Breathing powerfully affects every system in our body: the cardiovascular, nervous, endocrine, lymph, immune, digestive, and of course, the respiratory. Under the instruction of Dani Smith, our partnered Wim Hoff Method Certified Instructor and XPT Performance Breathing Coach, Sporting Minds students have been learning that the way in which they breathe has a lot to do with their athletic performance as well as their quality of life.

Proper breathing can decrease stress and muscle tension, calm the nerves, sharpen focus, minimise negative and distracting thoughts, reduce fatigue, and promote stamina – all essential qualities of peak performance in any sport. Evidence indicates that adopting a regular, long-term schedule of breathing practice could help improve the body’s ability to manage stress and anxiety often brought on by performance.

By learning proper breathing techniques, and engaging in an ice bath challenge, our Year 9 Sporting Minds students have seen first-hand how concentrating on your breathing slows down the body’s stress response and makes them feel calmer and in control. Well done to our Year 9 Sporting Minds students who bravely took this challenge head-on and stuck out the 2 minutes in the ice bath.

By transferring this skill to the sporting arena, athletes can respond positively to anxiety and provide a level of control they feel they have over a given situation, and their own response. This perception of control is important, because it reflects whether athletes see the situation as a threat or a challenge. This will ultimately change the way our athletes perform under pressure.