Over coming 'stage fright'

yomchi

I'd be interested to hear from other competitors here how they cope with the build up to competition. Not so much the training aspect but the mental preperation.
Recently I've succumbed to 'stage fright' - for the want of a better word and have thrown easy fights away. During training and sparring everything moves fast and accurate - then sometimes on the mats during competition everything slows down to a blur and strategy goes out the window.

How do you mentally prepare for the show down? Any thoughts..

Roper

I sh1t myself for 3 hours or so, slap myself in the face a bit, get ratty and shout at people for two days beforehand, and generally have to wait for someone to hit me before I realise I'm in a fight.

In other words, I'm not the man to be asking.:D

DITTKD

In Rugby/GAA/whatever, you'd have a game every week. Competition is part of the routine, not so in MA (I find).

So basically, just keep going to comps whenever they come up. Really the only way to practice for it is to do it.

paddyc

read "gates of fire"


all your problems solved

Tim_Murphy

Apparently I can get a little cranky before fights myself.

Over the years competing I've developed a fairly set pre-fight routine for getting myself motivated, focused etc. I think it works well, once you start into it then your mind knows it's competition time, you focus on what you'll need to do, from there on in you are in a different place mentally.

arybvtcw0eolkf

On the day of competition I'm fine, but in the days leading up to it I imagine I'm suffering all sorts of injuries and look for a reason why I should withdraw, but I never do.

Then on the day I kind of resign myself to my faith and get on with it.

What kind of competition are you getting 'stage fright' Jon?. ie, are they comps were people are expecting a lot from you and your afraid of letting them & yourself down?.

yomchi

Mairt wrote:

On the day of competition I'm fine, but in the days leading up to it I imagine I'm suffering all sorts of injuries and look for a reason why I should withdraw, but I never do.

Then on the day I kind of resign myself to my faith and get on with it.

What kind of competition are you getting 'stage fright' Jon?. ie, are they comps were people are expecting a lot from you and your afraid of letting them & yourself down?.

Internationals Martin, I guess there is added pressure when you're on the international stage and the fact that you can let yourself dow and others

arybvtcw0eolkf

Jon wrote:

Internationals Martin, I guess there is added pressure when you're on the international stage and the fact that you can let yourself dow and others

But there's a thing, do we ever let people down?.

I've never heard it said of anyone "Jeeze, Martin (or whatever) let me down really bad by losing that one"?.

But I know one or two who I can almost put money on who'll bottle it and withdraw almost everytime and not fight. They're a let down to themselves and everyone else.

yomchi

Mairt wrote:

But there's a thing, do we ever let people down?.

I've never heard it said of anyone "Jeeze, Martin (or whatever) let me down really bad by losing that one"?.

But I know one or two who I can almost put money on who'll bottle it and withdraw almost everytime and not fight. They're a let down to themselves and everyone else.

True enough! I know one guy who sprains his ankle every time!

Gorman

Check out this:
http://www.grapplearts.com/weblog.htm

see the entry on May 09, 2007, Grappling with Competition Anxiety. I agree with him, the more tournies you enter the easier (nerves wise) it gets.

yomchi

^^
I think he hit the nail on the head!

HammerHeadGym

Get the book 'Fear, the friend of exceptional people.' That'll take care of any future anxiety.

Roper

I really only got stage fright once, and the girl was really understanding and said it happened to all guys at some stage, so it was grand.

Khannie

lol roper.

Jon: I was thinking of buying "Fit to Fight". It has a pre-fight nerves part apparantly. I'm sure someone on here will have read it and can comment.

JohnMc1

good reading. I'll check those out too.

yomchi

Roper wrote:

I really only got stage fright once, and the girl was really understanding and said it happened to all guys at some stage, so it was grand.

Bald men have all the luck

rossedge

suppse its different for everyone, I find that the best way is to have a decent warm up with you team mates then have a laugh and joke until you have the first fight. One you get the first one out of the way, there usually gone!

mirwillbeback

paddyc wrote:

read "gates of fire"


all your problems solved

you can read?:eek: