Whether it’s pump music like “Humble,” by Kendrick Lamar, and “Goosebumps,” by Travis Scott, or wind-down music like “From the Start,” by Laufey, and “See You Again,” by Tyler, the Creator, pregame tunes are an absolute must for a quality performance from an athlete.
According to the National Health Institute, the effectiveness of listening to music before a match has been attributed to benefits to the psychological state of the athlete and its effects on stamina associated with exercise performance and recovery improvement. “Regarding sport performance, music interventions may serve to enhance psycho-physiological responses and recovery both during and after exercise. However, practically, athletes may not readily be able to listen to music during competition and thus must listen to music before training/competition to modulate mental and perceptual issues,” according to a study by Delleli, Slaheddine et al. from 2023.
Listening to hype music can help pump up an athlete before a game to lead to a confidence boost and stamina increase, giving the athlete more energy. In contrast, listening to calming music can have a different effect, calming down athletes to mediate their mental state. Freshman Miranda Kvedys plays varsity soccer, and playing at that level for an underclassmen can be nerve-wracking. To prepare for a game, Kvedys can’t deal with relaxing music because it may lead to a pregame nap, so she goes with pump instead. “I like to listen to electronic music because it’s upbeat and has a fast tempo,” Kvedys said.
Kvedys plays soccer, which is a long-paced, energy-intensive sport that requires a lot of energy. In a different sport that requires less energy and is slower, the music choice before a game may be different. For instance, sophomore Ashton Yang plays junior varsity baseball and said that “music is good to listen to before games and helps you take your mind off things to create a mood.”
Yang also said that the position in baseball affects the music listened to pregame. Stereotypically, the catcher is known to listen to the craziest music, such as hardcore rap or rock. But for a pitcher, “I think pitchers will listen to more calming music to stay in a relaxed flow state,” Yang said.
Senior Gimoon Kang has played soccer for all four years of his high school career. Rap is his go-to before a game because pump-up music is better to help him light a fire on the field. For slower sports, “they might call for more relaxing music so they can enter the game calm and not be frantic,” Kang said.
The physical nature of the sport also plays a factor. Soccer, football, basketball, hockey, and lacrosse all require physical contact to play. Tennis, golf, and baseball are less physical sports, as 99 percent of the plays don’t call for physical contact. “Because if it’s a more physical sport, athletes would listen to music to fire them up, but if it’s a personal sport like tennis, I would listen to music to focus,” Kvedys said.
