I recently made an article that involved the topic of tournaments. The main focus was I interviewed players with a lot of tournament experience and inquired insight into how they prepare and their training routines. Check it out if you haven’t already: https://testyourmight.com/threads/insight-into-the-minds-of-tournament-players.69111/
One thing I didn’t include was if they still get tournament nerves and/or how they dealt with them in the past or how they currently deal with them.
Tournament nerves can heavily affect your gameplay and mindset in tournaments. I personally know a lot of great players that do absolutely amazingly well in casuals, but suffer when it comes to tournaments. A big reason for that is tournament nerves. Another aspect is not being able to perform under pressure and with something on the line. The mental aspect of it bleeds into the physical and hinders your performance.
So here’s some tips I and others have for helping with this issue!
I used to get tournament nerves really badly and still do to an extent. One of the best solutions for ME has been breathing exercises. It sounds weird that simply breathing would help, but it helps TREMENDOUSLY! There’s actually scientific proof behind doing breathing exercises. It helps to relieve stress and anxiety, two of the biggest contributing factors to being nervous or having tournament nerves.
Something that will help naturally is simply experience. Not only tournament experience but there’s a couple things you can do that helps.
Make sure when you’re playing casuals as close to how you’ll be playing in tournament as possible. So if you listen to music while you play casuals, listen to music while you play in tournament. If you wear jeans and a T-Shirt in tournament, wear jeans and T-Shirt in casuals. You want all the details covered. It’s basically impossible to replicate the atmosphere of a tournament but your goal should be to make your surroundings as close as possible. Because being prepared in every possible way will help a lot with dealing with tournament nerves.
Another tip especially if you’re newer to tournaments is to realize you should always treat tournaments as a learning experience. Don’t think of it as the end of the world if you lose. If you lose, you’re learning. A big mistake people make is to not learn from their losses in general, but also losses in tournaments. Here’s another article I made detailing why “losing” is actually important and that in order to improve you have to lose and actually learn from the loss: https://testyourmight.com/threads/tips-on-becoming-a-better-player-part-1-how-losing-helps-you-get-better.3674/
Mr. @Tom Brady actually made a video not too long ago talking about this very topic of tournament nerves:
If anyone has any more suggestions or advice, please feel free to post them up! This is actually a very big problem especially for newer players or players new to tournaments. Also, another thing you can do is go to your locals as much as possible. Being in an actual tournament environment will help you more than you realize. And since it’s not as “big” as say a major, it’s a very good place to start!
One thing I didn’t include was if they still get tournament nerves and/or how they dealt with them in the past or how they currently deal with them.
Tournament nerves can heavily affect your gameplay and mindset in tournaments. I personally know a lot of great players that do absolutely amazingly well in casuals, but suffer when it comes to tournaments. A big reason for that is tournament nerves. Another aspect is not being able to perform under pressure and with something on the line. The mental aspect of it bleeds into the physical and hinders your performance.
So here’s some tips I and others have for helping with this issue!
I used to get tournament nerves really badly and still do to an extent. One of the best solutions for ME has been breathing exercises. It sounds weird that simply breathing would help, but it helps TREMENDOUSLY! There’s actually scientific proof behind doing breathing exercises. It helps to relieve stress and anxiety, two of the biggest contributing factors to being nervous or having tournament nerves.
Something that will help naturally is simply experience. Not only tournament experience but there’s a couple things you can do that helps.
Make sure when you’re playing casuals as close to how you’ll be playing in tournament as possible. So if you listen to music while you play casuals, listen to music while you play in tournament. If you wear jeans and a T-Shirt in tournament, wear jeans and T-Shirt in casuals. You want all the details covered. It’s basically impossible to replicate the atmosphere of a tournament but your goal should be to make your surroundings as close as possible. Because being prepared in every possible way will help a lot with dealing with tournament nerves.
Another tip especially if you’re newer to tournaments is to realize you should always treat tournaments as a learning experience. Don’t think of it as the end of the world if you lose. If you lose, you’re learning. A big mistake people make is to not learn from their losses in general, but also losses in tournaments. Here’s another article I made detailing why “losing” is actually important and that in order to improve you have to lose and actually learn from the loss: https://testyourmight.com/threads/tips-on-becoming-a-better-player-part-1-how-losing-helps-you-get-better.3674/
Mr. @Tom Brady actually made a video not too long ago talking about this very topic of tournament nerves:
If anyone has any more suggestions or advice, please feel free to post them up! This is actually a very big problem especially for newer players or players new to tournaments. Also, another thing you can do is go to your locals as much as possible. Being in an actual tournament environment will help you more than you realize. And since it’s not as “big” as say a major, it’s a very good place to start!
