Think Slow to Calm the Nervous System: Lessons from Elite Athletes

This is something I’ve struggled with. I’ve always been reactive — quick to respond, quick to think, quick to move. It’s only recently I started to realise how much that speed was keeping me stuck in survival mode.

So I’ve been working on it — learning to slow things down, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. And as someone with a sporting background, I began to ask:

What can athletes teach us about staying calm under pressure? Can we train our nervous system to respond — not react?

Image by Brigitte Werner from Pixabay

Why Growth Lies in What We Can’t Do (Yet)

When we think about elite athletes, the best don't just work on their strengths — they lean into the areas that challenge them. That’s often where real growth happens.

They also seem to have more time under pressure. Think of a fly-half in rugby or a quarterback in American football — chaos unfolds around them, but somehow they appear calm and composed, reading the game, making sharp decisions as if time has slowed down.

This isn’t magic — it’s training. Athletes train their minds to respond, not react. They develop the ability to slow their thinking while the body stays sharp.

This mental skill is echoed in the idea of “flow,” a term coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In the flow state, perception of time shifts, awareness heightens, and the brain becomes fully present. Athletes often describe this as the game slowing down around them.

The Paradox of Relaxed Speed

Even in sports that are all about speed — sprinting, for example — athletes are taught to relax at maximum effort. Olympic coach Dan Pfaff explains that top sprinters learn to stay soft in the face, jaw, and hands even as they push their limits. Tension slows them down.

“Relaxation at maximum velocity is what separates elite sprinters.” – Dan Pfaff

That’s the contradiction elite athletes have mastered — to move fast, they first slow down inside. That’s where calm and relaxation begin.

Reactive Patterns: A Nervous System Stuck in High Gear

Many of us live life in that same sprint — but without the relaxation.

We rush our replies to messages. We overthink decisions. We interrupt. We live in a constant state of anticipation and reaction. The nervous system becomes conditioned to respond this way, always on alert.

Over time, this reactivity becomes a habit. The nervous system learns the pattern: speed = safety, slowness = risk. But the irony is, true safety actually lies in the pause.

Train the Pause

Just like elite athletes train their bodies to move fast and their minds to stay calm under pressure, they also train something more subtle — the pause.

Whether it’s a quarterback scanning the field or a sprinter staying relaxed at top speed, what sets them apart is their ability to pause inside the pressure — not react impulsively. We train the same skill — but for a different kind of arena. Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman explains that every time we pause before reacting, we create a gap between stimulus and response — and that’s the moment where rewiring the nervous system begins.

“Every time you pause and choose a calmer response, you’re literally rewiring your nervous system.” – Dr. Andrew Huberman

Even mindfulness coach George Mumford, who worked with NBA greats like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, teaches the same principle:

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” – George Mumford

That’s exactly what slowing the mind down trains us to do.

From Fast to Focused: Think Slow, Respond Slow

This shift isn’t just useful in sport — it applies to real life.

In conversations, thinking slow might mean not rushing to fill silence. It might mean waiting before replying to a message. It might mean observing your body’s tension before reacting.

In social situations, this can be transformative — especially if you’ve always felt overstimulated or on edge. Choosing to observe rather than react softens the internal alarm system.

If you’ve always been the fast thinker, the high-alert type, then slow thinking might feel uncomfortable at first. But that discomfort is the doorway to change.

Rewiring the Alarm System

If your nervous system is like an overly sensitive alarm that goes off every time a leaf blower passes, the goal isn’t to smash the alarm — it’s to recalibrate it.

That starts by noticing. Noticing when you tense up. Noticing when your thoughts speed up. And choosing, in that moment, to breathe — to slow — to wait.

Each time you do that, you teach your system: not everything is an emergency.

Where the Real Growth Is

True growth often lies not in what we’re already good at, but in what we avoid. And for many of us, slowness is the thing we’ve avoided — because speed felt like safety.

But in learning to slow down our thinking, our speech, our physical reactions, we begin to shift into a whole different system. One that operates from calm, not chaos. From awareness, not autopilot.

And over time, we might find that not only our thoughts change — but our bodies do too.

Sports Psychology & Slow Thinking References:

1. Daniel Kahneman – Thinking, Fast and Slow

• Key idea: We operate in two systems — System 1 (fast, instinctive, reactive) and System 2 (slow, deliberate, thoughtful).

• Application: Elite athletes often train to shift from fast/reactive thinking to deliberate calm when under pressure.

• Quote:

  "System 1 runs automatically and quickly... System 2 allocates attention to effortful mental activities." – Daniel Kahneman Thinking, Fast and Slow

• Link: Goodreads summary

  
  

2. The Zone / Flow State – Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

• Key idea: High performers often describe "slowing down time" in moments of pressure — called the flow state.

• Application: Slowing the mind increases performance under stress.

• Quote:

• “The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… but the moments when a person’s body or mind is stretched.”

• Link: TED Talk: Flow, the Secret to Happiness

  
  

3. Sports Performance & Mindfulness – George Mumford

• George Mumford is a mindfulness coach who worked with Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and the Chicago Bulls.

• Key idea: Mindfulness helps elite athletes “respond not react.”

• Book: The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance

• Quote:

• “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”

• Link: The Mindful Athlete on Amazon

  
  

4. Slowing the Game Down – Quarterbacks & Fly-Halves

• Sport example: In rugby, fly-halves like Jonny Wilkinson or in American football, quarterbacks like Tom Brady are known for their ability to “slow the game down” in chaotic situations.

• Quote:

• “Elite quarterbacks aren’t just physically talented — they process information faster, then slow everything down.” – ESPN Sports Science

  
  

5. Relaxation Under Speed – Sprinting & Flow

• Sport example: Sprinters are trained to stay relaxed while sprinting — because tension slows them down.

• Quote from Coach Dan Pfaff (Olympic sprint coach):

  
  

• “You see these guys running 9.7, 9.8, and they look like they're out for a Sunday stroll… Relaxation is the ultimate enhancer of performance.”— Dan Pfaff via ALTIS

• Supporting Principle: In sprinting, elite performance isn’t just about effort — it’s about relaxed effort. Pfaff emphasizes that athletes must stay soft in the face, jaw, and hands even at max velocity, because excess tension disrupts fluid movement.

• Link: Coach Pfaff on Coaching at the Games – ALTIS

  
  

6. Neuroscience of Repetition and Nervous System Rewiring

• Key idea: Repetition of calm responses rewires the nervous system over time.

• Source: Dr. Andrew Huberman (neuroscientist, Stanford) — talks frequently about neuroplasticity and "training the pause".

• Quote:

  “Every time you pause and choose a calmer response, you’re literally rewiring your nervous system.”

• Podcast: Huberman Lab Podcast – Tools for Managing Stress & Anxiety