Penalty shoot outs were introduced into major competitions in 1990, as a way of producing a result in a match still drawn after extra time. Going into the world cup in 2018, the England football team’s record for penalty shoot outs in major competitions was, won 1, lost 6. This so worried the England manager Gareth Southgate, that before that world cup in 2018, he introduced a sports psychologist into the England training camp to try and help. Not, you will notice, an expert at taking penalties. A sports psychologist. Why? Because like a lot of things in football, many of the players had the ability to take a good penalty, but taking a penalty in World Cups is all about handling the feeling of pressure. The result - England won the penalty shootout v Columbia in the world cup quarter final in 2018, and again we won another competitive shoot out v Switzerland in a Nations League match in 2019. So perhaps that was a good move! 

We all recognise the feeling of being under pressure, whether it’s taking a penalty or even something like preparing to take an exam. It’s like being nervous only on steroids. On the whole, it sucks. No one really likes this feeling of being under pressure, and there is no doubt that it can affect your performance. The top sports psychologists have been looking at the various ways to overcome these feelings of pressure for many years, and it seems the answer is relatively simple. It’s all in the breath. 

If you watch many of the great players, before they take a penalty, and Ronaldo is a classic example, you will see that while they are waiting to take a free kick they take big deep “belly breaths”. This is also known as diaphragmatic breathing, and it is what opera singers do to fill up their lungs to make sure they have enough breath to sing. This is the best way of explaining it. Lie down on the floor and concentrate on your breathing. You will find that your breath causes your rib cage to gently move in and out. Now take a deeper breath, and the rib cage moves more, as an increased volume of air goes in and out of the lungs. Now put your hands on your stomach, and take a really deep breath, so that as you breathe in, your stomach moves out. The stomach moves out because your diaphragm, which is the bit that separates the lungs from the gut, is a strong muscle, and as it moves down to allow more air into the lungs, the stomach contents move out to allow this to happen. So that’s a belly breath. Now this is the breath that Ronaldo takes before the penalty. It has been found that taking a deep belly breath in, then slowly releasing it over about 7 seconds, counteracts a lot of those physical feelings of pressure.  The physical manifestations of stress, like your pulse rate and blood pressure, decrease significantly. Your “butterflies” settle. The mental sensations of fear and the anxiety that accompany this feeling of pressure reduce considerably too. The good news is it works if you just feel nervous or anxious in any situation, not just football. Doctors now even recommend using breathing exercises for patients who feel anxious all the time.  

It pays to practice these slow belly breaths. Whenever you feel nervous or anxious or under pressure, no matter what the circumstances, just do some big deep slow belly breaths. You will find they really do work. Ask Ronaldo or Harry Kane – by reducing the feeling of pressure through breathing, they can concentrate fully on executing the penalty! It’s a simple way to decrease pressure and ease your nerves. Take these slow belly breaths whenever you feel under pressure, to make sure you are on top form mentally and physically for every game you play.