Regulating Pre-match Nerves

For the past few years, I’ve been invited to do a yoga session with a wrestling team before they approach their hardest stretch of post-season. This session is scheduled as a recovery day practice and, although mental skills and mindfulness are best retained over time, I take the time to offer some mental performance teaching element that they might use in their journey toward the state meet.

This year, as I talked with the wrestlers about what they notice happening in their bodies as they prepare for their bouts. The focus of our teaching settled on how to manage their pre-match nerves. I briefly described the zone of optimal performance by highlighting that they want to make sure their HR and breathing feel well within their control even if they are starting to feel the adrenaline starting to affect their heart rate.

I asked them directly, “Do you guys know how to lower your HR if it’s feeling too fast before the match starts?” They stared at me waiting for the answer.

We spent the next few minutes practicing getting the HR up as they would in a warmup, then practicing the body-based interventions and breath work that support a slowing of the HR and exhalation. Whether or not they will need to use these skills to stay within their zone of optimal performance will take their own awareness in the moments leading up to their match. However, by practicing managing their autonomic nervous system, they are learning some basic tools and realizing there’s a whole level of performance management they have not learned yet.

This is exactly the type of applied nervous system regulation that most athletes do not get detailed coaching or teaching on and it can make or break execution at moments of high intensity.

When you’re ready to deepen your applied mental performance skills, let’s talk.