Sports Stage Fright

Performance anxieties is just like a fire alarm.  They appear to exist outside of us but, in truth, are predictions of what could’ve, should’ve or would’ve happened to us during a game. The key to managing these performance anxieties is to disarm the fire alarms. By controlling your emotional thermostat you prevent  the need to defend against it in self defeating ways. Stay calm and you won’t have to deploy self-defeating strategies in search of calm. In this state of focused readiness, you can know the difference between what is inside you outside you, and what has already happened versus what may occur. What are the real and the perceived, emotional risks of giving your best effort? Practice at home and then apply the same techniques during warm ups.  When you’re warming up before a game take it seriously and make sure that you’re focused and you’re not messing around with your friends.  You wanna take this seriously because when it does come time for a game you’ll know what you’re doing.  It is often hard to practice under pressure, because practice itself rarely has that much pressure. But if you can get used to being under pressure situations, then when you actually face some type of pressure it won’t cause as much anxiety.  For example, ff you are playing sports, practice playing where people challenge you with noise and energy, just like you would experience in a big game. This will help you get used to some of the components of pressure situations, even if it doesn’t resemble it completely.

Before every softball game, I always get stage fright and I never know why.  You would think that after 13 years of playing the same sport I wouldn’t get nervous.  People always ask how I get rid of it before a game and here are a few things that I tell them:

1. Just remember that you do this every game and it’s nothing new.
2. Once you get into the groove everything becomes natural.
3. Focus on the game and not who is there watching you.
4. Everyone makes mistakes.
5. Focus during warm ups and what you can do to win the game and it will take your mind off of how nervous you are.
6. Stay calm, keep yourself energized and it’s better to be excited for a game then to be nervous.  

If you’re nervous before a game then it shows that you care how you perform.