Beyond the Barriers

HeartMath Sport

HeartMath for Optimal Sports Performance

Athletes from many sports disciplines from Olympic sports to professional golf, football and cricket have harnessed the power of HeartMath® to take control of their performance and harness their innate emotional power to perform on demand. Our HeartMath for Optimal Sports Performance programme is a cutting edge, scientifically validated programme that teaches athletes the powerful HeartMath techniques to control their emotional game and optimise their performance. Athletes who combine mental and emotional training with their physical training have a real competitive advantage and are much better equipped to enter into the peak performance zone more consistently. Our emotional state and perceptions, not our thinking, play the dominant role in creating a coherent physiological state (the zone) for optimal performance. Classic psychology-based programmes are be useful in developing modes of thought, but they don’t address the critical issue of the connection between emotions, physiology and performance.

Research has identified a psycho-physiological state in which the interactions between the heart, brain and nervous systems become synchronised. This state of synchronisation can be observed, measured and trained using award-winning bio-feedback technology. This measurable state provides players with increased coordination, improved motor skills and timing, improved decision-making, sensitivity and clarity in and out of the sports arena.

You will learn how to:

Other benefits of engaging in the Optimal Sports Performance programme and using the emWave technology include:

1. The emWave PSR (personal stress reliever) is lightweight, portable and easy to use.
2. Fits any training schedule
3. The technology gives you real time feedback.
4. You can transfer beyond sport to any  area of your life.

Results are:

Immediate – in one hour, or in one day, with a little practice.

Measurable – you can watch your heart rhythms change in real time and monitor your progress

Sustained – you continue to improve your ability to get in the ‘zone’ and deal with the challenges of training and competition.

HeartMath techniques are being used by athletes and teams across the world in sports as diverse as ice hockey and equestrian to professional golfers and footballers to Olympic swimmers, divers and canoeists.

For more information on training sports teams, 1:1 athlete coaching, certification course for sports professionals or contact us

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How does the HeartMath Optimal Sports Performance Programme work?

One of the primary focuses of the programme is to teach you how to control your emotions. If you control your emotions you will improve your performance.

Jimmy Roberts of NBC Sports once asked Tiger Woods: “In the closing holes, as we watch the conclusion of this championship today, what should we look out for? Is there something that is going to be a particularly dicey situation for the competitors today?”

Tiger Woods’ response: “No, not really, but I think the guys who are really controlling their emotions are going to win; the guy who is controlling his emotions is going to win.”

Reaching the next level of athletic performance depends upon the ability to regulate emotions and manage stress. Thoughts and emotions have a profound effect on the heart’s rhythm and this rhythm impacts performance. Under pressure, stressful thoughts and emotions cause the heart’s rhythms to become irregular and jagged. This erratic pattern inhibits brain function and diminishes the visual field, reduces reaction speed and impairs decision making.

Conversely, a positive mental and emotional state, not unlike being in the zone, allows the rhythms to work together (rather than against one another) which facilitates brain function, improves mental focus and physical coordination and ultimately the body can perform more effectively.

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What is the emWave® system?

Excellent outcomes for all HeartMath programs are facilitated by the award-winning, highly engaging emWave feedback technology (both handheld and computer based). HeartMath’s patented emWave technologies represent a breakthrough in personal feedback and stress reduction technology. emWave products measure heart rate variability, the study of flexibility in the human system. As breathing, heart and brain are in synch, mental clarity and productivity are enhanced. The emWave technologies provide real time, immediate feedback and inspire users to make behavior and lifestyle changes and the technology gives the user the power to sustain these changes.It is an emotional and mental training system for athletes who want to master their emotions. Athletes will see how thoughts and emotions affect the heart’s rhythm in real time and learn how to get into an optimal state on demand. With the emWave Desktop software or the emWave2 you can see how your thoughts and emotions affect their heart and nervous system. When stressed, an individual’s heart rhythm pattern has an irregular, jagged, incoherent pattern. When an individual shifts to a more positive emotional state, the heart rhythm pattern changes to a smoother, wave-line, coherent pattern. By seeing the visual change on the screen and associating it with a more peaceful, calm internal state, one can learn to manage stress and maintain a state of physiological coherence and balance.

By associating the changes on the screen or the handheld device with a more focused, calm internal state, athletes are better equipped to maintain a state of physiological coherence and balance – the Zone – anytime, in any situation in or out of sport.

A tremendous amount of research has been done on the mind-body connection. HeartMath measures these connections. We teach you how to manipulate the mind-body connection and produce a better, more sustainable performance.

Our Experience: Beyond the Barriers is licenced to train HeartMath in Sport and in Business by the Institute of HeartMath.  Anna Hemmings MBE, a 6 x World Champion and 2 x Olympian is the Director of the HeartMath Optimal Sport Performance programme. Anna is Master Trainer for HeartMath. She knows and understands the challenges that today’s sports men and women face both mentally and physically and is able to use her own experience as a professional athlete together with the HeartMath techniques to help other athletes improve their own performance.

Location: The HeartMath Optimal Sports Performance programme is conducted in any region of the world, for individual 1:1 coaching or team training sessions. Depending on your location, we can meet in-person, at your training venue or at the Beyond the Barriers offices.

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