Nerves – Show Yourself
So you are playing in a tournament. It is the big day. I hope I can play well.
Inevitably we get nervous before a big event. In fact this can be good for you to perform at your best. Your body understands this is something special.
But, unfortunately, sometimes the nerves overcome us.
So what signs does your body give you when you are nervous?
Well, they can be very mixed and sometimes confusing.
• Here are some of the classics;
• Uneasy feeling in the stomach (sometimes described as butterflies)
• Needing to go to the toilet often
• Not wanting to eat
• Scared feeling
• Feeling tight in your body, especially your shoulders
And here are a few more that you may not recognise;
• Feeling lethargic
• Legs don’t move properly (this is the first thing to stop when you get nervous)
• Yawning
• Unmotivated
• Becoming uncharacteristically quiet
These last few are confusing signs. They may suggest that you are tired, but rather they are a sign that your body is very nervous. As a result it almost shuts down as a protection mechanism.
The first key is to recognise these signs.
Next time you feel these, recognise the impostor for what it is and learn to deal with it.
Ji-Soo
commented on November 27th, 2008 at 11:01 am
This is a very pertinent and timely blog entry for me. I played in my pennant finals this week and had the worst case of nerves to date. Lethargy was definitely a big part of my symptoms. Generally speaking, there was just a feeling of disconnect between my brain telling my body to do something and then my body doing it. I knew I was in trouble from the very first point when I stood there to serve and just completely forgot how to serve!
For me the issues related to nerves are physical and psychological (inter-related of course). The psychological side is that I start to get very nervous and can no longer visualise doing full strokes and hitting winners. Instead, I can only visualise hitting unforced errors every time I try to attack. As a result, I start to play tentative half strokes and try to push everything safely. This results in a lot of pop ups and the opponent just starts smashing/flipping everything and all I can do is hope he misses enough smashes for me to stay in the game. Very frustrating.
Girish
commented on April 29th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I really do feel once I enteer the tornament play area and get very nervous that I lose even the first round matches. I really want a remedy for this