If you want to know how to get pumped up before a game, start the night before and finish in the tunnel. Players who walk out switched on tend to follow the same short sequence every week: kit packed early, a playlist they chose, a warm-up that raises the heart rate, one cue word, a burst of fast breathing and a final step they repeat every game. This routine fits a Saturday league, a Sunday futsal match or a midweek cup tie, and it fits in a kit bag.
How to get pumped up before a game starts the night before
Pack the bag before dinner. Boots, shin pads, tape, a spare pair of socks, your water bottle and whatever else you take on the pitch go in one place, so game morning has nothing to hunt for. Lay out what you will wear to the ground.
Write down the kickoff time and work back from it. If the team meets 60 minutes before kickoff, you want to leave home with 15 minutes to spare. Players who arrive late spend the warm-up catching up, and that panic feels nothing like being pumped.
Build the playlist now as well. Eight to ten songs is enough for the drive and the changing room.
Music on the way in
Costas Karageorghis, a sport psychologist at Brunel University London, has studied music in sport since the 1990s. A 1996 paper he wrote with Drew and Terry looked at music as a way to change arousal, including as a stimulant before competition. In his own work with athletes he has used recordings of stimulating music mixed with spoken suggestions to psych players up.
Pick songs you already associate with playing well. Songs you know by heart beat a list somebody else made. Keep one track for the last five minutes before you leave the car, and play that same track every week. After a month it starts the switch on its own.
“Definitely energized.”
A short dynamic warm-up
Raise your energy by moving. The FIFA 11+ is a 20-minute warm-up of running drills, strength work and balance exercises. In a 2007 trial reported in the BMJ, about 2,500 girls aged 14 to 16 on 125 Norwegian teams were split between the program and a normal warm-up for an eight-month season. Overall injuries fell by 32% in the program group and serious injuries by 45%.
If your team has no set routine, do your own version:
- Three minutes of easy jogging with arm swings
- High knees, heel flicks and side shuffles across the width of the box
- Walking lunges and squats, 10 each
- Three short sprints at 70%, 85% and full pace
- Two minutes on the ball: passing, first touches, a few shots
Finish with the sprints close to kickoff. Your heart is up, your legs are warm and you are breathing hard, which is the state you want when the whistle goes.
One cue word, said out loud
A 2011 meta-analysis led by Antonis Hatzigeorgiadis at the University of Thessaly pooled 32 sport studies with 62 measured effects of self-talk. Instructional cues (a technique reminder like "elbow up") worked best for fine skills. Motivational cues such as "give it all" worked best for strength, endurance and psyching up.
Pick one motivational word for game day. "Hunt", "first", "go" and "press" all work. Say it out loud while you tie your boots and again as you cross the white line. A word you mutter in your head has less punch than one your teammates can hear.
Breathing for energy before a game
The sport psychology team at Virginia Tech Athletics lists three ways for athletes to raise energy: listening to favourite songs, using energizing imagery and increasing the rhythm of their breathing. Slow breathing settles you. Fast breathing does the opposite.
Stand up, shoulders loose. Take ten quick, sharp breaths in through the nose and push each one out hard through the mouth. Then picture your first action of the game: the first tackle, the first sprint in behind, the first header. Do it twice in the changing room and once in the tunnel.
Give yourself a pre game ritual
Rituals look silly from the stands, and they work for the player doing them. In a 2010 study in Psychological Science, Lysann Damisch and colleagues at the University of Cologne gave 28 students 10 putts each from one metre. Students told their ball was lucky sank an average of 6.42 putts. Students with a normal ball sank 4.75.
Your ritual should be short, the same every week and physical. Left boot first. Two taps on the crossbar. The same handshake with your centre back. Last in the line out. The point is repetition: the brain learns that this exact order of things means the game is about to start.
Make Dragon Breath the last step
The final step in a good pre game routine should be something you can feel straight away. Dragon Breath is a pocket mouth spray of chilcuague extract (Heliopsis longipes), a golden root wild-harvested in Central Mexico. One spray in the tunnel and within about 10 seconds a bright, electric buzz spreads across your tongue and mouth. Then the mouth floods. One customer's first words on camera were "Oh wow, the saliva flow." Another, filmed moments after a single spray, said "Definitely energized."
The taste is earthy and a little peppery for a second before the buzz takes over. You walk out with your mouth alive and your attention locked on the next 90 minutes, without another energy drink or coffee sitting in your stomach. The fresh, clean feeling that lingers afterwards is a bonus when you are shouting for the ball.
Start with one spray. Once you know the feeling, go up to five. The 50 ml bottle holds more than 250 sprays and lives in a kit bag or a pocket all season, sealed in Miron violet glass that keeps light off the extract. For the root, the people who grow it and how it has been used in Mexico, read our full guide to chilcuague.
Dragon Breath – Chilcuague Extract
50 ml mouth spray. Wild-harvested chilcuague root, dual-extracted. 250+ sprays.
Add to bagHow to get pumped up before a soccer game, minute by minute
- Kickoff minus 90: leave home, game playlist on.
- Minus 60: arrive, boots on in the same order as always.
- Minus 40: team warm-up or your own dynamic routine.
- Minus 15: back in the changing room, cue word, two rounds of fast breathing.
- Minus 2: one spray of Dragon Breath, a round of fast breathing in the tunnel, walk out.
Questions people ask
How do you get energy before a game without coffee?
Move, breathe fast and listen to loud music you love. Players who want a final kick add one spray of Dragon Breath in the tunnel and feel the buzz across the tongue and mouth within about 10 seconds.
How long should a pre game routine take?
Plan on about an hour from arrival to kickoff. The FIFA 11+ warm-up alone runs 20 minutes.
What is a good pre game ritual?
Any short sequence you repeat in the same order every game, such as boots on left first, a cue word and one spray before you walk out.
When should I use Dragon Breath before a game?
In the last couple of minutes, in the tunnel or on the touchline, so the buzz and the flood of saliva hit as you take the field.
