Champions Breathe Well : Performance Starts with the Breath
- 4 February 2026
Pause. Breathe. Re-Set.
Sam Ruthe, the youngest athlete in history worldwide to run a mile under 3:50, a time usually reached only by elite adults.
A New Zealander, like the founders of BradCliff, Ruthe has reached a performance milestone most elite milers don’t achieve until their early to mid 20s.
While his exact vitals aren’t public, the performance implies exceptional cardiovascular efficiency, breathing control, running economy, and nervous-system maturity.
We are in awe of this extraordinary performance from such a young athlete and the process behind it.
The recent Australian Open provided another powerful reminder of how elite athletes leverage breathing to elevate performance under extreme pressure. At the highest level of tennis, success is not defined by skill alone; it is the ability to integrate physical capacity, mental control, and recovery in real time.
Elite tennis represents the seamless integration of technical skill, tactical intelligence, physical conditioning, mental resilience, and precise recovery, including effective breathing and nervous-system regulation: executed consistently under pressure.
When athletes are sprinting, changing direction, and battling for every point, how they breathe matters.
Whether you are an athlete, coach, or health professional, breathing is far more than automatic airflow: it is a core performance tool.
Athletic Performance: The Physical Breath
At the elite level of sport, efficient breathing supports oxygen delivery, endurance, recovery, and sustained focus:
- During intense activity such as long rallies in a Grand Slam match, ventilation may increase up to twentyfold compared with resting levels. (McArdle et al., 2015; Sheel, 2017).
- This increase is required to meet muscular oxygen demand and to remove carbon dioxide efficiently.
Athletes with stronger respiratory muscles and more efficient breathing patterns demonstrate improved endurance, reduced fatigue, and enhanced recovery during repeated high-intensity efforts. (Illi et al., 2012; Romer & Polkey, 2008; Sheel et al., 2018).
Efficient diaphragmatic breathing influences core stability, movement economy, and the stress response - all critical factors for tennis players and other high-pressure performers.
Under Pressure: Focus & Composure
Beyond physical mechanics, breathing has a profound influence on the nervous system. The way an athlete breathes continuously signals information to the brain about threat, safety, and readiness, particularly when the stakes are high:
- Slow, controlled breathing — such as paced nasal breathing or cyclic sighs — helps shift the nervous system from a stress-driven state to one that supports composure, clarity, and decision-making.
- Techniques such as BradCliff grounding strategies and extended exhalation protocols are used by elite performers to manage pre-match anxiety and reset focus following errors.
Recovery: A Trainable Skill
For many top competitors, breathing is not something they merely notice; it is something they train.
- Just as athletes refine serves, footwork, and strategy, they also develop breath control to support readiness, resilience, and recovery throughout competition.
- Even among world-class players, breathing strategies are increasingly recognised as part of elite performance culture. For example:
Carlos Alcaraz has previously used nasal strips during competition to assist breathing when congested and to support recovery between points.
Novak Djokovic frequently speaks about conscious breathing as a key tool for maintaining composure, focus, and mental strength during high-stakes matches.
Coco Gauff, “I just try to breathe.” Gauff has frequently said this in press conferences when describing how she stays calm and refocuses between points under intense match pressure. This quote appears consistently in post-match interviews at hard-court tournaments, including the Australian Open.
Key Takeaway for Practitioners & Coaches
Breathing is not ancillary; it is central to performance physiology and psychology.
Whether on the courts at Melbourne Park or within clinical and training environments, understanding and training functional breathing supports:
- Improved oxygen use and muscular efficiency
- Enhanced recovery between efforts
- Better stress regulation and focus under pressure
- More robust autonomic nervous system function
In short, breathing well is both an art and a science, and one of the most under-trained performance tools in sport.
References :
Illi, S.K., Held, U., Frank, I. and Spengler, C.M. (2012) Effect of respiratory muscle training on exercise performance in healthy individuals: A systematic review. Sports Medicine, 42(8), pp. 707–724. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2165/11631670-000000000-00000
McArdle, W.D., Katch, F.I. and Katch, V.L. (2015) Exercise physiology: Nutrition, energy, and human performance. 8th edn. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer. Available at: https://www.amazon.com/Exercise-Physiology-Nutrition-Energy-Performance/dp/1451191553
Romer, L.M. and Polkey, M.I. (2008) ‘Exercise-induced respiratory muscle fatigue: Implications for performance’, Journal of Applied Physiology, 104(3), pp. 879–888. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.01157.2007. Available at: https://journals.physiology.org/doi/10.1152/japplphysiol.01157.2007
Sheel, A.W. (2017) Respiratory physiology: Adaptations to high-intensity athletics. Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, 45(3), pp. 145–154.
Sheel, A.W., Richards, J.C., Foster, G.E. and Guenette, J.A. (2018) Respiratory muscle work and fatigue during exercise. Journal of Physiology, 596(23), pp. 5263–5278.
Why Choose BradCliff Practitioners?
Why become a BradCliff practitioner?
As health professionals with advanced expertise in breathing for performance, precision, and recovery, BradCliff practitioners are exceptionally well placed to deliver this work safely and effectively for elite athletes.
BradCliff practitioners apply a structured, clinically grounded framework that addresses total mind-body performance through four essential foundations.
BradCliff 4 Essential Foundation's 4 Athletes:
- Breathing re-education at rest & sport-specific
- Breathing integrated into pre-sport warm-up
- Sport-specific breathing strategies
- Breathing for rest and recovery