Do you count your breathing?

Breathing is one of the most underrated skills in racket sports. Players spend countless hours practicing technique, strategy, and physical conditioning, yet many never train the most powerful regulator of performance: their breath. The way you breathe directly affects your heart rate, nervous system, and brain activity, which ultimately determines whether your mind is calm and clear or tense and chaotic.

Many athletes believe they must feel intense in order to perform. They associate readiness with tension and aggression. But in sports like tennis, padel, or pickleball, the real advantage comes from something else entirely: clarity and focus. The best players often look relaxed even while competing at the highest level. Their bodies are active, but their minds are calm.

Breathing is what allows that state to exist.

A simple rhythm to practice is four seconds in and six seconds out. The longer exhale signals the body to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which lowers the heart rate and creates a sense of calm control. Practicing this rhythm regularly helps train the body to return to a balanced state more quickly during competition.

When stress becomes extreme in a match, a slightly more structured pattern can help reset the system:

• Breathe in through the nose for four seconds
• Hold for two seconds
• Breathe out slowly for six seconds
• Hold for two seconds

Repeating this cycle a few times can bring the heart rate down and stabilize oxygen levels. As the body settles, the mind becomes clearer and more focused.

It is important to understand that the chaos in your mind during stressful moments is not entirely negative. Those racing signals are part of the brain’s protective system. They exist to help you react quickly and stay safe. But during competition, this system can become overactive, filling the mind with unnecessary noise.

The beautiful experience athletes often describe as being “in the zone” happens when that noise disappears. When you are truly in that state, you don’t hear anyone’s voice in your head. Not the crowd. Not your opponent. Not even your own internal commentary.

You are simply responding.

During the point, the mind becomes quiet and instinct takes over. The difficulty usually appears between points, when the thinking mind starts to return and tries to analyze what just happened or what might happen next.

When athletes perform at their best, their brain activity tends to sit between two important brainwave states: alpha and theta.

Alpha brainwaves are associated with calm focus. In this state the brain is relaxed but alert. Awareness widens, timing improves, and the body moves fluidly. Many athletes describe alpha as the feeling that the game slows down slightly.

Theta brainwaves are deeper and connected to intuition and automatic performance. In theta, movements feel instinctive. The athlete is not consciously controlling each action — the body simply responds based on training and experience.

The ideal competitive state often sits between alpha and theta. The mind is calm enough to avoid overthinking but alert enough to react instantly.

The state that tends to disrupt performance is beta. Beta brainwaves dominate everyday thinking. They are associated with analyzing, planning, worrying, judging, and mentally narrating events. This state is extremely useful in daily life when solving problems or organizing tasks, but it can interfere with athletic performance when it becomes too active during play.

When the brain moves strongly into beta during a match, certain types of thoughts begin to appear that can quickly pull an athlete out of the optimal state.

These are the kinds of thoughts players must learn to avoid or release while competing.

One common disruption is technical analysis during the point. Thoughts about mechanics, grip position, swing path, or foot placement force the brain into a problem-solving mode. The body already knows these movements from training, and thinking about them during execution often interferes with natural timing.

Another disruption comes from evaluating past mistakes. Replaying the previous point, judging a missed shot, or mentally criticizing yourself keeps the mind locked in the past instead of responding to the present moment.

Future-oriented thinking can be equally disruptive. Thoughts about winning the match, the score, the consequences of losing, or what others might think activate the analytical mind and increase tension in the body.

There are also subtle internal questions that can break the rhythm of the brain’s calm state. When the mind starts asking things like what should I do next, what if I miss, or why did that happen, the brain immediately shifts toward analytical processing.

For athletes who think visually, another challenge appears through unwanted mental images. The brain may briefly picture mistakes, missed shots, or negative outcomes. These images can influence body tension and decision making if they are allowed to linger.

Maintaining the alpha-theta balance requires learning how to let those thoughts pass without engaging them. The goal is not to fight thoughts aggressively, but to allow them to dissolve while returning attention to breathing, rhythm, and the present moment.

Breathing helps anchor the mind because it reconnects the brain with the body. When you return to a steady breathing pattern, heart rate stabilizes and the nervous system shifts away from the stress response.

Over time, athletes learn that the optimal state is not created through force or intensity. It is created through calm control and trust in instinct.

Ironically, the less the conscious mind interferes, the better the body performs.

In racket sports, the body already knows what to do. Training builds the skill. Competition simply requires the athlete to stay calm enough to let that skill emerge.

And the foundation of that calm state always begins with something simple... the way you  breathe. 

In racket sports, performance is not only influenced by the athlete’s own thoughts and breathing, but also by the words of the people around them. A partner, teammate, or coach can unintentionally pull a player out of a calm performance state simply by saying the wrong thing at the wrong moment.

When an athlete is trying to enter or is already inside the alpha–theta performance state, their brain is operating in a very delicate balance. The mind is calm, instinctive, and quiet. The body reacts automatically, without heavy analysis or internal dialogue. This is the state where timing feels natural, movement is fluid, and decisions happen almost instantly.

Because this state depends on a quiet mind, too much verbal information can immediately disrupt it.

One of the most common mistakes partners and coaches make is giving technical instructions during competition. Comments about mechanics grip changes, swing adjustments, footwork corrections, or body positioning force the athlete’s brain back into analytical thinking. The moment the player begins consciously processing mechanics, the brain shifts toward a problem-solving mode instead of instinctive performance.

Even well-intentioned phrases like reminding a player to change their stroke, adjust their swing, or focus on technique can pull them out of that natural rhythm. Their mind starts evaluating movement instead of simply executing it.

Another mistake comes from overloading the athlete with strategy in the moment. Long explanations about tactics, patterns, or complex adjustments can overwhelm the brain during competition. When the mind tries to process too many pieces of information at once, it moves back into the analytical state that disrupts instinctive play.

Partners and coaches also sometimes make the mistake of asking too many questions during a match. Questions require the brain to search for answers. When a player is already managing pressure and trying to stay present, questions can pull their attention away from breathing and rhythm.

Negative or emotionally charged comments are even more disruptive. Criticism, frustration, or visible disappointment can activate the athlete’s stress response, increasing heart rate and tightening the body. Even subtle remarks about mistakes can trigger self-evaluation and internal dialogue.

But disruption does not always come from negativity. Sometimes too much enthusiasm or excitement can have the same effect. Excessive hype, loud reactions, or emotional swings can raise the player’s arousal level beyond the calm focus required for precision sports.

Another common issue is reminding athletes of outcomes or pressure situations. Talking about the score, the importance of the point, the need to win, or the consequences of losing brings the player’s attention away from the present moment and toward future results. This activates the thinking mind rather than the performing mind.

What many partners and coaches do not realize is that the athlete may already be very close to the ideal mental state, and too many words can snap them out of it instantly.

In high-level competition, communication often works best when it is simple, calm, and minimal. Short phrases, calm energy, and supportive presence help the athlete maintain their internal balance. The goal is not to fill every silence with advice, but to protect the mental space the player needs to perform.

A partner or coach plays a powerful role in shaping the emotional environment of the match. When they stay composed, speak sparingly, and avoid forcing the athlete into analysis, they allow the player’s instincts to remain in control.

Sometimes the most helpful thing a coach or partner can do is say less.

Because in racket sports, the athlete’s mind performs best when it is quiet, focused, and free from unnecessary noise. And the people around them must be careful not to become the very thing that pulls them out of that state.

Is return to the backhand a technical thought? Yes “return to the backhand” can become a technical thought depending on how it is processed in the brain. The key difference is whether the instruction forces the player to analyze mechanics or simply guides intention.

If the phrase makes the player start calculating or adjusting mechanics, it pushes the brain toward the analytical beta state. For example, if the player starts thinking:

• “I must aim exactly there.”
• “How do I angle my racket to get it there?”
• “I need to change my swing to hit that target.”

Now the brain is solving a problem mid-point, which interrupts the instinctive system that normally controls timing and coordination. The player starts controlling the shot consciously instead of letting trained patterns execute automatically.

However, simple directional intention can still work if it remains non-analytical. Elite players often play with one light intention such as:

• Direction
• Height
• Speed

“Backhand” in this sense becomes more like a target or picture, not a mechanical instruction. The brain processes it as a simple external cue rather than a technical adjustment.

In other words:

• Bad version: analyzing how to hit it there
• Good version: simply seeing the space and letting the body respond

The motor system performs best when the brain focuses externally (target, space, trajectory) rather than internally (body movement, racket mechanics). Research in motor learning consistently shows that external focus preserves automatic movement patterns.

So a short cue like “backhand side” can work if it stays simple and visual, but long explanations such as:

• “Serve to his backhand because his grip is weak and you must open the court with topspin…”

will almost certainly pull the player into analytical thinking and disrupt the alpha–theta performance state.

During competition, communication should be:

• Short
• External (target or space)
• Simple enough to process instantly

If the player has to think about how to do it, it’s probably too technical for that moment.

The goal is always the same:
give the brain just enough direction without waking up the analytical mind.