Music is something that definitely plays a role as a catalyst for an athlete to make them an eager beaver!
Note, I used the term “catalyst” here because music is definitely not the only thing that makes you a professional hardworking and enthusiastic athlete but can play a major role to remove your dullness and pump you up to break the shackles.
Music affects our emotion and emotion affects our performance. Therefore music has an impact on our performance for sure.
Let’s see how!
Importance of Music in Sports
Let’s niche down to particular sports like soccer. The overall influences of music on any other sports are same as soccer. But to provide you the information with some specific examples I am taking the soccer as an example.
Before the Practice Drill
Clearing the deck for a practice drill should always be fun for a soccer player. But when the coach asks for the same drill for a consecutive session it may turn into a tedious task to a player.
Here music can play an important role to help the player regain the energy and interest to go for the drills. Any music with a strong beat can spice up their moment and repetitive drills may turn into enjoyable sessions for them.
The coach should allow players to listen to their own favorite playlist, and of course, matching the music with the nature of the drill is important. Like a smooth and calm music suits best to help a player touch on the soccer ball. Something with the strong beat might be more suited for the sprint.
To Keep the Focus During Practice
I talked about starting the drill so far. But what about keeping the focus during the practice session? It is quite normal that players tend to lose the focus over the time during a practice session. Without proper focus, a drill session is of no value.
Here again listening to music can play a significant role. This time motivational music works best.
Helps to Recover Fast
After the training, they can listen to softer music again for the recovery process. See, integrating music can help before, during, and after the training session.
Continuity and variation of music are two important factors that a coach must practice to get the best outcome.
Music as Timing Device for the Coach
Music can be used as a timing device during the practice session as well. Here the coach will get two benefits. He won’t have to see the stopwatch frequently as the drill will be stopped once the music finishes. So he will be able to focus on the player’s movement more accurately. Another benefit is using music will be helpful for the players as well as I discussed earlier.
Before and After the Competitive Match
So far, I have only discussed the role of playing music on the drill/practice session. But it can be equally helpful before and after the real competitive match, a player participates. Inspirational and motivational music can be the butt-kicker before any game.
And after the game?
It depends on the result of the game. It is quite obvious that a player will be morally down if his team lost or he played badly in that particular game. To get things in a normal situation the favorite playlist of that particular player can come in handy to shift his/her mood quickly which is so important to get ready for the next game.
Psychological boosting before a match starts through the music is a proven factor based on the study. You will see players from all the sports listening to music using headphones or earpiece when coming out of the bus. Former England national team soccer player and Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand used to listen to his favorite hip-hop and grime classics playlist before almost every match. Some players think without music their preparation for a game is half done.
Pre-match imagery is required and necessary in many situations. Tracks like “300 Violin Orchestra” [Jorge Quintero] may prove to be useful for many players.
Several experiments on a group of players have proved that a player after listening music performs way better than a player who does not listen to music before the match starts.
Impacts of Music in Exercise
If you ever went to a gym, I am sure you heard music playing on continuously until you leave the gym. Yes, it is a common scenario of any gym in the world, and there are certain reasons behind this. Well, if you do exercise in the gym, just ask the authority to turn off the music, you will feel the difference instantly.
Pushes You to the Gym
You will start champing at the bit after listening to the music if you ever don’t feel like putting your exercise clothes on and go to the gym. This study shows music is a good source of energy to get you ready and go the extra mile.
Keeps You Away From Boring Feeling
In the gym, you probably follow a certain routine of workout for 7 days. Initially, you will enjoy every day without any doubt. But eventually, you may start feeling boring that will resist you from work harder and cross the limit each day. Listening to music helps here a lot. You will not feel the extra workout you are doing if you do it while listening to your favorite music.
Helps Maintaining the Coordination
During the gym session maintaining the coordination and doing exercises rhythmically is crucial. Studies prove that listening to your favorite music helps to increase the electrical activity of your brain of that particular area which is responsible to keep your coordination right. Your body actually moves with the beat hence helps maintain the rhythm right.
Catalyst to Break the Limit
Fatigue is the main barrier to push your limits and music is something that reduces the feeling of fatigue. So it’s logical that music helps you to push your limit. Studies proved that listening to faster music helps during cycling in the gym than the soft songs. As a result faster beat helps you to spend more time on cycling than yesterday. This way it helps you cross your own limit every day.
However, you can’t pass your body limit with music. When your muscle and body need oxygen music won’t serve that. In fact, the impact of music will stop working at some stage of your exercise when your heart rate reaches to anaerobic zone.
Make Your Exercise Enjoyable than Anything Else
Music makes your workout more enjoyable than anything else. When you lose yourself in the music it will be easier for you to ignore the unpleasant moment of working out rigorously. As a consequence, you will start enjoying your workout. Basically, you will enjoy the music and ignore the pain of hard work.
Make Your Recovery Faster
Not only during the exercise but a slow music can help you out to recover after the gym session as well. It is scientifically proven that a slow music helps to reduce the heartbeat as well as the blood pressure. All these are important for the recovery process after the exercise session.
Final Words
While music puts a significant impact on the performance of a sportsman or helps you to push your limit in the gym, it has it’s limit too. Of course, It works up to a certain level. It is not something that will make you skilled during the drill session but definitely can help to utilize or implement your skill by providing an energetic state of mind.
Doing good and breaking the shackles in a competitive match requires a lot of positivity and you need to pump up your brain and mind. Pushing your limit in the gym requires something to distract you from the pain of hard work.
Music does all those.
