Scientific Programme

Applied Sports Sciences

IS-AP01 - Navigating the Perception of Time in Sport: Psychological and Physiological Insights

Date: 02.07.2025, Time: 14:45 - 16:00, Session Room: Anfiteatro

Description

The concept of time perception and its relation to exercise is intriguing yet currently not well understood. As Einstein famously suggested, ‘put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.’ In sport, an athlete’s perception of time is dynamically shaped by physiological and psychological states—from pre-event anticipation and in-event exertion to post-exercise reflection. Therefore, how athletes perceive time before, during, and after performance carries important implications for event preparation, training, motivational strategies, engagement, and post-exercise recovery. Such distortions suggest the brain’s management of time is deeply intertwined with physiological signals and the environment, impacting decision-making, strategies, and endurance. Misjudging time can result in pacing errors, cognitive fatigue, and under performance. During events, subjective time often diverges from objective time, distorted by discomfort, focus, or fatigue, leading athletes to experience time as either dragging or flying. Over the course of this symposium, we will explore these topics through three interlinked presentations examining pre-event strategies, in-event experiences, and post-event reflections from the sequential perspective of a performer, providing cutting-edge research evidence, building on existing concepts with new insights relevant to sport scientists, coaches & athletes.