The Effectiveness of Breathing Techniques in Improving Athletes' Mindsets and Resilience to Failure

Public project summary

A large part of whether an athlete can succeed in high school and beyond is how they respond to and view failure and errors made while playing in a game, such as a missed shot or turnover in basketball. Game time situations, meaning events that take place during time-sensitive moments while facing an opponent in an official match, can be stressful. This stress can lead athletes to browbeat and question themselves, making them more susceptible to simple mistakes and less likely to take risks, hindering their overall performance (Santas, 2015). By being able to refocus their actions positively, they will be able to see their mistakes as learning experiences. They are able to accomplish this with methods like talking kindly to themselves and taking deep breaths (Puff, 2017). This hypothetically enables them to rebound in a positive way, leading them to look to the next play to improve, like working extra hard on defense or taking more shots when open. This project will examine how the application of some of these techniques, specifically breathing techniques, changes athletes' mindsets in a positive way and coutneracts the negative effects of game time stress.