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New Jersey wrestlers use hypnosis to train their minds for the mat. Update: Thursday, February 24, 2011. By Jackie Friedman The Star-Ledger.
"You are on the center of the mat. That’s where you belong, at
home. You are breathing out all tension, all fear. Close your eyes to block out all the distractions. You are drifting off
into the zone of your subconscious mind. The more you wrestle, the better you feel. The more you wrestle, the more energy
you have. You were born a success. You are in control." Nick Lospinoso paces in the packed, dimly lit gymnasium, hearing
the voice of confidence. He is alone.
"The mat is my home. I am as comfortable on the mat as I am in my beanbag chair. The center
of the mat is where I belong. … I am going to pin this kid. There’s nothing to stop me from pinning this kid.
I don’t care when it happens, how it happens, I am going to pin this kid." Lospinoso can see how his match will
play out before setting a foot onto the mat: the high-crotch takedowns under the brilliant spotlight and the official raising
his arm.“I know what I’m going to do before
it happens,” said Lospinoso, a 140-pound junior wrestler at David Brearley High in Kenilworth. “I’ve already
visualized the whole six minutes.”
Lospinoso is using hypnosis to train his mind in the power of
positive thinking. Breathing techniques and mental rehearsals are as important as physical training. And while it may be impossible
to know if hypnosis is increasing in popularity among young athletes, it’s easy to find high school-age jocks who don’t
want competitors to know about their secret weapon. Lospinoso, who won his first District 11 title last weekend, started the
season with a 10-4 record. Since he began using hypnosis Jan. 20, he has won 16 of 17 bouts. The sign he hung over his bed
earlier this season — “Shock the world and win states” — is more believable than ever.
“He has all the technique,” said Nick’s father,
Joe Lospinoso, a former wrestling coach. “Everybody who watches him wrestle knows he can do it. He told me his head
wasn’t where it needed to be. I said, ‘"ell, let’s train your mind.’" Training your body
is the easy part of this sport.”
During his pre-match routine, Lospinoso hardly speaks, doesn’t
listen to music, rarely applauds and never jumps out of his chair. Straight-faced, he begins to pace in silence four matches
before his bout to calm himself.“ It’s like a deep state of focus,” he said. “Nothing else matters
but the task at hand. It’s like you have blinders on.”
Christine Silverstein, who has a doctorate in education and
is also a registered nurse, is Lospinoso’s hypnotist. She said she designed the program “Winning Ways for Wrestlers”
to help kids achieve ideal performance in a sport continuously called 10 percent physical and 90 percent mental. The program
she created in 1994 is eight hours long, typically broken into hour or 90-minute weekly sessions at her home in Ramsey, costing
approximately $1,200. She said she has seen a dozen wrestlers since last fall — and hundreds the past 17 years.“Your
skills are in your subconscious mind,” Silverstein said. “It’s about releasing those skills. He’s
the expert. He knows how to do a single-leg takedown. He could do it in his sleep, could do it with his eyes closed. So how
do you get the skill to release automatically? You go into the zone; you go into that space through hypnosis.”
Silverstein admits hypnosis isn’t for everyone, and knows
there are people who think she is a quack. She talks about applying for the license to start The Summit Center for Ideal Performance
and being told by officials “they didn’t want any fortune tellers in town.” Yet she also said sports hypnosis
has become more prevalent in the past decade.
Jack Nicholais, another sports hypnotist who has had an office
in Belvidere since 1995, said a belief in hypnosis is slowly spreading, though many athletes still don’t want competitors
to know about their edge.
All it took for Lospinoso was three sessions and, he said, he
knew he would use hypnosis for as long as he wrestles.“Without her, I would definitely still be battling mental problems
that I had — ‘demons,’ my coach used to call them,” Lospinoso said. “She’s done wonders
for me.” "It’s
time to get into that space. It’s easy as you breathe out. Your eyes are heavy. As you breathe in and out, you get into
the zone. Just by taking that deep breath you are expanding your chest and abdomen like a big balloon. Your muscles are ready
to wrestle. Easy, easy, easy." Vinny
Picarelli’s body lay slumped across the brown reclining chair, falling into his own subconscious to the sound of Silverstein’s
voice.
As sophomore wrestler on the junior varsity team at Roselle
Park, Picarelli used to feel mentally defeated before matches. Despite weighing 195 pounds, he often faced heavyweights, and
said he found himself constantly intimidated by their size. “In the beginning of the season we had wrestle-offs, and
my mind just froze,” Picarelli said. “It was like a deer in headlights. You forget what you’re doing.”
Before he started hypnosis, Picarelli was 2-5. He finished the season 16-7.
During his fifth session with Silverstein, Picarelli described
for her his greatest triumph, as he fought for a chance to square off again with a wrestler from Rahway who had beaten him
twice previously. With his tormentor waiting in the balance, he used a cement mixer and a funky roll to pin his opponent in
the first minute. Now when he hears the word “rematch,” he warps back in time, remembering the high of victory.“
"With mental recall you’re looking at positive experiences you’ve
had, and you bring the same energy and same belief in yourself you had when you were successful,” said Silverstein,
who encourages wrestlers to touch their headgear when focus is slipping. “We move in the direction of our dominant thought.
If that thought is negative, we never make progress. Instead of saying ‘He’s bigger than me,’ replace that
with ‘I’m going to score. I have muscles, too. I have more agility.’”
Silverstein,
a certified hypnocounselor, said people allow their inner psyche to be clouded with worries and concerns rather than focusing
on the task. The tension or stress felt, she said, should be converted into useful energy, a concept she shares with athletes
of all sports with whom she works. "It’s not like you’re blocking it out necessarily, you’re just transforming
it into something positive and useful for you,” she said. “You have to make the commitment and say, ‘I’m
going to use my energy wisely.’” More simply, she said, success starts with having a positive self-image. “Before a match, I clear my head of everything that’s happened before, like it’s
a new day,” Picarelli said. “You’re on the mat and nowhere else.”
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