When entering a tournament, your mind is put to the test above all else. Physically, a practitioner would likely have spent hundreds of hours drilling, sparring and fine tuning - muscle memory. On game day, you're dealing with many other elements - new opponents, crowd yelling, teammates analyzing, coaches instructing you to CROSS FACE, etc. When that adrenaline is going, take a second to take in a deep breath and the point is always to calm yourself.
I recently was having a conversation and the point was mentioned that expert marksmen and basketball players have been studied, in action, during their respected trade and proves that their heart rates actually decrease while shooting a ball or pulling the trigger. I thought to myself, "wow, that sounds like a meditation."
Its been a lifetime of hearing that the key is in breathing. I heard it in baseball, every martial art I've ever been exposed to, swimming and even performing on a stage theater (for nervousness). When there are feelings of anger or frustration, the advice has always been to breathe (after a couple downing a few ice cold ones) - just kidding.
Buddhist have entire philosophies surrounding this single action and you can easily find yoga sequences dedicated to exercising your 'guts' and refer this as the rhythmic control of breath.
Ultimately, its your mind you're trying to control to bear insight and understanding.
One last note on this thought. Have you seen the video below of Randy "The Natural" Couture holding a guillotine? Its about his lactic threshold going down during this choke! All I can think is that after his years of Greco Roman wrestling, then years in the UFC, his lifetime of training brings his physical abilities to a inhuman-like state because he is calm performing his craft. Check it out because it even defies the science:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxFB3MiwBYM
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