With the Olympic Trials for United States track and field athletes beginning today, it’s interesting to see the lengths and strategies athletes have taken to make the team and win gold in Beijing. Although sports psychology in various forms has been used for decades by elite athletes, Adam Nelson’s use of hypnotism piques my interest in what benefits such ‘brain training’ may have form track and field athletes alike.

U.S. shot-putter Adam Nelson, a two-time Olympic silver medalist, is willing to try anything — legal — to win gold at this summer’s games in Beijing.

Even the occasional “deep and profound sensory comprehensive subconscious power experience.” At least, that’s how sports hypnotherapist Pete Siegel described a session he had with Nelson earlier this month in Southern California.

Siegel hypnotized Nelson as the 6-foot, 265-pound athlete stretched out on a bed at the Westin hotel in Long Beach on the day before his first big competition of the outdoor season. The session got more and more intense, with Siegel leading Nelson through a powerful, imaginary throw.

Continued on NPR