Vaulting Pole Tips

Who would have thought that a big part of becoming an Olympic gold medal pole vaulter would be learning how to conquer your fears? That was exactly the issue for Australian pole vaulter Steve Hooker, the first ever Australian to win gold in the area of pole vaulting.

How did Hooker do it? The amazing thing about this story is that Steve Hooker overcame his fears of pole vaulting through hypnotherapy. His sports psychologist used hypnotism and visualization techniques to help him mentally be ready to do what he had to do to win the gold.

Back in 2001 Hooker told The Australian Daily that he was contemplating quitting pole vaulting all together. He was throwing tantrums during training, not being able to cope with the mental aspect of the rigorous discipline needed to excel.

Hooker said, “I was throwing poles, cracking tantrums, I was in a miserable bad mood. Your whole life, it really brings it down when it’s really what you want to do and you can’t do it just because it’s not clicking in your brain. A lot of people’s careers end with this sort of thing but I just really worked hard. I tried a million different things to try and get around it.”

It was at this point in his pole vaulting he decided to try hypnotic therapy.

“It’s not like she had me walking around like acting like a chicken or anything, It was more getting really relaxed, so your subconscious comes to the forefront, and just having her run through scripts about what things I needed to focus on.

“I would talk to her at the start of the session and say, ‘I want to talk about lowering the pole vault in my last couple of steps and jumping off the ground.’ I would tell her the cues I wanted to work on, so she’d work it into the things that she was saying while I was under hypnosis,” Hooker explained.

The therapy was certainly a success as can be evidenced by his gold medal pole vaulting performance today as Steve Hooker cleared 5.96m to set an Olympic pole vaulting record and grab the gold.

“The whole competition was mentally and physically the hardest thing I have done in my life.” Hooker admitted.

So how does Hooker feel about his hypnotherapy?

“I felt like that kind of stuff was cool. The more you do it the more you realize pole vault is mental. Just having any sort of mental stimulation, where you are thinking deeply about what you’re doing, helps.”

I guess for Steve Hooker success in pole vaulting and gaining the gold was simply a battle of mind over matter!

Technorati Tags: Australian pole vaulter, Hypnotic therapy, Mens pole vaulting, olympics, pole vaulting, Steve Hooker

Tags : Australian pole vaulter, Hypnotic therapy, Mens pole vaulting, olympics, pole vaulting, Steve Hooker

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