{"id":17790,"date":"2023-05-08T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&#038;p=17790"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:11:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:11:16","slug":"how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"How you Can Train your Athletes&#8217; Physiological Responses to Pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- blocks\/hero-editorial -->\n<!-- inc\/hero-editorial -->\n<div class=\"hero es-hero__editorial hero--var-1\" role=\"banner\">\n\t<div class=\"hero__image\" style=\"background-image: url(https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-1486887679-scaled.jpg);\">\n\n\t\t<div class=\"hero__overlay grad-overlay content-bottom\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"container\">\n\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero__content\">\n                    \n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero__content__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t                            <p class=\"es-label es-label--md\">\n                                8 May 2023                            <\/p>\n                        \t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\" class=\"theme-dark hero__back-link back-link es-label es-label--sm\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"icon icon--md icon--arrow-left\"><\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"hero__title\">How you Can Train your Athletes&#8217; Physiological Responses to Pressure<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n        \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n    <section class=\"es-section theme-light hero__sidebar-wrapper container\">\n        <div class=\"hero__sidebar\">\n                            <div class=\"category-list\">\n                  <div class=\"es-label es-label--sm\">Category<\/div>\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/category\/human-performance\/\" rel=\"tag\">Human Performance<\/a>                <\/div>\n                            <div class=\"share-list\">\n                  <div class=\"es-label es-label--sm\">Share<\/div>\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/\">Facebook<\/a>\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/&#038;text=How you Can Train your Athletes' Physiological Responses to Pressure\">Twitter<\/a>\n                  <a href=\"mailto:?subject=Here's a Leaders In Sport article for you &amp;body=Check out this article: How you Can Train your Athletes' Physiological Responses to Pressure. https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/\">Email<\/a>\n                  <a href=\"#copyLink\" id=\"copyButton\" class=\"copy-link-clipboard\">Copy Link<\/a>\n                  <div id=\"textToCopy\" class=\"font-hidden\">https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/<\/div>\n                <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n    <\/section>\n\n\n<!-- blocks\/section -->\n<section\n  class=\"es-section flexible-section  text-only theme-light\"\n    >\n                <div class=\"container\">\n                                    <div class=\"bg-striped-pattern__inner section-padding-top section-padding-bottom\">\n                <div class=\"es-section__inner col-parent col-parent--stack-sm\">\n                                            <div class=\"es-section__sidebar es-section__sidebar--sticky col col--12 \">\n                                                            <p class=\"es-section__label es-label es-label--md\">Leaders Performance Advisor Rachel Vickery explored essential considerations and strategies in the second session of her Performance Support Series.<\/p>\n                            \n                            \n                            \n                                                            <div class=\"es-section__text content-area\">\n                                    <p><p>A Human Performance article brought you by our Main Partners<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/02\/Keiser_Main_Logo_Red.png\" width=\"250\" height=\"100\" \/><\/p>\n<h6>By Luke Whitworth<\/h6>\n<h6>Our latest Performance Support Series explores the \u2018how\u2019, \u2018what\u2019 and \u2018why\u2019 that influence performance under pressure. Across the three sessions within the series, we will look to develop our understanding behind the physiological responses to pressure from the athlete, coach and staff perspective.<\/h6>\n<p>Part one, which looked at better understanding athletes&#8217; physiological responses under pressure, is available <a href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-to-better-understand-an-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We moved into the second session where the focus shifted to content and thinking around:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Front-loading and intentionally setting up high pressure scenarios.<\/li>\n<li>Practical strategies for training and competition.<\/li>\n<li>Reframing the threat to opportunity.<\/li>\n<li>Quality of self-talk.<\/li>\n<li>Importance of communication.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Working with the nervous system<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As we explored in session one, there is a need to spend time working on our physiological response to pressure. Do your people and athletes really know what it feels like when you experience that adrenaline surge and what changes in the body? How are we working with the nervous system so we can become comfortable being uncomfortable? Giving more tolerance for people to be uncomfortable feeds into this, however it doesn\u2019t actually give them the skill or the tool in their toolkit to understand how to work with the physiology when it gets out of control \u2013 we want to develop strategies and deployable skills to take control of the arousal state.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the session, we explored the theme of \u2018identity statements\u2019. This is another layer that gives athletes a very powerful identity statement to say that they have earned the right to be able to say, \u2018I\u2019m someone who does difficult things\u2019 &#8211; it&#8217;s actually a really powerful statement when we&#8217;re trying to counter unimpactful self-talk that some athletes will try to convince themselves of.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Creative strategies <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A really simple but effective strategy for those operating in daily training environments is the use of ice baths or plunge pools. It\u2019s a resourceful strategy \u2013 when you get in, the huge adrenaline rush will be present. Breathing tightens, shoulders tense and the heart will begin pounding. We typically see athletes in particular use them for physical recovery, but it\u2019s a great way of dovetailing this with training the physiological response.<\/p>\n<p>How to make this really effective? Don\u2019t do any specific breathing techniques or practices in advance. The reality of the performance arena is that you will need to control your arousal state in that specific moment \u2013 there isn\u2019t time to prepare in advance of it. Through consistent training, eventually an athlete or person will get to the point of calm \u2013 when it gets to this stage, look to get creative once again through introducing cognitive tasks and intensifying the challenge. Rachel shared that within elite military environment settings, the challenge is ramped up considerably including complex maths questions or communication and translation of a foreign language.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, you might also like to introduce something such as a fine motor skill aligned to an element of performance in your sport; an example being to relax your hand whilst training the response to integrate some performance orientation.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Threat focus<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Where\u2019s the threat? Where\u2019s the danger? When considering pressure, the magic is not to buy into the panic. We are striving for situations when the body and mind are trying to do something, you are able to take control because you have learnt how to control it when it kicks in. The only time a stress response kicks in is when we\u2019ve actually got another response that we need to handle and execute on, this concept is known as \u2018threat focus\u2019. In most performance environments, we don\u2019t have enough time to notice, think about the what and the go to strategy.<\/p>\n<p>Creating awareness for athletes or others around threat focus is important, it\u2019s powerful to ask athletes in particular \u2018what did you notice about yourself? What was your go to?\u2019 You will hear responses such as a feeling of tension through the shoulders, the heart pounding or \u2018my mind went into a victim mindset\u2019. Provide space for those self-awareness moments and exposure.<\/p>\n<p>Coaches and performance staff should also look to be involved in this process. You will often here coaching staff wanting their athletes to improve at handling and staying calm under pressure. An interesting insight shared within the roundtable was how many coaches do this work as well? Many coaches and performance staff don\u2019t think they need to do it.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Mental rehearsal <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The notion of mental rehearsal isn\u2019t new to high performance environments. However, relating to the topic for this Performance Support Series, this is not mental rehearsal from the perspective of generic visualisation. This rehearsal is visualising yourself in the performance arena right now and working on ways to get into a calm state so that the brain waves are in a more optimal state. The practice is visualising yourself doing the difficult thing and experiencing how your strategies impact the difficult thing. This is where consistency of training neurophysiologically is important to ensure there isn\u2019t a movement towards the \u2018fear track\u2019 and instead stay in the \u2018calm track\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Weaving strategies in skills training<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We have already discussed the importance of building the muscle of the nervous system in training environments. What are some practical things we can do:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Breath control (not breath work) with physical exertion. From the get go, learning to control breathing so that it stays slower and more under control because our thought processes tend to follow our breathing pattern.<\/li>\n<li>Use recovery positions and rest periods well. Where are the moments you can look to drop heart rate and breathing to aid recovery in a short amount of time during game time?<\/li>\n<li>Ice baths for arousal state control as well as physical recovery.<\/li>\n<li>Practice precision techniques \u2018gassed\u2019. This helps to build awareness of how things break down under pressure with either fine motor or cognitive. This is also useful for staff when giving athletes instructions. How well have they actually understood?<\/li>\n<li>Use uncertainty in drills, mix things up and have athletes problem-solve.<\/li>\n<li>Use the physical exertion to train arousal state control: fine motor, cognitive and situation awareness. Deck of cards conditioning drill.<\/li>\n<li>Consider impact on team culture. When it&#8217;s really tough in certain scenarios, who goes to the victim mindset? Who starts to blame others?<\/li>\n<li>Train the response. Don&#8217;t necessarily ask how do we reproduce that exact scenario in training as it will be almost impossible to mimic. Instead work on the response.<\/li>\n<li>Weaving in precision technique under pressure. Creating situations and scenarios where simple technique work is put under duress.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                            \n                            \n                            \n                                                    <\/div>\n                                        <div class=\"col visibly-hidden col--flex-align-right\">\n                                            <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":17793,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[21],"pathway":[304],"topic":[327,328],"sport":[],"class_list":["post-17790","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-performance","pathway-technical-excellence","topic-athlete-development","topic-mental-skills"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How you Can Train your Athletes&#039; Physiological Responses to Pressure - Performance Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How you Can Train your Athletes&#039; Physiological Responses to Pressure - Performance Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Performance Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-15T05:11:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-1486887679-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1690\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/\",\"name\":\"How you Can Train your Athletes' Physiological Responses to Pressure - Performance Institute\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-1486887679-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-08T09:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-15T05:11:16+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-you-can-train-your-athletes-physiological-responses-to-pressure\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-1486887679-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-1486887679-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1690,\"caption\":\"LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 01: Lina Hurtig of Arsenal reacts as the ball goes out of play during the UEFA Women's Champions League semi-final 2nd leg match between Arsenal and VfL Wolfsburg at Emirates Stadium on May 01, 2023 in London, England. 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