Ask Cael: I have problems with getting nervous in my matches. I’m not nervous until the ref blows the whistle. at that moment I freeze up and forget everything. what can I do to prevent that?

Story Published Monday, June 21st, 2010

Question from Zaremski: Hey Cael. I have problems with getting nervous in my matches. I’m not nervous until the ref blows the whistle. at that moment I freeze up and forget everything. what can I do to prevent that?

Find something to focus on that will help you get into “the zone” and away from thinking your way through the match.  Competition time is the time to act, not think.  If you are thinking, you will be a step or two too slow.  When I say you shouldn’t be thinking, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a plan and that you aren’t aware of your surroundings.  “Being in the Zone” is where you are flowing through the technique and action in an auto-pilot type of fashion.  To get into that “zone” you need to have some kind of controlled action that will get you there.  For me, I would focus on moving my feet.  And I would tell my coaches to tell me to move my feet and pull them down when I looked over at them during the match.  Once my feet started moving my mind would slide into auto-pilot and into “the zone”.   So figure out what controlled action you can focus on that will trigger the auto-pilot feel.  The action has to be a simple action that doesn’t depend on anything other than effort on your part.  If you are telling yourself that you have to score, that is too vague and not 100% effort based.  The question is how do you score?  Think about the process and not the end result.  Once you figure out what you need to do to score, break it down to the simplest form and focus on that.

Don’t be afraid to get nervous.  You should be nervous.  Being nervous is a gift.  You will be sharper mentally, quicker, and stronger.  The problem is when people try to fight being nervous because they think it is a bad thing.   It’s not.  The phenomenon is that the more you try to contain and suppress a thought, the worse it becomes and the more you think of it.  So the trick is to just accept that you are nervous and be ok with it.  Don’t try and change it.  I used to tell myself when I was nervous, “I am ready.”  I did that thousands of times.  The more you say the more you believe it.  You train your mind.  As soon as you accept that you are nervous and don’t fight it, being nervous will be a good thing.

Practice, practice, practice.

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