There are specific points on your face and upper body that you gently tap on while focusing on the issue you want to address. 

Unlike other modalities you maybe used to to focus in the unwanted emotion, thought or event as opposed to the positive outcome that you want. 

This is very effective in the short and the long term as you get to the root of what is holding you back so it no longer poses a problem for you. 

You can't fly if you're holding on to a lot of baggage.  We don't want to make light of it but the feeling of freedom, excitement and lightness as you let go of the old stories, limiting beliefs, negative chatter that have been holding you down is amazing.

In a word, yes.

Due to its anecdotal success there have been more and more research studies investigating its efficacy. 

There are many reports demonstrating this in many areas of life which you can find here.

Perhaps of more interest to you as you're here on this Peak Performance page are a selection of research papers focused on Athletic and Sporting Performance showing just how effective it is in a range of sports.

One of the main reasons EFT is so effective as it is a fantastic stress reduction tool.  Tapping has been show to reduce cortisol (the main stress hormone) and anxiety levels by 37% and 40% respectively.  You can read the abstract here. Scroll down to the Anxiety Section. 

From an anecdotal perspective I have not only used EFT for my own performance and had great success but have worked with athletes from sports including tennis, golf, netball, cricket, long distance running, basketball and power lifting.

EFT elicits physiological and psychology responses by sending chemical messengers to the brain via working the vascular system.

When EFT was first developed in the 1970’s it was based on the acupressure points of the Chinese medicine meridians.  The premise being that as you tap on specific acupressure points ie the end points of the meridians, emotions and energy that have been blocked, are released.

This may well the case as on top of the thousands of years this being used in Chinese Medicine, very recent Western research is showing a microvascular system exists within the body.  

Research in 2021 demonstrated this by injecting dye into that system and being able to see it under a microscope.  Under further examination researchers were able to see increased density of them at vascular junctions ie acupressure points.

So now, we know that as we’re tapping we’re tapping on a vascular point, why it’s having a physiological response and not just an energy release.  We are sending activation or deactivating signals to the part of our brain responsible for that function.  Whether that function be deeper breathing, shoulder rotation, getting your first serve in or not feeling the anxiety when needing to get 2 runs of the last ball.

When we start with the Set Up statement (which you will learn about if you haven’t already) you are priming your brain to activate or deactivate that part of your brain.

Research is showing that as we tap anxiety and cortisol levels are reduced.  We have known for a long time that when we’re anxious and stressed our body goes into a stress response and we don't perform at our best. 

The stress response results in cognitive function, digestion, reproduction and anything else that is getting in our way of keeping safe being shut down.  Our heart beats harder to pump blood to our arms and legs prepare for fight or flight. 

This innate response is crucial for our survival. When we perceive danger we want to be able to jump out of the way of the oncoming bus, to use the heightened awareness to see and react quickly.

However, it isn’t always so useful in our day to day life as our brain can’t tell the difference between match point down, putting on the green, a penalty shootout, or our coach and family coming to watch us win. 

We need to be able to signal to our brain that yes, we want to respond optimally to match point down, putting on the green, the penalty shootout, and our biggest fans coming to support us.  Not to the detriment of our performance though.

With tapping we can do this.  We can prime our brain that we want to focus on the penalty or match point etc.. and tap to lower the cortisol associated with this particular situation.

Not at all. 

Traditionally in the past, it's primarily been professional athletes who seek the help of sports psychologists but this is a tool that everyone can use.

Whatever our level of sport we have emotions, thoughts, injuries that can hold us back or keep us stuck and this tool works on this level enabling us to play our sport to the best of our ability.. regardless of what standard that is.

The difference can be that with pros, the basic skill and practice can be more honed in so the benefits of the emotional and physiological work are more obvious to the external eye.

I've worked with non professionals (haha and on myself and I'm a club level tennis player) and the results are still significant.  You still see the improvement.

There are various possible answers to this question.  

• Although its becoming more acceptable whether it's a Therapist, EFT Practitioner or Sports Psychologist there is a certain stigma attached to it which athletes might not want to be associated with.  So it might have held them back before from seeking this kind of support.
• To get the best, long lasting results, EFT requires doing some inner work. This can feel uncomfortable as you deal with anxieties, limiting beliefs, past events and even trauma as you address them.  This in itself can be off putting as it's not something people enjoy doing or particularly want to do.  Even more importantly, feel that they need to do to perform their sport better.  
• There are more and more athletes using EFT but the competitive nature of us sportsmen and women can mean we don't want to share our secret weapon!
• It can often take a while for new therapies to go mainstream and in fact there is a growing body of clinical evidence demonstrating the efficacy of EFT as research trials are taking place worldwide.  We are on the cusp of it really taking off so in being here you are ahead of the game on this cutting edge tool.

I agree, it does look ridiculous. 

When I first heard about it I was nearly on the floor I was laughing so hard.

Having first heard about it, I left it alone for a while as I just didn't believe it would work. 

There was no way.

I was in a pretty bad situation though in that I'd been diagnosed with MS, was struggling to walk, stand, play tennis, basically do all the things I loved and I was scared about my future.  So I sat down one afternoon and went through the EFT manual I'd downloaded and started teaching myself. 

OMG the results I got that afternoon literally changed my life. 

Before tapping, I hadn't been able to stand for very long as I'd get so fatigued.  That afternoon I went to the pub with some friends and stood around chatting for about 4 hours!  It was just so exciting.

It might not sound much to some people, but if you're like me and have been used to being able to do something and then suddenly, for some reason, you wake up one day and you can't do it anymore.  To be told there's nothing you can do about it and nobody can really help.  You'll understand how amazing it is to suddenly be able to get that back.  Whether it's being able to stand for 4 hours instead of 30 minutes, throw or hit a ball, swing a racket, bat or club freely.  Imagine that?!?