Nerves during competition

I think there is 2 thing that makes many of us nervous on games.
1. You play with or agains an unknown. Makes you feel ackward & dont know what to do. Kinda playing outside your comfort zone. For this you need to observe & adapting. Experience are matter here & the more experience you had, its getting easier for you as basically you had more card in your hand.

2. Your brain think to much about tournament makes your respond lagging cos so many doubt in your mind. Dont think about winning the tournament. Win or lose are just a bonus & think how to win the point instead & unleash your 100% in you.

 

Many years ago I got very nervous before a driving test. A small amount of whiskey solved that. Just not enough to cause any drunkenness. But only a tiny amount was needed to kill the butterflies. Any nerves were gone immediately, and I passed comfortably. Not suggesting you do that but you might want to consider it. You could try it / test it before a club night and if it doesn't negatively impact your game, you could try it before a tournament. Nobody would recommend that though.

You could also try playing at the venue with the same shuttles. So you are more familiar with the territory and conditions. And psychologically it will feel more comfortable

 

That's normal. You know friends and club mates very well. Where they shine, where they lack, which strategies work against them, what tactic they use against you and this in a hall which is familiar like your living room. You don anything in an automatism. You can maybe also predict the result, so you will be calm because nothing worries you.

In a tournament you get flood by so many new impressions. The sound around you, the light, the contrast of walls, ceiling and shuttle, color of the floor, lines etc. You face an opponent you don't know where he shines, where he lacks, you don't know how they will play you and you simply will also don't know how to play them. That's normal. I sugesst to collect experience. Which means play as often as you can in unfamiliar halls versus unfamiliar players.

You play your friends and club mates in competitions? Do you await too much from you, put yourself under pressure? Have you high goals, which are not realistic and make you worrying when something don't work? Sadly there is not much what you can do. Don't think too much about results, don't put yourself too much under pressure to win. Practice the competition mode with your friends or in club by something like "who loose need to buy a beer" or something like that.

 

I studied sports psychology a while back, and I'd suggest trying imagery https://appliedsportpsych.org/resou...ry means using all of,your sport in your mind.

I'm not sure what goals you have, though we were taught to make goals performance based and measurable, rather than about winning or losing.

 

As a whiskey fan id love nothing more than having a drop before an important match! Im not sure it would go down too well with the other people in the hall though! Ha

 

I think no one ask so let me try, what's your level of play and since when do you actually play? How many years playing competitively?

In my experience that's one thing being a "very good player" in a club where you play with the same opponents every week and compete against others.

Not to say tension doesn't add up to some loss of one's capacities but if you have a certain level of play and if you are used to compete, you can get nervous and miss some points at the beginning of a match from time to time but I'm not sure you would be that stressed to totally loose all your capacities.

On my first tournament, my club partners said I will qualify easily because I could beat them sometimes and they competed 3 ranks higher than me. Turned up I lost my 3 matches in 2 short sets and went home rather quickly. Tournaments are another world. Some people can transcend themselves in a competitive environment while some will need more time to be able to exploit their capacities. I'm the latter and it took a few tournaments to be comfortable. Compete more and you will find your pace.

 

Hello,

Reaching the venue a bit early and having good warm up helps a lot.
If you want to kill the butterflies then you can take some anti anxiety medication(not necessarily alcohol) 30-45 mints before the game.

Cheers.

 

I'd say enter a few tournaments with absolutely zero expectations of winning other than for the experience of playing to enjoy the game. Then you will find out how not to lose to yourself even before you step onto the court.

Also make sure you give this book a good read. Called "The Inner Game of Tennis" written by Timothy Gallwey some 30 yrs ago, it is the original classic read on sports psychology and how to control your 2 minds so that your body is allowed to do what it's trained to do.

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