After weeks of mental training the body reacts less when the competition is imagined
1 study
The summary today
There is nothing on archers: the only study comes from target shooting. Five young air pistol shooters follow eight weeks of mental training, with breathing relaxation, goal setting, imagery and cognitive restructuring, and heart rate variability is measured at rest and while they imagine a competition. After the programme the ratio between the LF and HF bands falls from 3.4 to 1.0 when they imagine a crisis in competition and from 1.9 to 1.0 when they imagine a successful performance, meaning the balance shifts towards the parasympathetic side. At rest nothing changes, and the other indices, SDNN, RMSSD and the power of the individual bands, do not move in any condition. These are five people with no control group, and the condition that changes most is also the one that was furthest towards the sympathetic side before the programme, so part of the fall may be a return towards the mean.
Also phrased as: "mental training and heart rate"; "heart rate variability and mental preparation"; "mental training calms the body"; "stress response to imagined competition"
In practice
People say that training the mind away from competition teaches the body to stay calm when the competition comes, and that it shows in the heartbeat too.
Evidence
-
2023
For Other sport Published later
5 junior air pistol shooters (3 male and 2 female, aged 17-18, 3-4 years of practice), eight weeks of mental training, no control group: while imagining a crisis in competition the LF/HF ratio goes from 3.4 ± 2.3 to 1.01 ± 0.71 (p = 0.038), while imagining a successful performance from 1.93 ± 0.92 to 0.99 ± 0.57 (t = 2.843, p = 0.046, d = 1.23). Table 2, p. 5.
Psychological skills training impacts autonomic nervous system responses to stress during sport-specific imagery: An exploratory study in junior elite shooters · Gunyoung Lee, Jihoon Ryu, Teri Kim
-
2023
Context Other sport Published later
The fall appears only during imagery: at rest the LF/HF ratio goes from 2.30 ± 1.69 to 2.95 ± 1.43 (p = 0.528), and SDNN, RMSSD and LF and HF power do not change in any of the three conditions. Before the programme, crisis imagery was the condition furthest towards the sympathetic side (LF/HF 3.4, against 2.30 at rest and 1.93 for success imagery; HF power 505.6 ms² against 1,219 at rest), a descriptive comparison without a test. The programme included breathing relaxation, and the ratio between the two bands depends heavily on how a person breathes during the recording.
Psychological skills training impacts autonomic nervous system responses to stress during sport-specific imagery: An exploratory study in junior elite shooters · Gunyoung Lee, Jihoon Ryu, Teri Kim
Status history
- 2023 Transferred The first and only study comes from target shooting: in five young pistol shooters, after eight weeks of mental training, the LF/HF ratio falls from 3.4 to 1.0 when imagining a crisis in competition and from 1.9 to 1.0 when imagining a successful performance, while at rest it does not change and the other variability indices stay put. There is nothing on archers, so the claim rests on another sport: transferred.
Related
Related articles
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). After weeks of mental training the body reacts less when the competition is imagined (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/mental-training-body-response
@misc{campagna2026_allenamentomentalehrv,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {After weeks of mental training the body reacts less when the competition is imagined},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/mental-training-body-response},
note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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