Nerves Are Not the Problem. Losing Control of Them Is.
Every elite athlete feels it before a big game. Tight chest, fast shallow breathing, a heart rate that is up before the warm up even starts.
Nerves are not weakness. They are your body getting ready to compete. The problem starts when arousal climbs past the point where you can think clearly and move freely.
Your breath is the one part of that stress response you can control directly. Here is what the research shows, and how to use it in the minutes before you compete.
Why Slow Breathing Works
Most athletes notice their breathing getting faster and higher in the chest when nerves hit. Deliberately slowing it down is the counter move.
Zaccaro and colleagues (2018) systematically reviewed 15 studies of slow breathing, defined as fewer than 10 breaths per minute in healthy people. Slow breathing was linked with higher heart rate variability and respiratory sinus arrhythmia, both markers of parasympathetic activity.
Participants also reported more comfort, relaxation, vigour and alertness, and less arousal, anxiety and anger. The authors noted the evidence base was limited and the techniques varied, so treat this as a consistent signal rather than settled science.
Laborde and colleagues (2022) pooled 223 studies and found voluntary slow breathing increases vagally mediated heart rate variability during a session, immediately after a single session and after a multi session program. That is the body's brake on arousal, and you can apply it on demand.
What the Athlete Studies Show
Most breathing and anxiety research is in non athletes. The athlete evidence is smaller, so here it is with its limits on show.
Su and colleagues (2025) randomised 18 male college baseball players to 10 days of heart rate variability biofeedback, 20 minutes a day, or to batting practice alone. Biofeedback is slow paced breathing guided by real time heart rate feedback.
Cognitive anxiety fell in the biofeedback group, from 23.6 to 20.1, with no change in the control group. Batting score rose from 9.8 to 19.8 in the biofeedback group. The control group also improved, from 11.6 to 18.4, but that change was not significant.
The authors acknowledged the small sample, possible placebo effects and lack of blinding. It is a promising signal, not proof.
Note the method. This was biofeedback guided slow breathing, not breath holds and not breathing devices. That distinction matters when you read claims about breathing and performance.
Choosing the Right Pattern Before You Compete
Not all calming techniques suit the moment before performance.
Röttger and colleagues (2021) compared box breathing with prolonged exhalation in 30 healthy adults doing a demanding attention task under time pressure and noise. Box breathing produced lower physiological arousal, but prolonged exhalation produced better task performance.
For an athlete about to compete, that matters. You do not want to switch off. You want to stay sharp while bringing arousal back into range. A longer exhale is the better fit.
Balban and colleagues (2023) ran a one month remote trial with 108 adults doing five minutes of breathwork or mindfulness daily. Cyclic sighing, a double inhale through the nose followed by a long exhale through the mouth, produced a greater increase in positive mood and a greater drop in breathing rate than mindfulness meditation.
Two cautions. Participants were mostly university students, not athletes, and the study found no changes in heart rate variability or resting heart rate. It supports cyclic sighing as a quick mood and arousal reset, not as a performance enhancer.
What Breathing Will Not Do
Be clear with your athletes about the limits. No breathing technique replaces preparation, skill or fitness.
The strongest finding across these studies is a shift in arousal and mood. The athlete performance data is limited to small samples, and in the cyclic sighing trial heart rate variability did not change at all.
That is not a reason to skip it. It is a reason to use it for what it does well: bringing you back into a range where your training can show up.
There is also a place for box breathing. Röttger and colleagues suggest it may suit passive moments. On the bench during a long break, or in a delayed start, it can help you hold arousal steady without burning energy. When it is time to act, switch to the longer exhale.
The Pre Game Breathing Routine
Daily foundation. Build light, slow, deep nasal breathing into everyday life and training. The more automatic it is, the easier it is to access under pressure.
Pre game, 20 to 30 minutes out. Three to five minutes of slow nasal breathing, about six breaths per minute, with the exhale a little longer than the inhale.
In the sheds or the tunnel. Two or three cyclic sighs when you feel arousal spike: a full inhale through the nose, a short top up inhale, then a long, slow exhale.
On court or field. One long exhale before a free throw, a goal kick or a restart. Reset, then go.
Practise it at training first. A technique you have never rehearsed will not show up when the pressure is real.
Build it into the team warm up and into shooting or kicking drills under fatigue. The goal is a routine every player knows so well that it runs on its own when the crowd is loud and the stakes are high.
FOR ELITE ATHLETES, THIS CAN HELP YOU
✔ Lower pre game arousal with slow nasal breathing at about six breaths per minute
✔ Stay sharp under pressure by favouring a longer exhale over breath holds
✔ Reset mood and arousal fast with a few cyclic sighs
✔ Support lower cognitive anxiety with regular slow paced breathing practice
✔ Rely on it in competition by rehearsing it in training first
Performance takeawayNerves mean you are ready. Your breath decides whether they help or hurt.
This is not wellness. This is your competitive edge.
Want this in your program? Enquire about Vincere Protocol for your team.
