Training
clinics are great opportunities to learn tips and techniques from celebrated athletes
in your sport. Similarly, you can improve your skill by watching and critiquing
video-recordings of yourself training and/or discussing your observations with
your coach. Finally, you can also learn a lot observing other members of your
team when they are training or competing, and listening to the coach’s advice or
instruction to the other athlete.
One
benefit of this kind of vicarious training is that you can observe what the athlete
is doing and how he or she is doing it, in terms of what the instructor is asking
for. You will also have a firsthand look at how the technique looks when it is
done correctly or incorrectly, accompanied by the trainer’s feedback to the
athlete without the pressure of being in the spotlight, yourself. You can focus
on and mentally process these instructions and corrections in the context their
being a (hopefully) supportive critique of that athlete’s technical
performance. You can then incorporate what you learned during this “lesson”
into visualization and imagery exercises to improve your own execution of that
or a similar technique.
Another benefit
of vicarious training is that you can test your skill at identifying those
minute technical movements that facilitate the successful execution of a
technique or an error. If the student makes similar mistakes that your coach
has also previously called you on, listen closely to his or her suggestions to
correct that error. Hypnotherapist and Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder
John Kappas, Ph.D. explained why suggestibility can be a game-changer in how
you perceive and process information no matter how clear and concise these
instructions are. For example, a physical
suggestible person learns best from direct and literal instructions or cues
from the environment. This athlete will take in the instruction at the moment
it is given during the training session when learning how to do the technique
or correct a previous mistake. However, an emotional
suggestible learns from metaphor and inference. In addition to taking in
the literal instructions, this athlete truly learns by projecting the coach’s corrections
and tips for the other student onto
his or her own athletic performance. This is one reason why vicarious learning
opportunities such as viewing training videos, auditing clinics and watching
peers practice or compete in the sport are so effective in improving athletic
performance.
Finally, you are
also likely to glean additional information about the sport, in general, and
the specific technique or movement being practiced, during conversations
between the instructor and the athlete. Even if you have heard it all before,
as it were, it is beneficial to listen to this information again to reinforce the
information you have learned about the techniques you are or will be working
on. Furthermore, the coach may use different phrases or expression to clarify
what he or she wants the student to learn. You never know, but this slight
variation in the instructor’s language or communication technique may also
resonate with you and deepen your own understanding of the skill you have been
training and vicariously learning more about.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the
Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about
Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2014
