Breathing between pitches: the simplest skill in the mental game

Baseball is mostly waiting. Strip out the action and a nine-inning game contains something like fifteen minutes of actual play. Everything else is standing around — and that's where a young player either settles themselves or winds themselves up.

Which is why breathing is worth taking seriously, and why "just relax out there" is such useless advice. Nobody has ever relaxed on command. But you can give a player something to do with those fifteen seconds, and breathing is the one tool that's always available, needs no equipment, and works from the inside out.

Here's what's actually going on, and three versions worth teaching.

The exhale is the part that does the work

Most people, told to take a deep breath, take a big sharp inhale and hold it. That's close to the opposite of what helps.

Your heart rate isn't steady — it rises slightly as you breathe in and falls as you breathe out. That rise and fall is driven by the vagus nerve, which acts something like a brake on the heart: the brake eases off on the inhale and reapplies on the exhale. So a long, slow exhale is the lever. Breathe out for longer than you breathe in and you're leaning on that brake deliberately.

You can feel it in about fifteen seconds. Breathe in for four and out for eight, twice, and the difference is noticeable.

That's the whole principle, and everything below is just packaging for different amounts of time.

Between pitches: one breath, nothing clever

This is the one that matters most, because it's the one a player will use dozens of times a game.

Step out. In through the nose for about four. Out through the mouth for about six to eight. Let the shoulders drop on the way out. Then step back in.

No counting out loud, no holding, no routine anyone in the stands would notice. One breath, maybe two.

Two things make it work. The out-breath is longer than the in-breath — that's not optional, it's the active ingredient. And it's attached to a physical action, stepping out and stepping back in, so it becomes the thing that marks the end of the last pitch rather than a vague intention to calm down.

A pitcher does the same behind the mound before taking the sign. A catcher does it while returning the ball.

I've written elsewhere about what to do with anger on a field — this is the mechanical half of that. The reset isn't a mindset, it's a breath and two steps.

Between innings, or after a bad one: three or four cycles

When there's more time and more to shake off — a strikeout with the bases loaded, an error that scored two — one breath isn't going to touch it.

Sitting on the bench, three or four rounds of the same thing, slower: in for four, out for eight. About a minute's work.

There's also a quicker version worth knowing: two inhales through the nose, the second one short and on top of the first, then a long slow exhale through the mouth. It's a bit odd to describe and completely natural to do — it's what your body does on its own when you've been crying, or sometimes in your sleep. It reinflates collapsed air sacs and offloads carbon dioxide efficiently, and for dropping arousal quickly it's about the fastest thing available. One or two of those, then back to normal breathing.

Away from the field: 4-7-8

This is the one with a name, and it's worth teaching — but it belongs in a specific place, so let me be precise about where.

4-7-8 is: breathe in quietly through the nose for a count of four, hold for seven, then exhale through the mouth for eight, making a soft sound as you go. That's one cycle. Do four of them. It was popularised by Dr Andrew Weil, and the structure does what the section above describes — a very long exhale — with a hold in the middle that slows the whole thing right down.

Where it shines: the night before a big game, and the twenty minutes before bed. A player who is lying awake at midnight before a tournament is a player who will be worse tomorrow for reasons that have nothing to do with their swing, and this is a genuinely good tool for that. It's also good in the car on the way to the park, or anywhere a kid is sitting and wound up.

Where it does not belong is between pitches. One cycle is nineteen seconds — longer than the gap between pitches — and the seven-second hold is the problem rather than the point. Breath-holding while standing can leave a player lightheaded, which is the last thing you want with a bat in their hands. It's a wind-down tool, not an in-game one.

A few practical notes if you use it. Sit or lie down. Start with four cycles, not more — Weil's own guidance is to build up slowly. The counting speed doesn't matter much as long as the ratio holds; if seven seconds of holding is too long for a younger kid, speed the count up rather than shortening the hold. And if anyone feels dizzy, stop. That's not a sign it's working.

I'd also be honest about the evidence: the general principle — extended exhales lower heart rate and arousal — is well established. The specific 4-7-8 pattern has much less research behind it than its popularity suggests. It's a good, safe, structured way to apply a real mechanism, not a magic sequence.

What usually goes wrong

Breathing with the chest. If the shoulders rise on the inhale, it isn't doing much. The belly should move first. The fastest fix is a hand on the stomach — the hand should go out, the shoulders should stay put.

Holding the breath during the action. Very common in young players and almost never noticed. A hitter who holds his breath from the time the pitcher comes set is tight by the time the ball arrives. Breathe out as the pitcher begins his delivery.

Only teaching it in a crisis. This is the big one. A skill learned under pressure isn't available under pressure. Teach it in the car, in the backyard, with no stakes, until it's automatic — then it'll still be there in the sixth inning of a close game.

Making a production of it. If it looks like a ritual, a twelve-year-old will feel self-conscious and drop it. The whole thing should be invisible from the bleachers.

What it won't do

It won't fix a swing. It won't add velocity. It won't make a nervous kid confident — confidence comes from preparation and from a track record, not from a breath.

What it does is stop a player performing below what they've already got. On a bad day that's worth a great deal, and it's one of the very few things a young player can control completely, every single pitch, for the rest of their career.

That's the part of the game I spend most of my time on. If your player is tight in games and loose in practice, here's how I work on it — or tell me about them and I'll give you a straight answer.

Breathing exercises are safe for most people, but they aren't medical advice. If your player has asthma, a heart condition, or anything else that makes breath-holding a question, check with their doctor first.