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While he ran on the field for the first time before the kick -off of Super Bowl Liv in 2020, Chiefs Punter Dustin Colquits remembers looking up and saw a piece of Trivia on the video board: When the Chiefs win today, Dustin joins his father, Craig and brother, Britton, as a super bowl champion.
It immediately caused an attack of reflection and fear.
“Oh nonsense,” thought Colquits.
To calm his nerves, he used a simple remedy: a series of breathing exercises on the sidelines.
People everywhere are about similar streets of pressure or nervousness. The professional football players who have reached the Super Bowl experience the same feelings, but on a public stage, elevated to tens of millions to see. The extremely of this forces them all to find out how they can conquer those emotions in ways that we can also register for a large job interview, a talk in public or a moment of pressure in our lives.
Here are four tips on how you can calm your mind from super bowl champions.
Find a useful distraction
In the middle of Super XLIX in 2015, Seahawks’s wide receiver Doug Baldwin felt some fear. It was strange for him, after he had introduced the game with what he called an “overwhelming feeling of trust.” But he knew where the fear came from.
“This may sound stupid, but as a recipient, the confidence to catch the ball sometimes,” he said.
That is why he had practiced a few techniques in advance, of which he started doing one at that time.
He closed his eyes and put out his hands in front of him. Then, with his thumb, he touched each of his fingertips, one by one, and repeatedly tapped his fingers.
“What it did was to recover me at the time,” Baldwin explained. “A bit to help me tune to my body. The simple touch of your fingertips, which sends electrical signals through your body. “
It also serves as a distraction, something something that Baldwin knew that he was needed at pressure -packing moments. Only an hour or two earlier he occupies himself on his phone with his favorite strategy game at that time: “Galaxy on Fire: Alliances.”
“I could distract my mind and go to something that was a little more controllable and light -hearted,” he said.
Other Super Bowl champions, such as Colquits, had similar approaches to music. Colquitt said that while some of his teammates were preparing for major competitions with loud hype music, he preferred the calmness of Bob Marley and Jimmy Buffett. The consistency of his music selections also helped to relieve his mind.
“I knew that when I listened to my music, it just felt another game, just another opponent,” he said.
Breathing work can quickly calibrate you again
During the preparation to play in the Super Bowl, Colquits took a moment for himself, as he did for every match, to easily concentrate on his breathing. With indie rock music still in his ears, he started with number 13.
For 13 seconds, he held his breath and slowly let go of his breath for 13 seconds. By counting down the steps of three, he held his breath for 10 seconds and released it for 10 seconds. Until he came to three.
“It would lower my heartbeat a bit,” said Colquitt. “In between and the music, it kept me in a calm or a peace. Just get the nerves from everything. ‘
Likewise, before former Steelers -guard Willie Colon played in Super Bowl XLIII, he put on his uniform, he listened to the song “Closer” of Goapele repeatedly and started counting.
“I would count to 10 and then go from 10 to one and then go all the way back to 10,” he said. “Just counting and concentrating on my breathing really calmed my nerves. That was something that always helped me. ‘
For Patriots Cornerback Logan Ryan, breath work was not only useful for pressure moments, but also during them too.
Ryan was in the NFL in his second year when he made his first Super Bowl in 2015, and although the patriots won, he was not satisfied with his mentality.
“I noticed that I played it safely,” he said. “I didn’t want to be the reason we lost. I just didn’t take any risk because I knew what was at stake. I told myself that I would never play such a super bowl again. ‘
When he made the Super Bowl with the Patriots a second time, he decided not to be afraid of the moment and play fearlessly two years later.
At his third Super Bowl in the last year of his career, this time with the San Francisco 49ers in 2024, he said he was in the “Most Zen state that he ever played a match.”
For a large part, this was because of breathing techniques that he had learned to center himself. Through breath work he controlled how he could follow his heartbeat and drop it. On the couch during the game, and even on the field before he plays, he used the technique to get into a relaxed state.
“Just let it go,” he said. ‘Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. I really wanted to be just in the moment, and I think the breathing work really kept me in the moment. “
Both Ryan and Colon still use breathing work to calm their mind before large meetings or temporary games.
Visualization can be powerful
Every night before a match, Seahawks Linebacker KJ Wright would last 10 minutes alone. No phone, no TV, only total silence.
During those 10 minutes he would play in mind the coming match.
“I would talk to myself,” he said. “I would say:” You’re going to make every tackle. This is what comes to you. ‘Just bring that energy to me and bring that positive success to me. That was a freaking game changer. I swear by that. “
Another Seahawks Linebacker Malcolm Smith, the MVP of Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014, had a slightly different twist. Although he prepared himself during the week for perfection, he also reminded himself for the game that imperfections are part of it and that was ok.
“You knew you would make a mistake; It’s not going to be perfect, “he said. “Don’t expect it to be perfect. You make a mistake, knockout and just keep going. “
Embrace the big moment
Sometimes the immeasurability of an opportunity can overwhelm. Both Smith and Baldwin leaned in.
Smith constantly reminded himself that the hype of the Super Bowl would not panic him; It should excite him. He was calmer in that game than any other game in which he once played, he said.
“There was no imposter syndrome because we had proven that we deserved to be there,” said Smith. “Usually if you have a big day, it is often because you have earned that chance to be there. That helped me to calm down and be present. ‘
“Let the moment be the moment,” Baldwin said. “Enjoy the moment and be present with the moment, regardless of what is coming at that moment. It is a very powerful antidote to fear and doubt. ‘
Bruce Arians, who won a super bowl in 2021 as the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, just wanted to be himself. So he did what he always did the night before a competition: a few drinks and a good night’s sleep. After all, he thought it would have been good enough to get him to the Super Bowl.
“I never tried to change,” said Arians. “I tried to stay the same. Just keep the routine the same, so there is no extra hype anymore. “
(Photo: Grant Halverson / Getty images)