Teaching ABC's of Pressure Situations
October 30, 2013
By Eric Martin
MSU Institute for the Study of Youth Sports
Coaches have seen the signs: Athletes having too much or not enough energy prior to a game, quickening breathing, sweating more than usual, being unable to focus on important details, and having their minds wander from the present to “what if” scenarios and past mistakes.
Athletes deal with pressure in many ways. Although some handle it well, many do not have the tools to perform to their full abilities in these situations. Most athletes place a high importance on succeeding in sport, and when athletes reach regional, district, or state championships, the pressure they feel may become overwhelming.
How athletes handle this increased pressure can often mean the difference between winning and losing. Therefore, helping athletes deal with it is something coaches should consider prior to athletes encountering these high-stakes situations.
Unfortunately, there is no magic elixir for helping your athletes work under pressure. But if these ABC’s of pressure situations are followed, your athletes will be much better equipped to cope, and the chances of their performance levels dropping significantly will be reduced.
1. Act the Part
How you as coaches act influences your athletes. For better or worse, athletes notice your emotions in response to these situations and take cues from how you handle pressure.
You are a demand on your players’ attention – you can add or reduce your players’ perceived stress by how you act. Understanding the demand you place on players requires self-awareness. How do you respond when a key call goes against you? Do you have nervous habits that athletes may notice? What messages are you providing to your athletes – both verbally and non-verbally? Athletes pick up on these non-verbal cues, so you must be aware of how you respond to these situations.
It is important to remember emotions are not always negative – rather acting differently than normal can be a signal to your athletes that you are stressed. Strive to be consistent in your actions – whether you are coaching during a preseason match or championship contest. These situations are stressful for you too, but you need to be the constant your athletes look to for stability.
2. Breathing – Remember to do it
It seems like a simple thing, but when athletes’ emotions are running high, they forget how to breathe – or, at least, forget how to breathe properly. Worse, they often think they are breathing normally but don’t notice breaths are becoming shorter and shallower. Teaching athletes to breathe properly when not in pressure situations will help them have the tools to rely on when they encounter more intense scenarios.
For proper breathing, athletes need to do so from the belly and not the chest. The pace of this breathing should be 6-2-7; that is, have athletes take a deep breath from the abdomen for six seconds, hold for two seconds, and then finally slowly exhale completely for seven seconds. This breathing strategy is ideal for pregame situations to quiet nerves and help athletes get ready to play, but a condensed version (3-2-3) can also be used for quick breaks in the action like a timeout or court change.
3. Control the controllables
During times of high pressure, athletes sometimes feel they do not have control over their own performances. It is important to help athletes focus on things they can control and not worry about those that cannot be changed or are outside their influence.
Instead of athletes dwelling on aspects that are out of their control like unusual game times for championship finals or a referee’s bad call, help them focus on completing their warm-up preparations and how they can respond to poor calls. Helping focus athletes’ attention on things they can control will help them better handle pressure situations and leave them feeling less helpless
Athletes’ emotions are typically out of their control, but how they view them and respond to these emotions are under their control. Author and preacher Charles R. Swindoll said, “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it!” Be sure your athletes know how to respond when difficult situations arise.
Conclusion: Fearlessness is an assembly
Not all athletes react to pressure situations in the same manner, but all athletes can benefit from these simple suggestions. Remember to ACT THE PART of how you want your athletes to act, teach your athletes proper BREATHING techniques, and help athletes focus on CONTROLLING THE CONTROLLABLES.
Good preparation is the key to performance. Increase self-monitoring and give athletes the tools to succeed in pressure situations; they, in turn, can be in a better position to succeed. However, like any skills, they must be practiced accordingly, and one session will not solve all issues. Devote the time to train athletes in these skills, and when the need arises they will have them ready to use.
Good luck this season!
Martin is a third-year doctoral student in the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University. His research interests include athlete motivation and development of passion in youth, sport specialization, and coaches’ perspectives on working with the millennial athlete. He has led many sessions of the MHSAA Captains Leadership Clinic and consulted with junior high, high school, and collegiate athletes. If you have questions or comments, contact him at [email protected].
Fresh from Cancer Fight, Disbrow Returns to Coaching Ready to Continue 'Winning the Day'
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
September 16, 2026
Nikki Disbrow grabbed her keys and started to get into the family vehicle to pick up her son from a summer 7-on-7 practice. Her husband, Sand Creek football coach Sid Disbrow, told her he wanted to come, too.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “You can barely walk.”
Sid, who had just returned home from surgery to have a tumor removed while battling colorectal cancer for the second time in three years, wasn’t having it. He got in the vehicle.
When Nikki arrived at the field, Sid opened the door.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
Sid, unrelenting, got out of the car and began making his way to the field.
“She was kind of my walker,” he said. “I couldn’t walk on my own, but I needed to address the kids. I needed to be out there. I needed to show them that it’s about winning the day, because you never know what might happen.”
Disbrow, 49, has been coach for just about 30 years. It’s part of who he is in the Sand Creek school district and community. He’s been an assistant football coach, youth baseball and softball coach, varsity boys and middle school basketball coach. He’s detailed, organized, loves the competition and thrives on being around kids.
Last year around the eighth or ninth week of the football season, he began noticing the symptoms of the cancer he had chemotherapy and radiation to treat a couple years prior. He finished the season, knowing middle school basketball was getting ready to start.
Within a week of finding out the cancer had indeed returned, he was able to get everything scheduled and begin chemotherapy. He was getting treated at Flower Hospital in Sylvania, Ohio, about 45 minutes from Sand Creek.
“They would give me the last appointment of the day so I could get there after school,” he said. “They were great to work with.”
It wasn’t easy trying to maintain a rigorous coaching schedule while fighting cancer.
“There are no rules in cancer. You don’t get to do as you wish. Chemotherapy is real,” Disbrow said.
He wasn’t deterred. He coached the entire middle school basketball season – which ended around Christmas. Some days, he was exhausted. Still, quitting wasn’t an option.
“I wanted to be out there for my son and all of the other kids that I’ve been coaching all the way through,” he said. “That was important to me. That was my driving force.”
Not long after basketball season ended, he began eight weeks of radiation. It ended just in time for him to coach his son’s baseball team.
After that season ended, something still wasn’t right. Doctors found a tumor, although they weren’t sure if it was shrinking or growing. They gave him an option – surgery to remove it or wait a few months, get tested again. At that point, if it returned, it meant starting chemotherapy and radiation all over again. He checked the calendar.
“I thought about football season,” he said. “My son is on JV this year. That’s not something I want to miss.”
He went in for surgery and had the tumor successfully removed. Doctors found out later it was indeed cancerous and growing.
“I made the right decision,” he said.
He was recovering from that round of surgery when he made it onto the football field to talk to the Aggies players. The football field is more than a place for Disbrow to forget all about cancer and focus on the lives of the young men on the field. It’s a place him and Nikki, a former varsity volleyball coach at Sand Creek herself, got married.
“It’s probably the first time there was a wedding on the football field, and probably the last time,” he said.
On Aug. 3 – one week before two-a-days started for Sand Creek – he found out the cancer was in remission. He was back with the team when practice began.
“I brought my lawn chair with me,” he said. “There were some days where I just didn’t have the strength.”
Through it all, he’s endured, never wavering.
“The credit goes to God,” he said. “I don’t see how people go through something like this without their faith. I owe it all to Him. He’s given me this chance to continue to teach and coach. I don’t take that lightly.”
Sand Creek varsity football coach Derek Hewitt said seeing Disbrow come back to practice after all he went through was inspiring. Disbrow coaches special teams, the quarterbacks and helps Hewitt with the offense. On most Fridays he’s in the coach’s box.
“It’s great to have him back out there,” Hewitt said. “He’s not the scout team quarterback anymore, but he’s there, every day. It’s great for me to have him by my side.”
One thing Disbrow is not planning to do is stop coaching. In fact, he’s going to be even busier. He was recently named the school’s junior varsity boys basketball head coach.
“Coaching really kept me going through all of this,” he said. “The kids have been great through it all.”
The father of four is from Morenci, the neighboring town to the south and heated rival of Sand Creek, which he admits caused some angst when he moved from coaching football at his alma mater to Sand Creek.
He was part of the 1995 Morenci football team that played for a Class C championship in the Pontiac Silverdome, graduating in 1996. He was a sophomore at Adrian College when a Morenci coach asked him to join that coaching staff. A couple years later he began coaching at Sand Creek.
Now, he, his wife and four kids are engrained in the Aggies community.
“I wasn’t one of those people who got into teaching because I wanted to coach,” he said. “I wanted to be a teacher, to be around young people and help them. Coaching was something I loved once I started doing it. It’s who we are now as a family. It’s part of our lives.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a news and sports reporter at the Adrian Daily Telegram and the Monroe News for 30 years, including 10 years as city editor in Monroe. He's written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. He is now publisher and editor of The Blissfield Advance, a weekly newspaper. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Sand Creek assistant football coach Sid Disbrow mans the headset while on the sideline during a game. (Middle) Disbrow lays in a hospital bed while receiving care in 2023. (Below) Disbrow stands for a photo with wife Nikki last fall. (Top photo by Becky Serin. Hospital and family photos courtesy of the Disbrow family.)