II.5. Breathing Control and Arousal
How do I facilitate the ability to reproduce or maintain a state of flow during a competition? What is the optimal level of arousal for physical performance and how can it be sought? Most athletes ask themselves this question at some point in their career. Arousal can help or hurt an overall performance outcome. This psychological and physiological state affects balance and coordination, rate of focus, decision-making speed, and muscle tension. This condition of generalized Energy and Readiness makes us better able to perceive, analyze, and respond effectively to external or internal stimuli. It is for this reason that the teacher and the psychologist are key figures for the athlete, as they are able to activate a path of mental training to be more familiar with the flow even during a competition. The activation of this path passes through the training of skills of self-regulation of activation (arousal), strategies for controlling attention, goal setting techniques and skills of emotional self-regulation and self-motivation based on imagery. It is therefore appropriate to clarify the concept of arousal. In the management of the potential of an athlete is to determine a sort of delicate balance between "mental fatigue" and "physical fatigue", so that an excessive stimulus of one or the other can lead to the same effect, ie fatigue. At this point comes into play the concept of arousal with which is meant, in psychophysiology, the intensity of physiological and behavioral activation of the organism; more simply, when the organism must perform, it is activated by setting in motion a whole series of mechanisms that together are called arousal.
When an athlete senses that there is an imbalance between what he is asked to do, i.e. performance, and what he feels he is capable of doing, i.e. ability, a state of stress is determined. This is also true for the Master and the Instructor: in fact they can also be subjected to stress and suffer, therefore, mechanisms of hyper- or hypo-activation; it is therefore necessary to adopt strategies to lower or increase the level of activation of the Master / Instructor to allow him a clear and balanced direction during the activity. An adequate state of activation (arousal), associated with a low level of stress (and therefore well-being and concentration) characterizes the state of flow, in which attention is focused on the task (the result or the race): the athlete is not disturbed by his thoughts because he is completely absorbed by his activity and feels in control of his actions. The state of flow represents, therefore, the right mix, that is, the optimal level of psychic energy associated with an adequate level of stress (so-called eustress or positive stress). The flow model clearly explains the cases in which performance demands (which are perceived as excessive) generate a state of anxiety. On the contrary, the balance between the difficulties proposed by the challenge and one's own abilities can lead to the experience of flow and, consequently, to excellent performance. It is precisely by staying in line with current trends in psychology, in particular positive psychology, that an important shift has occurred in the sports context as well.Today, the approach with the athlete focuses on his or her strengths, supporting him or her in building a model of optimal functioning and in the development of the conditions for the best performance. Flow, in fact, is synonymous with maximum cognitive and emotional involvement in the activity, intrinsic pleasure, and rewarding experience. It is therefore the opposite of boredom, stress, apathy, and demotivation.
Breathing Exercise: Warm Up
Example of an exercise that can be done at the beginning of a study session.
- Warm up your muscles, always breathing deeply (especially if you do these exercises in the morning).
- In one 5/4 beat breathe in on eighths (so 10 small breaths) - then for three more 5/4 beats breathe in on fourths without ever letting the air out (so 15 small breaths) - finished the three beats breathe out without checking - when you are completely empty take a big breathe and let go.
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Breathe in and breathe out quickly in order to activate the belly muscles. Position your mouth as if you were going to pronounce the letter "E" and switch to the letter "O" during the exercise.
At the end, let out all the air you have, take a big breath and let go.
- Another simple exercise to start the day is to set the metronome to around 60 bpm and breathe 4/4 first and stretch to 6/6, 8/8 and so on.
Breathing Exercise: Relax before a performance
During this research work, I really realised how much better I can concentrate when my heart rate is not high. As a result, I found this exercise to be very useful should we feel too much pressure or tension at our optimum level of arousal.
Breathing Exercise: Energize before a performance
Unlike the previous exercise, this one we are going to discover works in the opposite way. In other words, if we feel too "calm" or low on energy before a performance, this exercise will help us to raise the level of excitement to a higher level so that we are in the right mood for our super performance!
- Metronome around 60 bpm
- Breathe in for 6/4 - hold your breath for 6/4 - breathe out for 6/4
- Breathe in for 8/4 - hold your breath for 8/4 - breathe out for 8/4
- Breathe in for 10/4 - hold your breath for 10/4 - breathe out for 10/04
- Go on as long as you wish