How Nervous System Regulation Helps Reduce Sports Anxiety

So you are experience sports anxiety. What is the actual WHY behind this? Often when we are experiencing pre-match jitters, we want to believe that it is mind over matter. You might think to yourself – I will just think my way out of this or reframe my thoughts. But when you are in fight or flight mode, the thinking brain is offline and ultimately it is really hard to escape the negative thought loop. The answer? Nervous system regulation! Widening your window of tolerance! If you get anxious and only spiral, it is a sure sign that you are in need of some regulation skills. To be able to dip into an anxious state and then regulate and go back to a safe, calm place, is a skill.

Sports anxiety may look like:

• Numbness
• Freezing during practice
• Feeling disconnected from your sport
• Dreading practice
• Overanalyzing your performance
• Feeling helpless
• Immense pressure

Sports Anxiety and the Fight-or-Flight Response

Often, competition can put us into a hyperaroused, fight or flight state. All the blood leaves non-essential functions and goes straight to your muscles to face your opponent. If you are highly dysregulated, this could lead to poor performance because your anxiety is getting the best of you and self-doubt creeps in. However, if you are actively working on regulation and managing negative self talk, your performance will be more present and there will be less freezing. 

Sports anxiety is not a character flaw or a lack of mental toughness — it’s a nervous system response. When competition starts, your brain reads the situation as high-stakes and potentially threatening. In response, your body shifts into a fight-or-flight state.

This state is designed to help you survive. Stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol increase, your heart rate rises, and blood flow is redirected away from “non-essential” functions (like digestion and complex reasoning) and toward your large muscle groups. In moderation, this can be helpful — it sharpens focus and increases physical readiness.

Nervous system overactivation

The problem happens when your nervous system becomes over-activated or dysregulated. When anxiety spikes too high, the brain struggles to access fine motor skills, decision-making, and learned techniques. This is often when athletes experience racing thoughts, tightness, hesitation, or freezing. Self-doubt tends to creep in because the brain is prioritizing survival over confidence or strategy.

When the nervous system stays in this hyperaroused state, performance can suffer — not because you aren’t capable, but because your body is essentially stuck in “emergency mode.”This is where nervous system regulation matters. By intentionally working on regulation skills — such as breathing, grounding, and managing negative self-talk — you help signal safety back to the brain. Regulation doesn’t mean eliminating nerves entirely; it means keeping anxiety within a workable range so you can stay present, responsive, and connected to your training. When the nervous system is more regulated, athletes often notice improved focus, smoother movement, quicker recovery from mistakes, and less freezing under pressure.

Chronic stress in sports

Sometimes anxiety in sports can be caused by chronic overwhelm or chronic stress. Think of your body like a glass of water; if you are always almost ‘full’ (of stress), it will take very little to become overwhelmed and overflow your cup.

If you do not take the time to balance your training with rest or manage your stress outside your sport, you likely will burn out!

Sometimes in sports there is a pressure to constantly perform; you might think to perform well you need to train every waking moment and obsessively think about your competition and make a meticulous game plan. Newsflash – you are a person! Not a robot! Rest is productive and you have to balance your other priorities with training. 

Your body has a stress response called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis or HPA axis; this is responsible for your body’s cortisol response. This response is fine short term but if it is constantly ‘on’ it’s like a car that is going and going; eventually it will run out of gas. Chronic stress in sports will lead to shut down. You can read more about that here.

You might have a rigorous training schedule, but do your best to get adequate rest and and be able to rest when injured. Do not get caught up in perfection. Especially when it comes to training for a competition or meet. Chronic stress leads to fight or flight and you will not be grounded for your match or game. Managing this stress will help you overcome sports anxiety! Now you’re probably wondering, ok I understand this, but what can I do about it?

How to reach a flow state in sports performance

The best way to beat sports anxiety is to be so in the present moment you are not overthinking and just performing. Imagine being in the zone- in a flow state in your sport and how freeing that would feel. Right now you may be feeling:

• frazzled
• like you can’t do anything right
• overthinking everything
• stuck in the sports anxiety state

While you want to feel

• present
• smooth
• just….right

Sometimes what causes feeling out of whack is not being in the present: you might be overthinking every move, every play. Or maybe you can’t stop replaying your last game or match while you’re lying awake at night. Learning how to stay in the present and how staying there will help your game and overall sports performance. Mindfulness for athletes like you is the way to go! When people think of mindfulness they tend to think of shutting off your brain or suppressing things like emotions to be a blank slate; in fact the opposite is true and mindfulness is about awareness of these thoughts and emotions and how they are impacting performance. 

How Mindfulness for Athletes Improves Sports Performance

Mindfulness can help reduce sports anxiety. Mindfulness in sports performance is when you are not replaying the last game or wondering how this match will turn out; it’s being in the present. Research shows that redirecting your attention to the present can:

• reduce anxiety
• reduce stress
• improve self-esteem

Mindfulness is a practice just like anything else and does not always have to look like meditation or sitting in a dark room for an hour. Over everything, it’s being a mindful observer. For example, during your sport you might notice thoughts such as “I am so terrible at …” or “I played like trash last game.” Being aware of these thoughts and not letting them impact your reality of your sports performance is key.  

Imagine two different scenarios; 

1. You have a game or match where you can’t seem to score any points or do anything according to your plan. You think to yourself “I’m having such a trash performance….what is wrong with me? I’m never going to get this together and have a good season” So you have a self-fulfilling prophecy and lose the rest of the season
   
2. You have a game or match where you can’t seem to score any points or do anything according to your plan. You think “It’s okay. I am having a hard time this game. I am noticing a lot of negative thinking, but it’s ok. I will just try again next time. You shrug it off and have a great season.

Of course it is not always that way, but your thoughts can influence how you feel about yourself! This only leads to being hard on yourself. 

 Pre-Performance Mindfulness Rituals

A lot of athletes LOVE rituals. If you are struggling to let go of sports anxiety and want to give mindfulness a try, try these before a game:

1. Mantras: These can be something like “I can handle this. I’ve done this before and done great. I can handle any unpleasant emotions or thoughts that arise.”
   
2. Breathwork to center yourself: Breathwork may seem basic but it is signaling to your nervous system that there is no danger and to reach your flow state. 
3. Practicing letting go of thoughts: whether it is writing down your negative thoughts, crumpling them up and throwing them away

Oftentimes, people think “I should push this thought away” or “I shouldn’t feel anxious.” As paradoxical as it sounds, accepting the anxiety takes away it’s power. It’s OKAY to be anxious- it’s natural. Anxiety and thoughts are like an annoying party guest – the more you get mad and try to get them to leave, the more annoying they might seem and this takes away from what you really want – presence in performance! The more you’re worrying about your thoughts and getting bogged down in the ‘what ifs’ 

The more you can accept thoughts and feelings as they come, the sports performance flow state will come to you.

In conclusion

Sports anxiety isn’t something you need to “fix” by trying harder or thinking more positively. It’s usually a signal from your nervous system asking for safety and regulation. When you learn how to widen your window of tolerance, manage chronic stress, and gently bring yourself back into the present moment, anxiety loses its grip on your performance. Regulation allows you to stay connected to your body, trust your training, and recover more quickly when things don’t go perfectly. By practicing nervous system regulation and mindfulness, you give yourself permission to show up as a person first!