By CJ Puotinen
Sports psychologists specialize in helping athletes prevent or recover from physical and emotional disasters, seeking the elusive "zone" in which performance becomes effortless.
Most agree that optimum performance depends on preparation, practice, maintaining a positive attitude, using relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, and developing cognitive skills such as controlling fear with positive self-talk and maintaining perspective.
These methods work, but they're time consuming and require diligent application. What most athletes would love to discover is a method for eliminating jittery nerves without constantly having to work at it.
Enter EFT, the Emotional Freedom Techniques, which is fast becoming a favorite of athletes and coaches. One of its beneficiaries is 9-year-old Jane, a gymnastics student since age 3 and the star of her local gym -- or at least she was until she suddenly refused to practice.
"Jane was learning to do a backward handstand on the balance beam," explains EFT practitioner Denise Wall, "and she was afraid that her hands did not know what to do and that she didn't know how to fall if she lost her balance."
EFT's basic premise is that the underlying cause of any fear, including performance anxiety, is a disruption in one or more of the body's energy paths, the same meridians that were mapped thousands of years ago by Chinese physicians.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, energy blocks can be removed by the insertion of acupuncture needles at key points along these meridians, by physically kneading, pressing, or massaging those same points in the procedure called acupressure, or through physical/mental disciplines that help balance the body's energy.
"EFT is so simple and easy to apply," says Gary Craig, the Stanford-trained engineer who developed the procedure, "that it can be learned in just a few minutes by anyone, even children.
All you do is gently tap with the fingertips on a few key acupuncture points while focusing on whatever problem you want to address. Because of its simplicity and effectiveness, EFT is the world's fastest-growing self-help technique."
Denise Wall taught Jane how to tap on key acupuncture points on her head and torso while thinking about the balance beam as she describes in her report on the EFT Web site. "We tapped on her fear of falling," says Wall, "and all the other fears that went with it: her fear of not knowing how to fall, fear of being hurt, fear of having people watch her fall, and fear of letting her team down."
The tapping took just a few minutes, after which Wall asked Jane to imagine herself moving backward on the beam, seeing herself knowing how to fall, imagining where her hands could go, how her knees could bend, and how she could land and remount.
"She mentally practiced falling and remounting," says Wall. "She imagined placing her hands correctly, and she saw herself landing with her feet on the sweet spot of the beam."
Jane's anxiety disappeared. She reviewed the steps of falling safely with her coach and practiced on the grounded balance beam, then moved on to the next level of training. Several months later, Jane's mother reported that Jane had only one brief bout of performance anxiety, which she quickly tapped away. Jane and her gymnastics career have been fine ever since.
The effect of anxiety in athletes has been a popular field of study since the 1970s. Researchers discovered that athletes competing in team sports such as baseball, football, soccer, and basketball tend to have higher self-confidence and less anxiety than those who compete in individual sports such as track and field, gymnastics, tennis, golf, swimming, and figure skating.
Female competitors tend to have lower self-confidence and higher anxiety levels than male competitors in the same sports. One study showed that males tend to worry about their opponents' ability and probability of winning, while females worry about their own readiness to perform and the importance they place on doing well.
"These are interesting differences," Craig observes, "and they help identify the underlying core issues in any athlete's anxiety."
Even the most accomplished athletes admit that their most powerful opponents aren't players on the other team or individuals competing against them. Their most powerful opponents are in their own beads. EFT is an athlete's best friend because it's fast, effective, easy to learn, easy to do, and can have lasting results.
In addition to eliminating performance anxiety in adults and children, EFT has been a consistently effective healing tool for hundreds of other physical, mental and emotional ailments. For more information, you can explore the EFT Web site and its numerous success stories regarding fears, phobias, emotional traumas and physical conditions.
While a complete description of EFT is beyond the scope of this article, you can learn all the basics from the free EFT Get Started Package, including a free download of the 79-page EFT Manual. Those wishing to save time and dive right in can get the affordable five-star training DVDs.
Please consult qualified health professionals before putting EFT into practice for yourself or others.
