Pre-Game Anxiety: Why It Happens and How Athletes Can Manage It

A Scene Almost Every Athlete Recognizes

In sports, there are moments that never appear in statistics and never end up in the final game photos. They are not on the scoreboard, they don’t show up in the highlights, and spectators rarely talk about them. And yet almost every athlete experiences them, often quietly, long before the ball is ever thrown into play. Pre-game anxiety is something almost every athlete experiences at some point in their career.

For some, it begins days before the game. It often starts with something simple, almost ordinary: a thought that appears during a normal moment of the day.

“Saturday we have a game.”

Normally, it should be just a piece of information. A date on the calendar. Nothing more. But for many athletes, that thought doesn’t stay just information. It becomes the starting point for a series of scenarios that the mind begins to build almost on its own.

Questions begin to appear.

• What will the game be like?

• Who will be the direct opponent?

• Will the pace be too fast?Will the first plays go well or not?

Short images start to form in the mind, almost like small movie scenes: a forced pass, a lost ball, a shot that hits the rim and bounces out. None of these things have actually happened yet, but the brain is already replaying these scenarios as if it is trying to prepare for them.

The night before the game sometimes carries a strange kind of quiet. The routine of the day is the same as always, but the mind seems to be running a background film that doesn’t easily stop. You turn from one side to the other a few times, and sleep comes more slowly than usual, because between moments of calm another imagined play from the game appears again, even though the game hasn’t even started.

The morning of the game brings a feeling that many athletes recognize immediately. It is not exactly fear, and it is not even a clear sense of discomfort. It is more like a subtle tension, a kind of energy gathering somewhere between the stomach and the chest. Breakfast feels a little smaller than usual, and the stomach feels slightly tight, not pain, but more like a signal that the body already knows something important is coming.

The drive to the gym often feels different from any other drive. The city looks exactly the same: cars pass by, people walk on the sidewalks, traffic lights change at their usual rhythm. But for you, every minute seems to carry a little more weight, because the thoughts keep returning to the same point.

• “What if I miss my first shots?”

• “What if I lose the ball in an important play?”

• “What if I don’t play at the level the coach expects?”

The more you try to tell yourself you shouldn’t think about it, the more the mind seems to return to the same questions, almost as if it is checking those scenarios one more time.

Then you arrive at the gym.

The court has that familiar smell, and the first basketballs hitting the floor begin to create the rhythmic sound that slowly fills the space. Some teammates joke around, others get changed quietly. You take your gear out of the bag, tie your shoes, and for a few seconds you simply look at the court.

In that moment, almost every athlete has asked the same question at least once:

Why am I so nervous before the game even starts?

Many people believe the answer is simple and not very encouraging. They assume emotions appear because the athlete is not prepared enough, does not have enough confidence, or feels too much pressure.

But in reality, in most cases the explanation is exactly the opposite.

Pre-game emotions do not appear because you are unprepared.

Most of the time, they appear because you care enough that your mind sometimes tries to play the game too early, long before the opening whistle is heard.

What Pre-Game Anxiety Is (and Why It Appears)

After experiencing the scene described above a few times, it becomes very easy to think that something might be wrong with you. Many athletes reach the same conclusion:

“If I were more confident, I probably wouldn’t feel these emotions.”

or

“If I were truly prepared, I wouldn’t feel like this before a game.”

In reality, what is happening is much simpler and at the same time far more interesting.

The human brain is built for anticipation. One of its main functions is to constantly try to predict what might happen next, to create scenarios and to prepare for them before they actually occur. In everyday life, this mechanism is extremely useful. It helps us plan ahead, avoid danger, and make quick decisions.

In sports, however, that same mechanism can sometimes become overactive.

When you know a game is coming, the brain begins to construct possible scenarios about what might happen on the court or the field. Some of these scenarios are neutral or even positive: a good pass, a successful defensive play, a move that works exactly the way you practiced it. But very often, less pleasant scenarios appear as well: a mistake in the opening minutes, a decision made a fraction too late, a play that doesn’t unfold the way you imagined.

In sports psychology, this process has a simple name: mental anticipation. The problem is not that the mind anticipates. The problem appears when anticipation becomes too intense and too repetitive. That is when specialists refer to what is called excessive mental anticipation.

In other words, the mind begins to play the game too many times before it actually starts.

Alongside these imagined scenarios, another important element appears: perceived pressure. In many cases, it is not real pressure in the sense that no one explicitly tells you that you must be perfect. But athletes often feel observed and evaluated, by their coach, by teammates, by parents or spectators, and sometimes even by themselves.

At that point, a powerful desire appears: the desire to avoid making mistakes.

The urge not to make mistakes is one of the most common sources of pre-competition anxiety. Many athletes begin to focus more on avoiding errors than on playing the game itself, and this can create unnecessary mental pressure. If you want to understand how this mechanism develops and how it can be managed, we discuss it in more detail in our article about the fear of making mistakes in youth sports, a phenomenon far more common than it might seem at first glance.

Not because mistakes are unusual in sports, quite the opposite. Mistakes are part of every game. But the mind sometimes turns a mistake into something that seems to say something about you: how good you are, how much you have progressed or how much work you have put in.

That is why some athletes find themselves saying things like:

“I don’t want to make a mistake at the beginning.”

or

“I hope I don’t mess up the first play.”

In reality, what the mind is trying to do is protect you. The brain interprets the game as an important moment, and its natural response is to increase your level of alertness and energy.

In performance psychology, there is a well-known concept that explains exactly this reaction. It is called the Yerkes–Dodson Law, first described in 1908 by psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dellingham Dodson. In simple terms, this idea suggests that human performance works best when the level of activation, meaning emotion, tension, and energy, remains within a balanced range.

If emotions are too low, the athlete may feel apathetic, lacking energy and quick reactions. In that case, the game can feel slow, as if it never quite starts, and decisions come too late.

If emotions are too intense, the opposite effect appears. The mind begins to speed up too much, the body becomes rigid, and decisions may become rushed or confused.

Between these two extremes lies a very interesting zone, a place where emotions are strong enough to activate the body but not so strong that they block thinking and reactions.

It is in this zone that the best performances tend to appear.

Seen from this perspective, pre-game emotions no longer look like an obstacle, but rather like a signal that your body is preparing for what is about to happen. The problem is not the existence of emotions, but how they are understood and managed.

And the good news is that this is something athletes can learn.

Why Emotions Appear Mostly Before the Game, Not During It

One of the most interesting things about emotions in sports is that they usually appear before the game, not during it. Many athletes recognize the same pattern: in the locker room or on the way to the gym, they feel a strong tension, their thoughts seem to circle endlessly, and every possible scenario runs through their mind. Then, just a few minutes after the game starts, that same feeling almost completely disappears.

At first glance, this seems like a paradox. If emotions are so strong before the game, you might expect them to be even stronger during the game, when the pace is faster and the stakes become real. But in practice, the opposite often happens.

The reason is closely related to how human attention works.

Before the game, the mind has a lot of space for imagination. There is no real action yet, no opponent actively pressuring you, and no concrete plays that require immediate reactions. In the absence of these real stimuli, the brain begins to fill that empty space with scenarios about the future.

Questions appear such as:

“What if I miss my first shot?”,

“What if I lose the ball in the first minutes?”, or

“What if I can’t find my rhythm?” 

Each of these thoughts moves attention toward the future, toward something that might happen but does not yet exist.

When the game actually begins, however, everything changes.

The first sprint, the first pass, the first defensive play, or the first rebound completely shifts how attention works. The brain no longer has time to build scenarios, because it is forced to react to what is happening right now.

In sports psychology, this process is often described through a simple concept: attention shift, the movement of attention from the future to the present.

Before the game, attention is directed toward what might happen. During the game, attention is compelled to focus on what is already happening. The difference may seem small, but its effect is enormous.

A very familiar example often appears in youth team locker rooms. A player sits on the bench tying their shoes and, without even realizing it, begins repeating the same scenario in their mind: that they will miss their first two shots and start the game poorly. The more they think about it, the clearer the image becomes, and the stronger the emotions grow.

Then the game starts.

On the first play, they have to sprint back on defense. A quick change of direction follows, a pass on a fast break, a sprint toward the baseline. The rhythm rises so quickly that the brain simply no longer has room for the scenarios that, just a few minutes earlier, seemed so important.

After the first sprint, after the first real play in the game, most athletes discover the same thing: the thoughts that seemed impossible to stop in the locker room almost completely disappear.

Not because the game has suddenly become less important, but because the mind has shifted from imagining to acting.

And this is one of the most important things an athlete can understand about pre-game emotions: they appear mainly when the mind tries to live in the future before the present has even begun. Once the game truly starts, attention naturally moves where it belongs—to the play that is unfolding right now, on the court.

For teenage athletes, pre-competition emotions can sometimes be intensified by the changes specific to this stage of life. The body is developing, growth happens at different rhythms for different athletes, and physical differences may become more visible in competition. These changes influence not only physical performance but also confidence and how athletes perceive competition. We explore this topic in more detail in a separate article about puberty and biological maturation in youth sports, because these changes are a normal part of athletic development.

Signs of Pre-Game Anxiety

One of the most useful things an athlete can learn about pre-game emotions is simply to recognize them when they appear. Not to eliminate them immediately and not to interpret them as a sign that something is wrong, but to understand what is happening in the body and in the mind during those moments.

Because pre-game anxiety does not appear only as a thought or a single emotion. It is usually felt in several ways at the same time: in the body, in the way attention works, and in the types of thoughts that begin to repeat.

Many athletes first notice the physical sensations. For example, the stomach may feel slightly tight, as if the body is preparing for an important effort. It is not real pain and not exactly discomfort, but more like a subtle tension that appears when the body enters a state of alertness.

Sometimes cold hands appear as well, even in a warm gym. This is a natural effect of adrenaline, the hormone that prepares the body for action. The heart rate may become slightly faster, breathing a bit shorter, and energy seems to gather in the body without yet having a clear place to go.

Alongside these physical reactions, changes also appear in the way the mind works.

One of the most common signs is the appearance of repetitive thoughts. The mind begins to replay the same scenarios or questions:

“What if I miss my first shot?”,

“What if I lose the ball?”,

“What if I don’t start the game well?” 

Even when the athlete tries to focus on something else, these thoughts tend to return almost automatically, like a mental echo.

At the same time, there may be a slight difficulty concentrating. Instead of being present in what is happening around them, the warm-up, conversations with teammates or the coach’s instructions, attention keeps drifting back to those same imagined scenarios about the game.

Another very common sign is a strong desire to avoid mistakes. Not just the desire to play well, but specifically the desire not to make errors. The athlete may begin telling themselves things like “I have to start perfectly” or “I hope I don’t mess up the first play.” At that point, the focus subtly shifts from playing the game to avoiding any possible mistake.

All of these reactions, the tight stomach, cold hands, repetitive thoughts, or difficulty concentrating, may initially seem like signs that something is wrong. In reality, they are completely normal responses of the body when it prepares for a situation perceived as important.

In competitive sports, pre-game emotions are not a defect and not a sign of weakness. Most of the time, they are simply the way the body and mind signal that an important moment is approaching.

The problem is not that these reactions appear. The problem only arises when the athlete does not understand them and begins to see them as an obstacle.

Once they are recognized and understood, the very same reactions can become the opposite: signals that the body is preparing to step into the game.

The Mental Routine Before a Game (Guidelines, Not Recipes)

In competitive sports, there is a strong temptation to look for the “perfect method.” A special technique, a secret routine or a formula that promises emotions will completely disappear before competition. In reality, things are much simpler and at the same time much more personal.

There is no universal routine that works exactly the same for every athlete. Over time, each athlete builds their own way of entering a game mentally. Still, there are a few directions that consistently appear both in athletes’ experiences and in sports psychology recommendations, small steps that do not promise perfection, but can help the mind and body reach the balanced state we discussed earlier.

About 24 Hours Before the Game

Very often, mental preparation for a game begins long before the athlete even steps into the gym. Not through complicated exercises or sophisticated techniques, but through surprisingly simple things.

One of the most important is sleep.

It may seem like a detail too basic to mention in an article about sports performance, but in reality sleep is one of the most accessible and effective forms of mental preparation. It is free, available to everyone and requires no special equipment or training. Yet its impact on performance is enormous.

During sleep, the brain processes the information accumulated throughout the day, stabilizes memory and regulates hormone levels that influence stress and concentration. A well-rested athlete reacts faster, makes clearer decisions, and manages emotions more effectively.

For this reason, many experienced athletes will tell you that the simplest pre-game mental routine begins with a good night’s sleep. It is not spectacular and it never appears in highlight reels, but it is one of the most solid foundations of performance.

At the same time, during the hours leading up to the game, it can help to limit repetitive negative scenarios. The mind will naturally try to anticipate the game anyway, but it does not need to replay the same imagined plays dozens of times. Sometimes it is enough to redirect attention toward simple things: a short walk, a relaxed conversation, or a light training session.

The Drive to the Gym

The drive to the gym is a special moment in many athletes’ routines. It is that interval when the game has not started yet, but it is close enough for the emotions to grow stronger.

The image is familiar to many: the sports bag in the trunk, music playing through headphones or the car speakers, the city moving past the window. It is a strange state, somewhere between calm and tension. Part of you tries to stay relaxed, while another part feels that the moment when everything begins is approaching.

In moments like these, a simple and very effective technique is controlled breathing. There is no need for complicated exercises or elaborate methods. Even a few slow, deep breaths can send a clear signal to the body that the situation is under control.

Breathing plays a direct role in regulating the nervous system. When breathing becomes slower and deeper, the body gradually reduces its level of tension, and the mind begins to stabilize.

It is not a magic solution and it will not completely remove emotions, but it can transform that vague feeling of agitation into a clearer form of energy, one that is easier to use once the game begins.

The Warm-Up

For many athletes, the first moment when things truly start to change is during the warm-up.

In the locker room or on the way to the gym, the mind can be very active. Thoughts repeat themselves, scenarios appear and disappear and emotions seem to circle endlessly. But once the warm-up begins, the body gradually moves into action and starts to take control.

The first light runs, the first passes, the first shots, or the first mobility exercises completely change the state of the organism. The energy that once felt trapped begins to move through the body, and attention naturally shifts toward movement.

In sports psychology there is a simple principle that describes this moment: body before mind. In other words, sometimes you do not need to “solve” emotions through thinking, because movement regulates them naturally.

That is why the warm-up is not only physical preparation for the game. It is also a process through which the mind gradually shifts from imagined scenarios to real actions.

The Final Minutes Before the Start

As the start of the game approaches, many athletes feel their emotions rising again. The gym becomes louder, teams line up for the opening tip or kickoff and attention begins drifting toward the result.

At this moment, one of the most useful strategies is simplifying the focus.

Instead of trying to control the entire game in their mind, athletes can choose a very simple point of concentration: the first play. The first pass. The first defensive stop. The first good decision.

Not the entire game. Just the beginning.

This type of focus has an important effect: it moves attention back from the future into the present. Instead of thinking about everything that might happen in the next forty minutes, the athlete concentrates their energy on the first real moment of the game.

And most of the time, that is enough. Because after the first play comes the second, then the third, and the game begins to flow naturally.

And at that point, the emotions that once felt so overwhelming before the game slowly transform into what they can truly become: energy for the game.

What Doesn’t Work

If an athlete starts searching online for ways to get rid of pre-game emotions, they will quickly discover that the internet is full of quick tips, motivational slogans, and “mental tricks” that promise to solve the problem in just a few minutes. The problem is that many of these messages sound good, but in reality they work very little.

Among the most common are three pieces of advice that appear everywhere, in articles, short videos and even in well-intentioned conversations between adults and young athletes.

The first one is: “Don’t think about anything.”

At first glance, it sounds logical. If your thoughts are stressing you out, the solution should be to stop thinking about them. The only problem is that the human mind doesn’t really work that way. In fact, it works almost in the opposite direction.

Psychologists often use a simple mental experiment to explain this. If someone tells you right now: “Don’t think about a puppy.” What happens?

In most cases, the exact image of a puppy instantly appears in your mind. Not because you wanted to think about it, but because the brain first needs to create the image in order to understand what it is supposed to avoid.

The same thing happens in sports. When an athlete tells themselves “don’t think about mistakes” or “don’t think about missing the shot,” the brain first has to imagine that exact scenario in order to avoid it. And at that moment, the focus is already on the very thing the athlete was trying not to think about.

The second very common piece of advice is: “Relax.”

Again, it sounds reasonable in theory, but in practice it often becomes additional pressure. Because the athlete who is already feeling nervous may begin to believe that they are doing something wrong. If everyone around them says “relax,” but they can’t fully relax, the conclusion quickly becomes: “I guess I should be calmer, but I’m not.”

Instead of reducing tension, this message can sometimes increase it.

The third phrase appears very often in conversations with young athletes: “There’s no reason to be nervous.”

This message is almost always said with good intentions. Parents, coaches or teammates are trying to build confidence and reduce pressure. But for the athlete, the effect can be the opposite.

Because when someone says “there’s no reason to be nervous,” the emotions don’t suddenly disappear. They are already there and the athlete may begin to believe that their reaction is wrong or exaggerated.

In reality, emotions before competition are one of the most normal reactions in sports. They appear in young athletes, in experienced athletes and even in Olympic champions. The difference is not that some athletes don’t have them, but that they have learned to understand them and use them.

That is why, instead of simple slogans or quick motivational phrases, a more helpful approach is a much more realistic one: emotions exist, they are normal, and they can be managed. Not by denying them, but by understanding how the mind and body work before an important moment.

When Emotions Are Actually a Good Sign

In youth sports, there is an idea that circulates quite often and, although it may seem logical at first glance, it can create a lot of confusion: the belief that truly good athletes do not feel nervous before a game. This image appears frequently in stories, movies or motivational speeches, the calm, unshakable athlete who steps onto the court without the slightest trace of tension.

In reality, things are usually very different.

Many experienced athletes openly admit that pre-competition emotions never completely disappear. They may become easier to manage, more familiar or better understood over time, but they rarely vanish entirely. And in a way, that is actually a good thing.

Because emotions almost always appear when what is about to happen matters to you.

If a game had no importance, if the result did not matter at all, or if the athlete felt completely detached from what was about to happen, the natural reaction would be indifference. In such situations, the body’s activation level remains very low. Energy is reduced, attention is scattered, and reactions may become slower.

That is why athletes who enter a game without any emotion at all are often in one of these situations: either they are not very invested in what is happening, they do not perceive the moment as important or they are not yet fully connected to the game.

Sometimes it can even be a matter of preparation. When an athlete has not invested much time or effort in the process, the emotional stake of the moment becomes smaller. As a result, the emotional response is naturally reduced.

On the other hand, when an athlete prepares seriously, spends hours training, and genuinely wants to perform well, the brain interprets the competition as a meaningful moment. At that point, the body begins to mobilize energy: the heart rate increases, attention becomes sharper and emotions appear as a signal that something important is about to happen.

Seen from this perspective, emotions are no longer a flaw that needs to be eliminated, but rather a form of psychological energy that emerges when the mind and body prepare for performance.

That is why many athletes, over time, begin to see pre-game emotions differently. Not as an obstacle, but as a sign that they are engaged, connected to what is coming and that the moment ahead truly matters.

Instead of asking themselves, “Why am I nervous?”, many athletes eventually reformulate the question in a much more useful way: “How can I use this energy in the game?”

The Opening Whistle

There is a moment in almost every game when everything that seemed complicated just a few minutes earlier suddenly becomes much simpler.

It is the moment when the opening whistle is heard.

Until then, the mind has had plenty of time to build scenarios, repeat the same questions, and imagine dozens of versions of a game that has not even started yet. In the locker room, on the way to the gym or during warm-ups, thoughts can sometimes feel impossible to stop, and emotions can rise to the point where the athlete begins to wonder whether they are truly ready.

And then the game begins.

The first pass, the first sprint, the first change of direction or the first battle for the ball shifts attention almost instantly. The body enters the rhythm it has trained for, reflexes begin to take over, and the mind no longer has time to analyze scenarios about what might happen.

Because from that moment on, the game is already happening.

It is the point where attention moves from the future into the present. From thoughts about what could go wrong to concrete actions: where the ball is, where the opponent is, and what decision must be made in the next fraction of a second.

The opening whistle does not completely eliminate emotions, but it changes the way they are experienced. The energy that once seemed trapped inside thoughts begins to turn into movement, reactions, and decisions.

At that moment, the body takes control.

And this is one of the most important things an athlete can understand about pre-game emotions: they appear mostly before the game begins, when the mind tries to live in the future too early.

The moment the whistle sounds and the ball enters play, the future disappears for a few seconds.

What remains is only the play that is happening right now.

And from there, the real game finally begins.

Final Note – About the First Shot

There is one scenario that appears very often in conversations about emotions in sports and it deserves to be addressed directly, because almost every athlete has thought about it at least once.

“But what if my first shot doesn’t go in?”

It’s a question that usually comes up right after we talk about focusing on the first play, the first pass, or the first decision of the game. Many athletes have experienced that moment when, if the first shot goes in, everything seems to flow more easily. The ball feels lighter, decisions come naturally, and confidence grows from one play to the next.

And then there is the other side of the story.

The first shot misses. The second one hits the rim and rolls out. And suddenly the mind starts whispering: “Maybe it’s just not my day.”

We’ve seen this happen to athletes of all ages. To children who lose confidence for a few minutes. To teenagers who suddenly start playing too cautiously. And sometimes even to experienced players who need a few good plays to find their rhythm again.

The truth is that the first play of a game does carry emotional weight. It’s the first real contact with the game and the brain tends to treat that moment as a kind of “signal” for how the rest of the game might go.

But there is a more useful way to look at it.

The first play is not important because it has to be perfect. It is important because it gets you into the game.

If the first shot goes in, that’s a bonus. If the first pass is good, it’s a nice start. But if the first shot misses, the game hasn’t actually changed at all in that moment.

The only thing that has changed is the story the mind begins to tell about it.

In reality, almost every game contains dozens of plays and the best performances are not built on a single shot or a single decision. They are built on an athlete’s ability to stay in the game, play after play, even when the first minutes don’t go perfectly.

And here’s a small observation from many years spent in sports gyms: sometimes the athletes who miss their first shot end up playing a great game. Not because the miss was an advantage, but because that moment forces them to return to the most important thing in sports.

To play the next play.

Because in sports, the first shot rarely decides the game.

The next fifty usually do. 😉

Frequently Asked Questions About Pre-Game Emotions

Is it normal to feel nervous even a few days before a game?

Yes. And if you are an athlete, you have probably experienced it already.

Sometimes the emotions appear two or even three days before the game. Not because the game has already started, but because the mind begins to build scenarios about it. This happens to young athletes, experienced players, and, if you listen carefully to interviews with top champions, even to those who have played in world finals.

The interesting part is that, very often, those same emotions disappear after the first few minutes of the game.

Because once the ball is in play, the mind no longer has time to imagine the game.

It has to play it.

If my first shot misses, does it mean the game will go badly?

No.

But the mind loves to believe that.

The first play of a game carries strong emotional weight, and sometimes the brain tries to turn that moment into a prediction for the rest of the game. If the shot goes in, it suddenly feels like “it’s going to be a good day.” If it misses, the thought quickly appears: “Maybe it’s not my day.”

The problem is that a game is not built on a single shot.It is built on dozens of plays.

In reality, many excellent games have started with a missed shot. The difference is not the shot itself, but what the athlete does on the next play.

Are there athletes who don’t feel nervous before a game at all?

Yes, there are. But usually they are in one of these three situations:

• they are not very emotionally invested in the game

• they don’t perceive the game as particularly important

• or they are so experienced that they have learned to turn emotions into energy without even noticing it anymore

For most athletes, however, emotions appear exactly when the game matters.

So if you feel nervous before a game, it doesn’t mean something is wrong.

Most of the time, it simply means that you care enough for your body and mind to start preparing for something important.

And if we are completely honest, almost every athlete who says they don’t feel nervous before a game still has a moment when they think:

“Okay… can the game just start already?” 🙂

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