Dealing with tournament nerves

[abendgules]

A short discussion about preparing for tournaments, with some tools for dealing with nerves.

Dealing with 'tournament nerves' is trickier than doing physical preparation. Most sports fans are familiar with seeing a good athlete 'choke' - not perform to their best ability, for no apparent reason.

This occurs to fighters when they are more concerned about the outcome of the tournament than the pleasure and the challenge of each bout. All they can think about is what others will think of them if they either win, or lose spectacularly.

(People who are so laid back they cannot get focused on tournaments have a different problem! nervousness and anxiety are much more common.)

One response is to develop goals for a tournament that do not include the outcome of the tournament: you cannot control that result, but you can manage how you approach the tournament yourself.

These goals can help keep you focused on your own performance, and worry less about the performances of others.

Some example goals - if I was discussing these with a fighter, I'd help them choose some goals relevant to their current performance:
- entering every bout at between 70-80% of full power/force (no 'no-brainer' bouts, no matter how new your opponent)
- focus on the current bout only ('wherever you are, be all there')
- engaging your opponent on your terms

A tool that can help you learn from your tournament experience more quickly is a fighting diary. Along with logging your practice goals and your practice sessions, keep a section of the diary for your tournaments.

During the tournament get a friend to help during you track your bouts, by:
- writing down each opponent's name
- as you (the fighter) come off the field, answer two questions very quickly:
1. How was your performance in this bout? Rate yourself out of 10 (strictly fighters' opinion, not scribes)
2. Give one or two keywords or phrases to help you remember what was special about the bout

You can do this yourself - but it's easier to get someone else to scribe, who isn't wearing gauntlets.

After the tournament, take 10-15 minutes to review these notes, and scribble down a slightly longer assessment of your performance. Be honest, but not needlessly hard on yourself. Think about whether or not you met the goals you'd set for yourself - fully, partially, only a bit. Describe the good parts and the bad parts of the tourney in your own terms.

This isn't a punishment. It's a very quick post-mortem, to help embed your experiences in a way that you can learn from them.

After your notes: shower, change, and feel free to set the tournament aside for the rest of the day.

As always - I'm happy to chat about ways to make more plans and preparations for tournaments, and have books to lend. Feel free to contact me directly.

Comments

the pure joy of combat is its own reward

[chequey.livejournal.com]

Wow. I've been reading this and your two previous related posts with interest. I know we’re all individuals, and this approach may work for some people, but to me it reads like a recipe to suck all of the fun out of fighting.

I can honestly say that in over three decades of armoured combat, often at a high competitive level, I’ve never found “tournament nerves” to be a problem. Perhaps it’s because I’ve never placed much emphasis on the win - my primary concerns have always been to fight cleanly, bring honour to my lady and enjoy the fight. Anything else is gravy. No need to over-analyse it.

Re: the pure joy of combat is its own reward

[bend-gules.livejournal.com]

You're absolutely right. The pure joy of combat *is* its own reward.

Learning to prepare yourself so you can reach 'the zone' of being relaxed, focused and fully 'on', to take part in that joyful combat to your fullest ability, is IMO well worth exploring.

Menken, you have skills and confidence and, as you mention, three decades of combat experience. You genuinely don't worry about the outcome, which is a rare gift.

If in your fighting career, you have not wondered how you measure up against others, or connected your sense of worth to the outcome of a bout, or fought like a god in practice and then not been able to find a basic defense in a tournament, then you are especially fortunate.

Many people deal with some measure of performance anxiety, at some point.

This is simply one way of giving some fighter a 'handle' to possibly get a hold on them, rather than being controlled by them.

Re: the pure joy of combat is its own reward

[chequey.livejournal.com]

Oh, it’s not that I don’t strive to improve (I like to hope that I’ve yet to peak!); that’s normal and even desirable. And, even though Humility is a Knightly Virtue, there are few of us in the Order that don’t have at least a teensy bit of ego (hey, I wrote that with a straight face :). But even so, I’ve never suffered from the “tournament nerves” you’re writing about. As long as I enjoy the fight and deport myself well on the field, winning or loosing is of secondary importance. Tourneys come and go; there’s no sense getting all tied up in knots over them. Over-analysing can even make some people more nervous. I'm with Nike: Just Do It. It’s only a game, after all.

It’s how you approach the fight that makes the difference. It’s how you react when you loose (or win!) a fight. I’ve never “connected my sense of worth to the outcome of a bout”. My sword arm does not define me. Perhaps that’s why I don’t let this stuff bother me.

Sadly, I have seen cases where once-great fighters who became embittered as their prowess inevitably waned. We had a recent example here of a Duke who retired from the SCA after being cleanly bested in Crown Tourney Final by someone less than half his age. A sorry display. I prefer to emulate the example of the Iron Duke Finnvarr, who is aging in the list with admirable dignity.

Re: the pure joy of combat is its own reward

[larmer.livejournal.com]

Like Sir Menken I have read your three posts with interest. I plan to take away your tools and use them to my own ends. Some of these have I have used before but they have grown dusty.

I do want to add my own two cents worth. Each SCA fight should be approached as a fight unto its self. How you did in the previous fight or the upcoming fights have no bearing on what is before you now. (That is not to say one does not learn from prior experience). That can be further broken down to each pass in a fight is independent of prior or future passes. The analogy to this, given to me by my squire brother hereward is that of golf. Each hole and each stroke is independent of before and after even if the prior stroke set up the current stroke. That approach I have found is very useful for dealing with fighting nerves.

One item that I find is useful and yet very lacking in SCA combat, at least in Ealdormere, is coaching both at practice and at tournaments. I have done my best at tournaments when I get feedback from a coach on the sideline. Information before I go into the fight, feedback immediately when coming off the field and preparations for the next fight. A coach is also useful to help with resource matters such as getting things and making sure the fighter is properly hydrated. Sometimes Consorts do this but in my experience the specific coaching activity is best done by a third party.
One last item for tournament fighting is to warm up (light exercise) and then have some sparring to get the body flowing for fighting. Going into a tournament cold usually results in a poor fight for me. YMMV.

Re: the pure joy of combat is its own reward

[bend-gules.livejournal.com]

Each SCA fight should be approached as a fight unto its self. How you did in the previous fight or the upcoming fights have no bearing on what is before you now.

This is exactly the approach and the attitude that the top archers have. There's only one arrow, the one you're shooting right now. But it's far more easily said than done.

It's obvious, and when you say it, and many fighters would agree with you. But those same fighters don't necessarily behave that way. If they have a bad bout at the start of the tournament, it colours how they conduct themselves for the next bouts. Conversely, a very easy bout can mean that they're not fully prepared and 'on' for the next one.

It's insidious, because that's how we live day to day: if you wake up late, and the car won't start, 'oh, it's just not going to be my day today!'
or
'Look at the weather - it's appalling! what a crap day' (I hear a lot of this in London.)

Unless you're a natural Zen master, it takes some concerted effort to treat every event/bout/pass/arrow on its own, and not to carry baggage (good or bad) from one event to the next. The best athletes have learned more about how to recover from mistakes or poor starts.

Larmer you're right about the coaching; what coaching exists is very informal and haphazard. I don't know if it's that conventional sports psych practices haven't penetrated SCA combat (few trained athletes join the SCA?) or if fighters are perhaps uncomfortable using them, thinking that they're somehow unchivalrous, or perhaps too modern. It's always puzzled me.

For the first time, I saw one fighter coaching another at our recent Coronet. The coach is one of the few fighters I know who has read about sports psych, and has developed a fighters' character sheet, to help D&D-oriented fighters think about their goals. I think she's the exception, not the rule.

Re: the pure joy of combat is its own reward

[larmer.livejournal.com]

"Unless you're a natural Zen master, it takes some concerted effort to treat every event/bout/pass/arrow on its own, and not to carry baggage (good or bad) from one event to the next. The best athletes have learned more about how to recover from mistakes or poor starts." And that is part of what makes the best fighters the best.

Regarding the lack of coaching in the SCA the problem is that we have no tradition of it. Most fighters attending a tourney are there to fight not to watch. That translates into no one to coach. I think there is a untapped opportunity there. On my to do list is to take coaching courses to help train and advance new fighters in the SCA. While I intend to fight for many more years I would also like to help make new fighters succeed.

Folks have talked about fighter sheets but I have never seen them implemented. I would love to see what this gentle puts onto the sheet. Maybe you can ask if she would share her template.