week 3

week 3 - breathing and centering

aim of the week: to apply breathing and centering in order to reduce somatic anxiety.

Hi there i hope you have been visiting my blog page and keeping up to date with all the elements I have spoken about, hopefully it will have helped you and benefited you guys to an extent where you will be happy.

Somatic anxiety can be defined as anxiety which is provoked by bodily symptoms of tension such as butterflies in the stomach. It is commonly contrasted with cognitive anxiety which is that provoked by mental concerns or worry.


I have chosen breathing control and centering as it is a foundation technique on which other more advanced psychological skills can be built, such as imagery, relaxation techniques etc.  It is important to stay relaxed at all times so i though it would be good to apply this.
outside the coaching session

rhythmic breathing can be a way of reducing somatic anxiety as it can be a very useful technique to help athlete x cope with pressure, furthermore which will lead into performing better. It is all down to the style and technique you use in rhythmic breathing, most importantly stay as relaxed as you can and don't speak whilst you are in the process as this can affect your breathing.

Place your hand on the bottom of your rib cage and breathe deeply or in other words inhale heavily and at the same time count to three, after you have counted to three then exhale deeply to the count of three. Repeat this process a few times until you think you have felt the inner physical and mental state, if somehow you cant feel the difference perhaps repeat the whole process but take two recording of your pulse rate, one before and one after the rhythmic breathing session.

To help you appreciate how this style of breathing can reduce the high levels of physical arousal associated with fatigue and somatic anxiety, i would like you to carry out some physical exercises for a period of time which causes mild fatigue e.g. running up and down the stairs continuously for 2-3 minutes. after this now perform the rhythmic breathing process. you will hopefully discover that by using this you can recover much quicker than usual and regain your optimal state.


Now select some training and competitive  situations that you feel  that you could use the breathing / centeing technique in. Examples of these situations where you can apply this style is just before you are going to take a penalty, free kick, one on situation. if you think deeply all these things have the somatic anxiety affect in common so this breathing style can reduce it.

within coaching session which will then lead to competitive situation

I will try to help the athlete put this style into practice now when he is attending training, the situations which I have across before, I will try to re-create those exact situations in training. Hence I will try to encourage and support the athlete as much as possible in terms of applying and adapting the breathing technique. I will to be effective when it comes to this as i will need to think about how the athlete will need to come across this situation, I perhaps may set a free kick competition or penalty competition in which the athlete will need to come across this style of breathing.

Eventually after I have constantly applied the breathing style to the athlete, he will hopefully get to the stage where he doesn't need reminding. furthermore he will be able to adapt this style to himself in a competitive situation. It is vital for me to know how it is effecting the athlete so I could perhaps st a log book in which the athlete will note down every time  he uses this style.