FORT WORTH, Texas -- Vicky was intimidated every time she stepped on the basketball court, a place that had previously been her domain. Any time the ball wound up in her hands, her first priority was to get rid of it. Don't dribble. Don't shoot. Doing either was an invitation to error.
Despite her talent, her size and her ambition to play basketball, Vicky had grown so spooked and demoralized by the other players that her goal had devolved from being the best to not embarrassing herself.
After repeated pleas from her parents and her coaches to just play and not to be anxious, Vicky's mother took her to see someone to help: a hypnotist.
Vicky is 12. She begins the seventh grade soon.
"(My mother) didn't convince me, she just made me go. I didn't want to go. I was afraid," Vicky said. "I didn't know what it was going to be like. I thought it wasn't going to be me. It was going to be somebody else."
After one session Vicky changed her mind about hypnotism.
"I dribbled the ball a lot more. I shot the ball a lot more. I stole a pass and dribbled the whole way and scored a layup," she said. "I score 12 points a game now, which is good for me. I drive to the basket. Everything works out the way it's supposed to."
Over the past 20 years, the field of sports psychology has grown to where a subject that once carried a stigma is now openly discussed. And as increasing numbers of teen athletes compete in the widening specialized world of amateur athletics, parents are taking their children to hypnotists in hopes that it will help performance.
It's no different than a pro having a personal trainer, swing coach or therapist. But seeing a hypnotist does not carry universal acceptance, and hypnosis remains a mystery shrouded in hard-to-break stereotypes.
Before visiting John Dawson at 360 MedSpa and Wellness Center in Southlake, the 5-foot-9 Vicky was like most people when it came to hypnosis. Vicky only knew her mother had used it successfully to battle her desire to eat sweets; her mother said she lost 50 pounds through hypnosis.
"People believe the stage shows, that it's a mind-control thing -- people are barking like dogs," said Dawson, who has practiced hypnotism since the mid-'80s. "Or people aren't doing what they would normally do. It doesn't work that way. People think it's the occult."
Dawson said he's worked with basketball players, tennis players and cheerleaders; the latter want to conquer the fear of a back flip.
Vicky's mother learned of hypnosis when Oprah Winfrey discussed it for weight loss. That's what most people know about hypnosis: It can be useful in weight loss, trying to quit smoking or pain management.
Even in 2010, when a deluge of information is readily available by the click of a button on a computer, hypnosis remains firmly stuck in the stereotype phase of self-improvement.
"Just because of TV and any kind of stereotype, it's been viewed as someone else controls you," TCU sports psychologist Dr. Matt Johnson said. "It's no different than having stereotypes of other cultures. A lack of education still persists."
As does the stigma.
An Olympic athlete today can easily discuss visiting a sports psychologist and no one thinks anything of it. Society isn't quite there with hypnotists.
Vicky said she has told only her best friend of her sessions with a hypnotist, and she did not want her last name to appear in this story. Her mother asked not to have her name printed at all.
Unlike talking to a counselor, therapist or psychologist, where the client or patient has a back-and-forth dialogue with the professional, a session with a hypnotist is one-sided.
The client is taken through a series of exercises that includes deep breaths, closed eyes, etc. The design is to reach a state of deep relaxation, but stopping at the point of sleep.
"You're conscious the whole time," Dawson said. "You're in control the whole time."
As the person remains relaxed, the hypnotist begins with what sounds very similar to a series of self-help tips and a heavy dose of visualization to address whatever the issue it is, whether it is confidence, food choices or anything else. The concept is that when the client is confronted with the issue, they will subconsciously remember certain triggers -- such as the color red -- to conquer the problem.
When Vicky sees or thinks of the color red, she thinks of positive, reassuring thoughts to remain calm and confident.
The practice is not for everyone, and works only if you think it works. Thus, results vary and are unpredictable.
It's worked for major league players such as Rod Carew and George Brett, according to a Sept. 26, 1983, edition of "People" magazine.
"It's the ones who are highly motivated and commit to the program.... who are the most successful," Dawson said. "They get results."
Vicky got the results she wanted.
"Before, I was intimidated," she said. "I'm not intimidated anymore."
TCU football coach Gary Patterson may be an X's and O's guy, but like most coaches, he's part psychologist.
"I do think it's a good thing, he said.
But not so much on hypnosis.
"I'm very sensitive about this kind of stuff. I just think you can do it other ways," Patterson said.
He's not the only one.
Norman Smith has coached the boys and girls tennis teams at Southlake Carroll for the past five seasons. On Aug. 16, the school had Doug MacCraw, a corporate entertainer who uses hypnotism and comedy, speak to the entire staff, including Smith.
"I don't really think there is a place at this level for that," Smith said of hypnotists for high school athletes. "I think as you climb the ladder and get to the high Division I level or the professional level, it may be better suited."
Smith is like a lot of youth coaches who believe a teen visiting a hypnotist or other specialists is another example of kids feeling too much pressure to hit a jump shot or a baseline winner, all in the name of getting drafted, turning pro or earning a scholarship.
"I did feel like there was too much pressure," Vicky said of her pre-hypnosis perspective. "But I want to play in high school. I want to play in college. I just want to keep playing."
Smith is like every other coach in that he is powerless to stop the trend.
What student-athletes do away from their spheres of allotted influence is up to them, whether it's working with a personal trainer, seeing a psychologist or listening to a hypnotist.
"I played basketball in high school and I really wish I had kept playing; if I could play for Vicky I totally would," Vicky's mother said. "I know how good Vicky is and I just want her to be as good as she can be."
Comments