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Breathing and team sports: managing intermittent efforts like a pro

In team sports — football, rugby, basketball, handball, hockey — performance does not depend solely on speed or power. It depends above all on your ability to string together intermittent efforts : accelerations, sprints, jumps, duels, changes of direction… and then quickly return to a stable breathing state to repeat these efforts again and again.


Breathing is at the heart of this ability. Better yet: it is an immediate indicator of your internal state, often much more reliable than heart rate.


In this post, discover how breathing structures intermittent performance, how your ventilatory thresholds influence your sprints, and how ZoneX can help athletes manage their effort like pros.


1. Why breathing is key to interval training


In team sports, the effort is very different from an endurance outing:

  • alternating very intense efforts / short recovery periods

  • high neuromuscular stress

  • rapid changes of pace

  • repeated activation of the anaerobic pathway

  • emotional constraints (stress, decision-making)


👉 Your breathing instantly reflects these variations.


The more stable breathing remains after a sprint,

➜ The faster you regain your performance,

➜ The sooner you regain your senses,

➜ the more you are able to chain actions together.


2. Ventilatory thresholds: the hidden driver of repetitive exertion


Even though team sports are not “endurance” sports, your ventilatory thresholds (VT1 and VT2) play a major role.


VT1 — The foundation of rapid recovery

If your VT1 is too low:

  • your breathing remains elevated for too long after a sprint

  • you are recovering poorly

  • your lucidity is decreasing

  • the heart rate does not go down

Players with a high VT1 recover 30-40% faster between sprints (data from the literature on HIIT and ventilation).


VT2 — The ability to repeat intense efforts

A low VT2 means:

  • rapid lactate rise

  • chaotic ventilation

  • sprints becoming less and less explosive

  • loss of technical precision

Professionals have a very high VT2, which explains their ability to stay “fresh” despite many intense phases.



3. How to manage a match using breathing


Here's how top athletes use (often unknowingly) breathing as a tactical tool.


⭐ Before a sprint or a duel

✔ Short inspiration → activation

✔ Explosive exhalation → motor engagement

✔ Pre-activation of the core strengthening


⭐ After a sprint

→ Long exhalation (2× longer than inhalation)

→ Triggers the return to calm

→ Lowers CO₂ more effectively

→ Stabilizes information gathering around


⭐ During the match

✔ Smooth breathing = lucidity

✔ Short, shallow breaths = close to VT2 = decision fatigue

Breathing even influences peripheral vision and the accuracy of passes.


4. What ZoneX brings to team sports


ZoneX allows you to:

✔ Detect your VT1 / VT2 thresholds without a lactate test

You know exactly when your breathing is:

  • starts to go off the rails

  • malfunctions after a sprint

  • announces that you are reaching your limit


✔ Quantify your ability to recover between sprints

ZoneX measurement:

  • time to revert to VT1,

  • ventilatory drift,

  • respiratory stability during a match or training session.


✔ Build a truly useful training program for intermittent sports

Thanks to ZoneX data, you can:

  • to improve recovery between efforts,

  • push back the chaotic ventilation,

  • increase the quality of repeated sprints,

  • optimize your VO₂ at high intensities.



5. Example of breathing training for team sports


Here is a breathing-based protocol:

Sprints + Breathing Block

8 x 20 sec sprint - 40 sec breathing recovery:

➡️ 3 sec inspiration

➡️ 6 sec expiration

➡️ Nasal breathing at the end of recovery


ZoneX indicates:

  • if your breathing returns to a “fluid” state,

  • if your VT1 increases over the course of the sessions,

  • if your performance in repeated sprints becomes stable.


6. In summary


In team sports:

  • Breathing is the most reliable indicator of your ability to repeat efforts.

  • A high VT1 = rapid recovery between two sprints.

  • A high VT2 = more power and less technical loss under fatigue.

  • ZoneX allows you to measure, understand and improve these capabilities directly in the field — without masks, without lactate, without a laboratory.



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