by CJ Puotinen

You don't have to be an athlete to understand performance anxiety -- but if you are, you know that physical preparation can take you only so far.

Whether you're playing golf, tennis, or basketball, shooting pool or running a marathon, it's the mental stuff that matters most.

Just ask Pat Ahearne. In the middle of the 1998-1999 Australian Baseball League season, when he pitched for the Perth Heat, Ahearne worked with a sports psychologist. "I was able to perform well in training and some of the time in games," he says, "but I wanted to access my best performances more often and in the most pressure-filled situations."

Psychologist Steve Wells taught him a simple procedure for balancing his body's energy. The results, as Ahearne explains in his complete report, were astounding.

"I had more consistency and better command of my pitches," he explains, "and I accomplished it in big games with less mental effort. I found the mental edge that raises an athlete from average to elite."

The method Steve Wells taught him is a simple do-it-yourself tapping procedure called EFT (the Emotional Freedom Techniques).  The tapping, which is gently done with the fingertips on key acupuncture points, takes less than a minute.

In the first half of the '98-'99 season, before he learned EFT, Ahearne pitched 46 innings in 6 games (4 wins, 2 losses), giving up 43 hits, with an Earned Run Average of 3.33. After learning the technique, he pitched 41.3 innings in 4 games (3 wins, 1 loss), giving up only 15 hits, for an ERA of 0.87.

For those not familiar with baseball statistics, an ERA of less than 1.0 is practically unheard of. Ahearne was named Most Valuable Player of the his team, the Perth Heat, and he won the Australian Baseball League's Pitcher of the Year award.

Not only did Ahearne remove stress from his game -- reporters noticed and wrote about his relaxed attitude toward everything -- but his endurance and stamina improved, too. "My longest season in terms of innings pitched prior to my '98-'99 season in Perth was 142 innings pitched in '95 for the Toledo Mud Hens (AAA Detroit Tigers).

"After that season, I was physically and mentally drained and looked forward to having 5 months off. Compare this to the stretch from November of '98 to December of '99. I pitched 87 innings in Perth, followed by a combined 170 innings in Bridgeport and New Haven and finally another 40 innings in Venezuela for a total of 297 innings pitched in a 13-month span."

This is twice the normal pitching schedule with little time off. "I feel physically and mentally strong and am confident I will be at my best again when spring training arrives in March after only 3 months rest from competitive situations," he said at the time. "My Earned Run Average during that 297-inning span was Perth 2.16, Bridgeport 2.45, New Haven 2.61, and Venezuela 2.05.

"All of these numbers are over a full run better -- that is, a 30-percent improvement -- over any season I had in my professional career. I can't ask for much better results that have carried over the course of a long and taxing baseball season."

Now 36 and pitching for the Atlantic League's Bridgeport Bluefish in Connecticut, Pat Ahearne says, "I am so amazed with the effectiveness of EFT that I've made it as important a part of my baseball routine as throwing or running or lifting weights. The title 'Emotional Freedom Techniques' certainly does fit."

EFT founder Gary Craig, who attended Stanford University on a football scholarship, takes special interest in the sports-related EFT results. "Using EFT to enhance performance is one of this technique's most overlooked features," he says. "I wish to emphasize that EFT is capable of the same kind of performance boost that Pat Ahearne experienced for athletes in ANY sport -- not just baseball.

"All accomplished athletes know that the mental or emotional side of the game is the main thing holding back their improvement. That's why college and pro teams hire sports psychologists. EFT can make any sport psychologist's work easier and more effective. I know that someday its use in sports will be commonplace."

In addition to helping athletes improve their performance, EFT has been a consistently effective healing tool for hundreds of other physical, mental and emotional ailments.  For more information, explore the EFT website and its numerous success stories regarding fears, phobias, emotional traumas and physical ailments.

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 5 star training DVDs.