How to Calm Nerves Before Racing — SportsFlow Research

Composite Portrait

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

This is a composite portrait. No individual is depicted.

SECTION I

What the Research Tells Us

Jamieson et al. (2010) demonstrated that reappraising physiological arousal as

functional (helpful for performance) rather than debilitative (harmful) significantly

Score Continuum

NORMATIVE MEAN

Clinical concernOptimal functioning

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

SECTION II

How the SportsFlow System Helps

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,

References

[1]Jamieson, J.P. et al. (2010). Turning the knots in your stomach into bows. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol., 46(1), 208–212.

[2]Ma, X. et al. (2017). The effect of diaphragmatic breathing on attention, negative affect and stress. Front. Psychol., 8, 874.

[3]Brooks, A.W. (2014). Get excited: Reappraising pre-performance anxiety as excitement. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen., 143(3), 1144–1158.

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