Athletes who are high in hypnotic susceptibility (HS) are most amenable to hypnosis/self- and active-alert hypnosis. The feeling that one has when under sport and performance-specific hypnosis is one of mental calmness. Once alert-calmness has been attained using sport-specific inductions, as reflected in changes in autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses from the baseline to hypnosis condition, active-alert hypnosis is used to raise activation or intensity levels and prime motor-technical responses. The American Board of Sport Psychology-Carlstedt Protocol (ABSP-CP) approach to interventions uses heart rate variability (HRV) to test efficiency for all mental training modalities and routinely assesses mental imagery/visualization ability, a correlate of HS/subliminal attention (SA) using HRV. Hypnotic procedures have much potential as a mental training intervention, provided that they are not applied indiscriminately. Athletes who score high in HS or analogue measures, SA, or absorption are usually good candidates for self-and active-alert hypnosis.

This chapter presents the athlete’s profile (AP) in an applied context and reviews the primary higher order (PHO) measures that it encompasses and their impact on performance. It describes test instruments, applications/administration, psychometrics and methodology. The AP model is a conceptual and explanatory framework that predicts athlete psychological performance tendencies during pressure situations of competition. The conceptual origins of the AP can be traced to the High Risk Model of Threat Perception (HRMTP) and its isolation of the three so-called subject variables, hypnotic susceptibility (HS), neuroticism (N), and repressive coping (RC). These measures were shown to interact to mediate maladaptive cognitive processing/attention, physiological reactivity, and subliminal coping and resulting symptoms and/or illness. As such, the AP battery should only be administered in the context of a comprehensive athlete evaluation and intervention efficacy testing process.