworder on October 27, 2009 at 12:03pm

thank you

Yvonne Munshi said:

Hi, may I add to James Malones reply below: instead of just saying RESIST or WEAK, ask them to think of something they love to eat, or someone they love, and as a contrast to think of something they hate to eat, or a person they hate or deeply dislike. the result is the same, but the effect might bring the message home in a more fun way.
regards Yvonne Munshi

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