Handling Nervousness

I have learned a few very good tips over the years about how to handle nerves.  I thought I would share those today.

First and foremost, if you find yourself nervous, by all means, freaking BREATHE!

:)

Seriously, the best thing I have found to slow down my adrenaline is to take a very deep breath in, then HOLD IT.

Hold it in.

Then slowly let it out.

Repeat it.

Don't keep doing this til you pass out, lol, but do it til you feel your heart rate slow down.  You will know when to stop.

You will notice when you hold your breath in, you can feel your heart pulsating, usually in your neck and chest loudly.

But as you let go slowly, you can feel with just the very next deep breath in, your heart rate has been lowered.

I do this a few times in a row when I get nervous and it really, really helps.

The other thing I do doesn't necessarily stop me from being nervous, but it HELPS my play.

When I get nervous, my arms get wobbly.   Tough to play pool well and make great shots when your arms feel like butter.

When I am nervous, I tend to rush my shots.  I'm not really thinking clear when I'm nervous anyway, so it's very easy for my old habits of shooting too fast and jumping up to creep their ugly heads up.

So, instead, when I'm nervous, I stroke MORE.  A lot more.  Not 100 times, but more than normal. This is my second biggest tip for nerves.

I know what you are thinking, you shouldn't adjust your pre shot routine and fundamentals.  And that's fine.  But if I'm too nervous, my fundamentals are out the window anyway.  Might as well use something to help me stay down and combat the nerves a little, which for many is to stroke a few more times than you normally would.

#3:  This may seem to conflict directly with the above paragraph, but when I focus my thoughts on my fundamentals, it actually distracts me from being nervous anyway.  It's a beautiful thing!  So, stroking a couple of extra (or few) times more when I'm nervous allows me to stay down better, and reminds me to look at the object ball last.


Fourthly, of course the other thing to consider is, the more pressure situations you put yourself in (or find yourself in), the better you do each time.  My biggest learning experiences are the ones where I did NOT win; the ones where I fell right on my face in front of everyone.  Those experiences allowed me to do better under the pressure the next time.  Allowed me to have another change to keep my nerves in check with breathing and stroking more, and to learn from the mistakes I made under pressure in the past.  You will get better and better each time you get to "practice" these techniques under pressure.

Cinco: I try to remember if I'm nervous, it just means I care.  And it's a beautiful thing to care about being in the finals or playing in a big tournament or against a tough opponent. It means it's important to you.

And finally #6, if I get really nervous, I sometimes compare it to other things.  Is being in the finals of a tournament really something I should be nervous about?  Heck, I've witnessed death, been through a divorce, lost my best friend; you get the point.  Now, don't bring yourself down!  But perspective is a good thing and can help with your nerves, too.  Nerves = scary.  Don't be scared; be happy you can even play this game we all love!

As I overheard my friend Suzanne Osborne Smith say on a live stream once, "the pros don't ignore the pressure, they just know how to handle pressure."

I'm not saying I'm a pro, but what I do know from experience is you can't ignore nerves or ignore pressure; accept them and try to control them a little bit. And the pieces of advice above have helped me the most. 

Hope it helps you, too!

It's funny, when I started this blog entry, I was only going to mention the first two items (they are the most helpful out of all of them for me right now).  But then I remembered more, lol.