Pre-Fight Performance Anxiety

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Permalink Reply by tom keane on February 7, 2009 at 10:01am

the technique used by Tony Quinn is to get the client to keep repeating the suggestions to them selfs as the walk up to the ring.

once you have set up the suggestions and they are produceing the right state they can be repeated over and over again to get the person in to the zone.

im not sure what the exact words were that were used but i think it was something like im going to kill him, im going to kill him......


In 1996 Steve Collins beat Chris Eubank for the World Boxing Organisations Super-middleweight title. Much of his sports success being attributed to the focusing of attention created by hypnosis administered by Dr Tony Quinn, himself a former Champion bodybuilder. Collins was programmed to deliver two punches to Eubank’s one. In the fight Eubank threw 300 punches, Collins threw over 600.

Permalink Reply by wiseOWL on February 8, 2009 at 7:42pm

Hi, all. Great to hear some excellent comments and tips.
I thought I'd share something with you, although not specific to anxiety, it help confidence and performance tremendously, leading to reduced anxiety and fear.

A friend of mine, and a great fighter, who was recently facing an opponent known for speed, and was becoming increasingly concerned about his lack of speed training (I'm not an expert on martial arts, but I got the impression he focuses on strength and power, but not enough on speed).

The short lead time didn't allow him to get as much training as he wanted, and asked me for help mentally, to overcome his limiting beliefs and negative self talk.

Being new to hypnosis, I believe my strength comes from my lack of experience; hence I'm forced to be creative in finding ways to help clients. In this case I decided on 2 techniques (mastery of time & heightened senses) to help my friend, and proceeded to teach him to slow down time during a fight, and taught him how to go into an up-trance heightening his visual sense.

After winning the fight, he commented that despite his opponent's speed, he felt like the fight was playing out in slow motion, and that he could notice subtle movements in his opponent's body which helped him predict the movements a lot quicker.

Having these skills not only helped him win, but also gave him a psychological advantage and a confidence boost.
(What's funny, is that he can't remember being concerned, and claims to have been confident all along :-)

I don't know if this will help anyone, but if it does, please let me know.

Permalink Reply by John Maclean on March 18, 2010 at 5:10am

Well done with your fighters success! I too have worked with Cage Fighters (and even one who didn't like hitting anyone!) and had great success. One thing I would point out when dealing with sports anxiety is to remember that some anxiety is desirable as it necessary to keep alert. In Sports Psychology circles we use the term "arousal" and ensure that the appropriate levels of arousal are present. For example. If you were to completely eliminate all anxiety/arousal from your client they would not have the proper level of awareness and concentration. Another important aspect is varying focus. I hear many hypnotherapists talk about help their clients maintain focus but few who know anything about "varying focus". The concept of "Tunnel Vision" is very important here. Tunnel vision can be described as the ability to focus attention whilst avoiding distractions. Most elite levels of competition are based mainly on an athlete’s ability to zone into “tunnel vision” maintaining focus and concentration before and during the competition. Whilst this ability is desirable there are situations whereby tunnel vision can hamper performance. Sometimes an athlete needs to have a “broader” field of vision in order to avoid obstacles and injury. In the desired case, tunnel vision allows concentration when and if it is desired. A successful athlete has the ability to broaden or narrow their vision as required. In a team sport such as football the athlete will be required to regularly change their focus from broad to narrow and back again, whereas a sprinter needs to maintain the tunnel vision and avoid distractions. In using hypnosis I help the client to automatically switch focus when it is needed. Also we must not confuse focus with "concentration" which is a very different thing.

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