I, like Matt, am loving sketchy's 'unshakeable feeling of invincibility' to combat nerves 🙂

As a junior I travelled around the country playing circuit tournaments and struggled in the early group stages to deal with my nerves. This I feel was mainly down to a lack of self confidence which then allowed nerves to get the better of me, rather than letting my true level of skill dictate the outcome of the game. 

I have changed a lot since those days and now find myself better equipped to deal with nerves with just  few simple things:

1) Having a pre match routine – this makes me feel more comfortable with my surroundings and improves my confidence because i feel ready and well prepared for the match. I have the same pre match warm up routine and listen to the same music playist on my ipod. I have read of many sports men and women who are obsessive about their pre match routines and many use superstitions to put themselves at ease. 

2) Positive self talk – Rather than being intimidated by my opponent and feeling negative about my chances I try to remind myself that I have trained and played this game many times before and that i possess the ablity to beat the opponent infront of me, given the required amount of effort. This is a lot like sketchys 'feeling of invincibility'. This year I was undefeated in my university league games and i believe this was down to dealing with my nerves with my new found confidence. I also think that my confidence was evident to my opponent and possibly added to their nerves on occassions.

3) Distraction from the situation – A method I sometimes use is to try and focus my attention away from worrying about the outcome of the match. Instead I set myself small, achieveable aims for each rally before the point begins, 'dominate the net', 'work the backhand' …etc

Those are just a few of my methods, hope they help if you haven't tried them already

Stu

We won it Ed, that's why I can remember it! I have a very selective memory when it comes to the outcome of my matches

Just one other point that occurred to me after playing a match. Remember that if you are nervous or tired, chances are your opposition is too, even if they don't show it.

A bit of bluff and bravado can go a long way. Always act confident and in control, blank out the previous point and believe in your ability to win the next one. Controlling the tempo of the service usually works for this one. If your opponent is very quick to be ready to serve, slow things down a bit, if they are slow to be ready, make sure when they look up you are stood waiting for them. It can be very disconcerting when someone does this to you.

I'm not however encouraging gamesmanship, don't take the micky, just look to be in control of the pace of the game.

I often feel that ability to control matters, a touch of arrogance even, is what is missing from many top British sports people/teams. Compare the English cricket and football teams. Both full of world class players, but the football team never seems to want to take the fight to the opposition and make something happen. They seem cautious to me, and consequently get dominated. The cricket team however attack the opposition and look to dominate and are currently one of the best teams in the world. (Test match cricket of course, don't get me started on the endless dull procession of pointless ODI's and T20's)

Hi all,

I post this one in this thread, because there are a lot of good tips in it, so I wouldn't mind it will live up again. Check them out.
Very brief, the results of my recent tournaments. The one after Christmas, I played MD and MX because these disciplines are played in groups (usually groups of 4, so each has to play 3 matches). MD we lost the 1st in 3-sets, but a good match. But the 2nd and 3rd were a disappointment. Lads of 11-12 years old, we won eyes closed. IMHO, this is too early for these guys. We placed one single smash in each match. This was no fun for us, nor for them.
The second day MX: we won our first match 18 and 19 (winning the first I consider very important). The 2nd we lost 14 and 12. The 3rd was same as in MD the day before, 2 youngsters around 13-14. Since we lost the 2nd, we played like we couldn't move on to the semi's. Guess what, of the 4 teams, 3 lost one match (the 4th lost all of them). So it came down to the games: all of the teams won and lost in 2 games. So it came down to the points. And the team we had beaten were the ones to move on to the semi's ! They had a bye in the semi's and so moved to the final. This could have been us !
What a lesson that was. So even if the opposition is too weak for you, play with no mercy. You never know how it turns out in the end. A few points can make the difference !
Then last week our 2nd tournament. I just played MX with the same partner. We made it into the semi finals, but lost in 3 games. After all we were very pleased we reached the semi's in our 2nd tournament.
For me, personally, I played these 2 tournaments with no nerves whatsoever. In our semi's we even had to play with an umpire and a small audience behind us. In former days, this would have triggered my nerves like hell. This time however, I really played relaxed. So relaxed, I even forgot all about Paul's nerves tips (which were key to get me to this stadium !). I'm so pleased, I enjoyed these 2 tournaments like never before. What I noticed in those semi's, when my partner served I saw here racket and shuttle vibrate at a very high frequency. Yep, that's nerves. I'll have a little chat with her, I happen to know a few damn good tips ! There are 2 tournaments to come, maybe 3, later on in the season.
Just another tip: have a good night sleep before your tournament(s). This really helps.

Cheers all, ED