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Kate, Basketball player - Case study 5.

An example of the ability to subconsciously direct oneself to fail in the sporting arena is the concept that a person is unable to complete a task at a competent level on more than one occasion, in a single session. Let me give you an example, her name was Kate, although she was an International Hockey player, surprisingly she approached me about her basketball skills at University level.
Kate's hockey was her 'main' sport, certainly it was the game she went to University to pursue, Basketball was her way of relaxing. However over the last few months something in her game had become disjointed, which stopped her enjoyment as she felt she was letting the rest of the team down. It was no longer a game of relaxation but frustration.
The problem was that in match games Kate was the predominant basket taker (free throws) if the team approached the scoring area. This was fine, Kate enjoyed the opportunity to excel, the aspect that was troubling her was the fact that she was often expected to take a succession of shots all in a short period of time.
Fine I said what's the problem? "Well, you can't get a basket every time in succession, can you?" "Why not?" I inquired? "The law of averages, I suppose?" She replied! Apparently, and I have found this to be a problem in almost every scoring sport, it's perfectly acceptable to take a shot at a basket (for example) and to get the ball in on the first shot. But if you take ten shots for instance, then the majority will not go in. Kate explained this concept to me in detail. So I asked whether it was possible to come to the gym on ten separate occasions and take one shot each day, and get that shot into the net every single time? Well, yes that did seem to be possible in Kate's mind. So, the upturn of this idea is that, a sports person can get a direct shot one or two times, sometimes up to five times out of ten, but it is unacceptable to be able to get every single shot out of ten, well, certainly not during the same session. Initially this amazed me when I first heard such a story. In my mind it's clear that the physical external aspects of the game always remain the same, how then is it not possible to get every shot if one is skilled enough to get the first or second? The answer is in the mind. It is a fault that our society programmes us to believe, it is the law of averages, when in reality, it's just up to us. Surely you might miss some, but you don't have to!
I agreed to work with Kate using hypnosis to eliminate this mental block and to release her potential. This was fairly simple and only took one session, mainly on the grounds that she was an accomplished athlete and had confidence in her abilities. The other major aspect was that Kate had many good quality past references to back her self up as being a winner.
The main focus in this sort of problem is internal dialogue (usually a major factor in the rising of this problem) and concentration. The focus on past success was able to evoke some extra confidence in Kate and some added positive suggestions were also applied. I taught Kate to notice the self-talk that she communicated to herself and to eliminate doubt by changing this for the positive.
Another aspect that one almost always needs to undertake is to watch the player in their sporting environment and to notice differences in their play. The times in which they are successful compared to when they are unsuccessful. This might be a physiological style difference or a mental one.
Kate was soon back on track with her shots, and reluctantly admitted that it was true that perhaps ten baskets out of ten in succession was a possibility, and proved this to be the case.
Basketball hypnosis