The lights dimmed in the Stanley Bobb Baseball Performance Center at the end of Maryland baseball’s practice on April 16.

Players surrounded a circle of flickering candles as they stretched across the indoor turf on their backs. Sound therapist Emma Olmedo, dressed in a rainbow, tie-dye gown, sat in the center of the group and guided the Terps through a breathing exercise while chimes rang behind her.

For the next hour, Olmedo led the team through a “sound bath” — a meditative landscape created with the gentle ringing of a 32-inch gong, crystal bowls, a crystal harp, an ocean drum, chimes and other instruments to create a meditative soundscape.

The scene may be peculiar, but coach Matt Swope has used sound therapy to help mentally reset his players.

“Athletes carry not only physical stress but also mental pressure and emotional tension,” Olmedo wrote to The Diamondback. “Sound therapy helps reset the nervous system and bring the body into a state of balance.”

The treatment uses vibrations and frequencies to influence a person’s psychological and physiological state.

Olmedo hopes to help support athletes’ mental clarity, emotional regulation and physical recovery with sound to reach their “highest vibrational state.” The founder of KiVibes, a wellness sanctuary in Virginia, begins each session in the Terps’ new facility with intentional energy clearing, drawing from her background in Reiki and shamanic healing.

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She said she burns sage and palo santo to remove heaviness and uplift the energy. Candles and dim lighting create a calm, ceremonial atmosphere — her signature approach to make each session a sacred space, Olmedo added.

“If they do come in with heaviness, it doesn’t matter,” Olmedo said. “It’s going to dissipate because of the preparation that I took with the sage and the intention setting.”

Olmedo meets with Swope to get a sense of the team’s energy and challenges. She then relies on what she described as an “intuitive gift” — a heightened sensitivity she’s developed since she was 13 years old — to read the players’ emotional and energetic states.

The certified Reiki master said she can sense if they’re grounded, anxious or scattered just by being in their presence.

Olmedo then tailors the team’s session based on those impressions. The 33-year-old begins with grounding instruments such as crystal bowls or chimes, gradually building to higher frequencies that align with the team’s energy. Players ease into the experience as the sound progresses, she said.

Swope met Olmedo after his wife, Katie, did sound baths for her cancer foundation. He wanted to incorporate the meditation with his team, and had biweekly sessions with his roster in the fall.

The team has done the treatment about two or three times in the spring, Swope added. “I thought it was a good way where it’s not forcing meditation, it’s not forcing thought, which a lot of young people struggle with,” Swope said. “It just kind of allows you to relax.”

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According to Olmedo, low frequencies help release body tensions, mid frequencies support emotional healing and higher frequencies deepen meditation and connect the players to higher intuition. She measures the frequencies in hertz.

Swope said he wants to expose his players to a different form of meditation, which allows them to focus on their breathing and their emotional state.

Maryland baseball captain Eddie Hacopian said he was initially skeptical of the practice, but the calming scent in the facility helped him buy in.

Hacopian said the sessions offer a chance to relax after long practices. Now, whenever the senior infielder sees sound therapy on the practice plan, he looks forward to it.

“I’m a big fan of it,” Hacopian said. “I’m kind of into that kind of weird stuff … I just think that stuff is healing.”