So I play midfield in soccer. It’s basically a position where you are always running. Midfielders are responsible for being extra defenders when the ball in in our half of the field and also being extra forwards while we’re trying to score a goal. A basic rule for how to play this position is to follow the ball – if it’s up by our goal, you should be by our goal, if it’s down by their goal, that’s where you should be. As you can probably guess, there is a lot of sprinting involved because the ball changes position rather quickly and, like I just said, you go with the ball.
I like sprinting though so it’s okay. I love the feeling of my cleats digging into the grass as I fly down the field. I love the feeling of all my limbs and muscles pushing myself as fast as possible towards the ball. In fact, I love it so much and I am so concentrated on trying to get to the ball that I forget to breathe. So it’s kind of awkward since I kind of need to sprint to get to the ball but I also kind of need to breathe to be able to sprint. Typically, this means that after a few sprints up and down the field, I am winded and I need to go sit out. At yesterday’s game, I tried reminding myself to breathe as I was lunging toward the ball but I wouldn’t remember to breathe until I was already halfway through my sprint. So my question for you guys is how do I learn to breathe better? I breathe fine when I am just normally running but there is something about throwing my body into a full out sprint that makes me forget to breathe… Thoughts?
Picture: I have played soccer since I was old enough to play soccer – so more or less since I was 4 years old. This is a picture of me playing soccer in high school. I am a typical teenager in this picture in that I was embarrassed/annoyed about my mom taking pictures of me. >_<
Potassium Photography 
I ran sprints in track back in high school, and figuring out how to breathe during them was one of the hardest parts for me. I had to literally train myself to remember to breathe, and to do it on regular intervals. Eventually I figured out how many steps I needed for each in/out to not have a stroke, and just had to practice doing some runs where all I thought about was the breathing pattern. It’s at a point now where it’s muscle memory, and my body knows that every time my left foot hits the ground, I need to be changing my air intake.
Of course, as I get more tired any regularity goes out the window :)
My only advice would be to figure out what your regular pattern is while you’re walking and while you’re running normally, and use that as a guide to how you should be breathing when you’re sprinting. Just take some time to run some sprints for giggles where all you think about is breathing
I remember running sprints! I would literally hold my breath to run faster! I really had to train myself to relax and breathe when I sprinted.Practice is the only way.