How to overcome match day nerves?

[ross matt]

Very practical and realistic advice Max. Nerves dont really ease with age as with experience comes the burden of responsibility and expectation. Think the key is trying to imitate the preparation/circumstances that led up to your best ever performances. Thats why even top players in all sports have habits that appear superstitious but in all likelihood is their way of ensuring consistency of performance. I remember a manager saying once that before every match you should always vow regardless of how the game goes to ensure that you dont wake up the following morning with that sinking feeling in your gut knowing you could have tried harder or taken more risks only for nerves and anxiety to undermine you.

[ONeill]

Contact the Trickster

[Mentalman]

Lot's of good advice above, so much it could probably get confusing

My two cents.

I had similar problems, so much so I lost all confidence in myself, leading to me more or less quitting football at a young age. At about the same time I was playing intermediate hurling at quite a young age, and one of the guys in the team noticed I was quite a nervvy character in the dressroom, although always able to more than fight my corner in training. So he started to wind me up mercilessly on match day, so such an extent that I went for him, a guy nearly twice my age! Once that had happened he told me to use that anger in the game. Et voila, cured on the day. Of course at the time I didn't realise what it was all about. The face slapping, the roaring and shouting, the flaking all provoked me to an extent I forgot all about my "nerves", which was what I was concentrating on, and once I got a couple of games like that, I forgot all about the fact that I used to worry myself into a knot, to the extent that I joined the ranks of the serial pukers! The big man's action dealt with the symtoms, not the underlying anxiety, but with anxiety once you deal with the symptoms the cause soon recedes. Took me years to figure that out. After that to use the old maxim, I trained as I played, and when I went to play I knew I'd done it all in training previously, so there was nothing to stress about.

Sounds to me like you might be working yourself into a heap about this feeling - that you will feel this way again on the next big match day? That's anxiety dude. Continue on that road and pretty soon every match becomes a big match. Do you get those type of feelings around anything else in life? I don't know, like exams or job interviews? If so you could be, or could be becoming, an anxious type of person, it usually manifests in specifics and kind of spreads out from there. If that's the case loads of things, mentioned in the other posts, alone and in combination can help:

- diversion - my buddy winding me up, having a laugh with the lads before hand - this has an immediate effect
- avoid stressors - both mental and physical - talking to supporters/parents etc. putting their expectations on you, going on sessions the week of games, not getting enough sleep
- visualisation - "you see it before you do it - you see it, you do it" to quote Tony in "Any Given Sunday". Train as you mean to play, and realise when you play you've done it all in training is also part of this
- Quit negative self talk - when your getting on your own case about things, challenge it, give it a reality check. Like when you think "I always get heavy legged before a big match" Is that true? Surely there were times underage etc. when that didn't happen? "Or I never play well on the big day" - is that really true too? Think of times that disprove that. If you can't ask one of your firends on the team, I'm sure getting somebody elses persepective, i.e. an objective opinoin, will put you in the real picture.
- unrealistic expectations - as mentioned elsewhere nobody ever had the perfect game, are you expecting too much of yourself?
- relaxation - breath - seriously, sounds like an issue for you if you can't get your breath during a game even if your not physically tired. Tip - don't emphasise the inhalation, it's the exhalation we all forget about, you need to get that C02 out of your system. Before the game, that morning or the night before - deep breaths, not into your chest, into your stomach, so it sitcks out. Exhale even longer than your inhalation. When your heart is going 90 that can be hard to do, but stick with it and your heart will settle, and you will feel physically & mentally better too.

Any decent website on anxiety and relaxation will give you techniques that will help you dude. Hope this is of some use.

[Wee Roddy]

I have been following this thread and it is funny because a group of footballers and non footballers were talking about this in my company recently. The lads involved have all played in county finals and Ulster Club games for either Carrickmore or Killyclogher and believe me, one of these guys has played in alot of County finals. Like the majority of people are saying, nerves are natural and are certainly required. There are guys in both dressing rooms who apparently make themselves sick to relieve some pressure. However you need characters in your changing room to relieve the tension the week of the game. It is said (although it may not all be true) that Errigal Ciaran were big favourites against Carrickmore in 2001 county final. Carmen were training on Friday night (nine days before the game) and the manager, John Brennan, detected alot of tension so he organised a training session in Rosnowlagh on Sunday morning. Brennan took them on the piss after training and pulled a stroke later. He got them talking going home on the bus about their fears about next Sunday- and because of the drink they had none. He reminded them all week of this -and they won. The Killyclogher player though this was complete lies, but there is some truth in it. Other managers have held all summer long drink bans, some two weeks etc, but it all has to be in the head.