Pre-Race Nerves? How to Regulate Your Pre-Competition Energy and Perform Under Pressure
If you have ever stood at the starting line feeling like a jittery mess, you are not alone. Many athletes describe pre-competition energy as either too much (racing heart, shaky hands, scattered thoughts) or too little (flat, unmotivated, mentally checked out). Both extremes can hurt performance. The good news is that you can learn to adjust your energy so you hit your sweet spot more consistently.
Here is the part most athletes miss: pre-competition nerves are not automatically the enemy. Research in psychology shows that the physical sensations we label as anxiety, a pounding heart, quick breathing, engaged muscles, overlap heavily with the sensations of excitement. The difference often lies in how you interpret them. When people reappraise anxious arousal as excitement, they tend to adopt an "opportunity" mindset and perform better than when they try to force themselves to calm down [1][2]. It is worth being realistic, though: across controlled studies, the average performance boost from reappraising arousal is positive but modest, not magic [3].
Why Finding Your Energy Sweet Spot Matters
Think of your energy level before competition like a dimmer switch, not an on-off button. Too little and you may be underprepared. Too much and focus and coordination can fall apart. This is the classic inverted-U idea: performance tends to be best at a moderate level of arousal and drops off when arousal is too low or too high [4].
Importantly, the "top" of that curve is not the same for everyone. Sport-psychology models such as the Zone of Optimal Functioning suggest each athlete has an individual range where they perform best—some excel feeling fired up, others feel calmer and steadier [4]. There is no single correct setting.
Your sport and role matter too. A weightlifter waiting for an attempt may want explosive energy. An endurance cyclist managing a 100-mile race may want steady, controlled focus. Matching your internal state to the demands of the moment is a core skill of performing under pressure.
How to Calm Down When You Feel Too Hyped
If your pre-race energy feels overwhelming, the goal is not to shut it off entirely. The goal is to bring the volume down into your optimal range.
Tool 1: Low and slow breathing.
You do not need to force deep belly breaths or breath perfectly. Simply slow your breathing, especially the exhale, and let it gradually deepen. Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly, notice which moves more, and gently shift attention toward the lower hand while keeping your posture tall and shoulders relaxed. Slow breathing (fewer than about 10 breaths per minute) shifts the nervous system toward a calmer, more parasympathetic state and is associated with reduced anxiety and increased feelings of relaxation and alertness [5]. Deliberate diaphragmatic breathing as part of a pre-performance routine has also been linked to better performance under pressure [6].
Try doing this for 60 seconds before competition starts. We break down the full technique in our Low & Slow breathing guide, and it works because it signals your body that you are safe enough to settle.
Tool 2: Reframe the story.
A racing heart can mean your body is priming for effort. Jittery legs can mean you have energy ready to use. Butterflies can mean you care. Instead of "I am panicking," try "My body is getting me ready" or even "I am excited." Reappraising arousal this way can support more adaptive stress responses and better performance, though the effect is generally small-to-moderate rather than dramatic [1][2][3]. For more on this approach, read our guide on how fear and anxiety can actually help you perform better.
Tool 3: Focus on what you control.
Anxiety loves to fixate on outcomes, weather, competitors, or bad calls. Make two quick lists: what you control today (your warm-up, nutrition, mindset, effort) and what you do not (the field, the conditions, the competition). When your mind drifts to the second list, gently return it to the first. A sense of personal control is one factor linked to interpreting nerves as helpful rather than threatening [6].
How to Get Energized When You Feel Too Deflated
Some athletes show up feeling like they left their energy in the car: mentally absent, physically sluggish, or emotionally checked out. These tools can help you light the fire back up before a competition.
Tool 1: Move first, energy follows.
We assume we need to feel motivated before we move, but the research shows it works the other way around. A brisk dynamic warm-up with active movements through a full range of motion, a few short activation efforts, loud music, or 30 seconds of jumping in place can raise both your physical readiness and your alertness. Dynamic warm-ups reliably improve measures like sprinting, jumping, and power compared with more passive routines, and a well-structured active warm-up also helps mentally prepare you for the demands ahead [7][8]. Your brain follows your body, so when you move with intensity, your energy rises to meet it.
Tool 2: Use a motivational power phrase.
Create two or three short statements that genuinely fire you up: "I am built for this," "This is my time," "I trained for this." Say them out loud with conviction. Deliberate, goal-directed self-talk broadly supports performance, and motivational self-talk in particular is well suited to competitive, high-pressure settings [6]. Pick words that mean something to you, not generic slogans.
Tool 3: Reconnect to your why.
Sometimes flatness comes from disconnection. Ask yourself why this competition matters to you. Not why it matters to your coach, your parents, or your followers. Why does it matter to you?We explore this further in our guide to finding your why. When athletes connect their effort to personal values, motivation rises and energy follows.
How to Find Your Personal Energy Sweet Spot
There is no universal right energy level for competition. What works for a teammate may not work for you, so experimentation and self-awareness are key.
Try this simple practice: after your warm-up and before you start competition, rate your energy from 1 to 10, where 1 is completely flat and 10 is overwhelmed. After the event, note how you performed. Repeat over several competitions and look for patterns. Maybe you perform best around a 6 for long endurance events and an 8 for short, explosive efforts. Maybe you need a 7 every time. This self-knowledge is one of the most valuable tools you can build, and it maps directly onto the idea that your optimal zone is individual [4].
As we discuss in our guide to embodiment for athletes, learning to listen to your body's signals is a skill that gets stronger with practice. The more you tune in, the better you become at adjusting your state in real time.
How a Pre-Performance Routine Prevents Choking Under Pressure
If you have ever performed brilliantly in practice and then fallen apart in competition, you have felt "choking"—an acute, noticeable drop in performance when pressure and anxiety spike. It happens when your attention gets hijacked, either by over-thinking a skill you normally do automatically or by being pulled toward distracting worries [6]. A consistent pre-performance routine, a set order of task-relevant thoughts and actions you run through right before you execute, is one of the best-supported ways to protect against it [6].
A few principles make a routine effective:
Keep the components task-relevant and consistent. The point is to anchor your attention on useful cues and let well-practiced skills run automatically [6].
Build it yourself. Athletes stick with and benefit more from routines they help design, so choose steps that fit you, perhaps a breath, a target focus, and a cue word [6].
Match each step to your energy goal. Slow breathing is ideal when you need to settle, but skip it (or swap in an activation step) if you actually need to raise your energy [6].
This ties the whole guide together: the breathing, reframing, control, and power-phrase tools above become most powerful when you sequence a few of them into a repeatable routine you run the same way every time.
Build Your Pre-Competition Energy Regulation Routine
Regulating your pre-competition energy is a skill you can build, not a fixed personality trait. You can learn to settle yourself when you are too hyped and to fire yourself up when you feel deflated. The trick is practicing these tools during training and low-stakes events so they feel automatic when the pressure is on.
Start with one tool from each section. Try slow breathing before your next hard workout. Test a motivational power phrase at your next practice race. Notice what shifts. There is no perfect formula, only what works for you.
If you want help building a personalized pre-competition routine matched to your sport, personality, and goals, Skadi's sports-informed therapists and performance consultants are here for you. Schedule a free discovery call to explore whether individual performance coaching or sport psychology sessions are the right fit.
References
[1] Brooks, A. W. (2014). Get excited: Reappraising pre-performance anxiety as excitement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(3), 1144–1158.
[2] Jamieson, J. P., Nock, M. K., & Mendes, W. B. (2012). Mind over matter: Reappraising arousal improves cardiovascular and cognitive responses to stress. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(3), 417–422.
[3] Bosshard, M., & Gomez, P. (2024). Effectiveness of stress arousal reappraisal and stress-is-enhancing mindset interventions on task performance outcomes: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Scientific Reports, 14, 7822.
[4] Zhao, Y., & Zhang, H. (2025). The inverted-U relationship between stress and performance in elite shooting. Scientific Reports, 15.
[5] Zaccaro, A., Piarulli, A., Laurino, M., et al. (2018). How breath-control can change your life: A systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12, 353.
[6] Schweickle, M. J., Appaneal, R. N., Jackman, P. C., et al. (2026). Performance under pressure in sport: A position statement from Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA). Sports Medicine.
[7] Ayala, F., Moreno-Pérez, V., Vera-Garcia, F. J., et al. (2015). Acute and time-course effects of traditional and dynamic warm-up routines in young elite junior tennis players. PLoS ONE, 10(11), e0142891.
[8] McGowan, C. J., Pyne, D. B., Thompson, K. G., & Rattray, B. (2015). Warm-up strategies for sport and exercise: Mechanisms and applications. Sports Medicine, 45(11), 1523–1546.
[9] Zeng, Z., Yan, W., Mohammadi, A., et al. (2026). Counteracting choking under pressure in sport: A meta-analysis of interventions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise.
