Braden Holtby sat alone on the visitors’ bench Saturday night in Boston, stick resting across his lap, and twice checked his watch. He cracked his neck, craned up at the scoreboard, and looked at the clock: 50 minutes until the puck dropped. Security officers had stationed inside each tunnel, and the TD Garden suites had begun to fill. But these moments, as they always had been for the Washington Capitals goaltender, were reserved for visualization. So Holtby stood up, dropped his head onto the stick blade and closed his eyes.
During the past six weeks I have spoken about the use
of hypnosis as a tool for health, wellness, academic success and athletic
performance to more than 200 high school students. The application that garners the most intense
interest from these young audiences:
visualization for success in competitive sports.
That’s because it is well understood that
competition intensifies as an athlete progresses from recreation to
travel-based youth sports, and then on to high school with JV and eventually
varsity. Plus, with so many kids now
having aspirations to play in college there is often a willingness to employ alternative
approaches to inspire performance.
Today’s Washington Post published a wonderful
article about how Washington Capitals goalie Braden Holtby employs visualization
prior to each game. I encourage you to
take a read
at this link.
If intrigued, you can also check out a few posts I
have published on this blog about hypnosis for athletic performance.
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| Washington Capitals goalie Braden Holtby most likely visualized this save. (Photo credit: Blogsohardsports.com) |
