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Go Ahead and Breathe
You’d be surprised how often you hold your breath and don’t breathe.
When I teach fencing to newcomers, many tend to hold their breath.
You’d be surprised how much holding your breath limits you. It stifles your ability to move, to react, to think clearly.
Lots of things will cause you not to breathe. The majority, however, aren’t material.
Fear makes you hold your breath. So do uncertainty, concern, anticipation, excitement, and other emotions both good and bad.
One trick I use to get a fencer to remember to breathe is to have them chew some gum. Chewing gum forces you to breathe. That resolves the problem — and requires no real energy to be done.
Breathing is generally an unconscious act. But because this is the case, forgetting and neglecting to breathe also tends to be subconscious and unconscious. Things happen all the time, all around you, to which you will react.
Many are utterly and totally outside of your control. Others are yours and yours alone. Whatever the case may be, you have the power to breathe consciously to calm yourself, center yourself, reclaim balance, and steady your nerves.
