Smiling is a good way to help yourself remain calm in a match

In the English Premier League this season, performance anxiety certainly seems to be affecting the Aston Villa, Newcastle, Sunderland and Norwich players in their basement battle.

Too nervous to perform, hyperventilating and setting themselves up to ‘choke’ are the symptoms of performance anxiety.

Telling a player to ‘just relax, you’re too nervous’ certainly doesn’t help as it doesn’t teach the player how to relax and so they maintain an anxious, freaked out mess.

Learning to stay calm under pressure is a vital mental skill – the hallmark of mental toughness. Players do great in practice but fall apart in competition by not knowing how to stay calm when it counts most in games.

Use the following strategies to halt runaway nerves:

1. Control your pre-performance focus of concentration

Two main concentration mistakes that generate nerves are:

(i) Focusing on the Outcome as you go to compete – Don’t put pressure on yourself to win, to play well or score to avoid over-stressing and under-performing.
So instead, focus on your performance process in the now, ie, one point, one play, one minute at a time. Leave goals/expectations at home. Just play.

(ii) Don’t pay too much attention to your opponent – Their size, strength, talent or reputation or the need to beat them. If you do, your nerves will ‘rocket’.

Instead, discipline yourself to focus on you and what you’ve got to do. Play your own game, stay centered to stay calm and in control before and during your performance.

2. Keep your pre-game/pre-performance ritual the same

Rely on a consistent pre-game/performance ritual to stay calm (travelling to ground; in changing room and in warm-up).

Thus, do the very same things that you usually do before you compete. We first make our habits, then they make us. Your familiar pre-ritual will keep you calm and comfortable.

3. Never dwell on uncontrollable factors

Forget about weather, crowd, negative people as you can’t control these.

If you concentrate on these you’ll be nervous and lose confidence. When you are so, slap your thigh, say ‘No’ and think positively. Think/focus only on the things you control – your breathing, your gear, your warm-up, your game and how you play it.

4. The problem is never the problem, the problem is how you react to the problem

Pre-game jitters/nerves are normal and usually disappear when players use positive self-talk and visualisation to recall their best way of playing. Then they look around at team mates and realise just how good their team are and have been. Then use distraction methods like singing, general conversation (not about the game) or listening to music.

These positive actions between them quickly will banish the player’s nerves. Remember, the real problem was how you reacted to the problem – in this case negative reaction which was allowed to deepen to normal pre-games nerves.

5. Slow and deepen your breathing

This is called centering. If nervous, immediately breathe deeply (4 seconds), in through nose and let tummy (below diaphragm) fill out, your tummy not your chest which lift shoulders – this is shallow breathing.

Hold for four seconds and forcefully let breath out nose for 4-5 seconds to empty the lungs. Take the next breath, etc. This concentration/focus to the feel and rhythm of your breathing calms you down to remove nerves.

Practice this every night for 3-4 minutes to be good at it. (Best before you drop off to sleep.) Basketball friends once gave me four similar tips to overcome nerves or performance anxiety. They were:

(i) Focus on the task at hand rather than the outcome/result. – In other words, stay present in the now (moment) and don’t allow yourself to think too far ahead in the game.

(ii) Force a Smile – If struggling to break negative nerves/thoughts, force yourself to smile for a few seconds. This simple action changes your attitude in a second and lets you relax back into your performance at hand.

(iii) Play like you don’t care about the outcome result.  – If you start to get negative, tell yourself you don’t care about results, they don’t matter. Doing this may allow you to relax and enjoy the game.

(iv) Centre or focus on your Breathing – During or instead of the previous three tips, you can deepen and slow your breathing to calm you.

So, in future with game nerves or performance anxiety, there’s no need to worry as you have the means to become calm.