Breathing Control

Our class was taken to a quite location within the college where we took part breathing techniques. Firstly on arrival we checked our resting heart rates after this our lecturer got us to get comfortable, relax and to close our eyes. We inhaled slowly for four seconds, held the breath for four seconds and finally released the breath for four seconds. We did this for 2 minutes and for the next two minutes we inhaled for four, held it for four and released over 8 seconds instead of four. We took our resting heart again and compared the previous results.

This technique could be used in sports that require the participant to be calm such as darts or snooker. Mainly introverted sports would use this technique although it could be used in any sport but the breathing ratio would need to be adapted to the participant to prevent them getting too relaxed. For example a ruby player might be feeling anxious before a game, he could use breathing techniques to calm his nerves without taking all the hype and adrenaline away.

Listening to Music and Acting Energised

Five participants were chosen at random to take part in a hand grip test using a dynamometer. The hand grip test was carried out by each participant three times and the average score was recorded. The participants then got onto spin bikes and started cycling at a low intensity whilst listening to music. The participants all done the hand grip test again, the results were recorded and compared against the data from the previous test and there was a 2% increase overall the participants. This shows that the participants were more aroused as they scored higher.

This technique could be used before a rugby match to get the participant into a certain mind set and increase their arousal levels as the results above proved a 2% increase this could be the difference between scoring a tri/conversion or missing. It will also have the player going onto the pitch aroused and ready. Snooker players could also find this technique useful but they may listen to a different tempo of music.

I found this technique was very beneficial as after listening to the music I was more hyped up and ready to go, this is due to being more aroused therefore I was a lot more motivated. I use music during my own introvert sport as I find it blanks the rest of the world out and lets me focus solely on my sport and nothing else.