Sympathetic overactivation, breath control, cognitive reframing, and the neuroscience of managing adrenaline for optimal race
His hands shake in the start gates. His breathing is shallow and fast. His coach
tells him to relax. He cannot relax — the instruction itself creates more
anxiety. His body has shifted into full sympathetic overdrive: heart rate 160,
tunnel vision, muscles rigid. He is not nervous. He is in a threat state. And
Jamieson et al. (2010) demonstrated that reappraising physiological arousal as
functional (helpful for performance) rather than debilitative (harmful) significantly
improved cardiovascular efficiency and cognitive performance under stress. Participants
who were told that their racing heart and sweaty palms were signs of readiness rather
“ before competition performed better than those who said ”
— Noah Wickliffe, SportsFlow
The SportsFlow module within Flowbase uses the EPAB psychometric battery to assess your
anxiety profile — identifying whether your pre-race state tends toward cognitive worry,
SportsFlow gives athletes and coaches the visibility they need.
sportsflow.ai