Nerves

[jellybean1986]

Have a fight coming up soon. My problem is nerves. In class I can fight anyone, im great on the pads, my technique is good, i work hard and am quick enuff. Iv only had about 4 or 5 fights. When i walk into the ring, i completly freeze up. I am out of breath, my legs are like lead, all logical thinking about tactic goesout the window. I know this is nerves, but i really need to overcome it. I be trembling. It ruins my fight. I dont mind losing, if i know i put up a good fight first, if the opponant is fair and square better than me, but nerves means i come out knowing i didnt fight my best. Any tips?

[sourpuss]

Pre-fight meditation with positive imagery. Try setting aside a few minutes a few times a day to just sit and relax and focus completely on the bout. Visualize everything, especially staying calm....and winning.

Don't focus on your opponent or their experience. Focus on you.

[Sharla]

I find if I just remember to have fun it calms me down. I try not to think of it as a big deal - just like sparring but a bit harder.

For me being short sighted helps because i can't see the spectators so I wouldn't think about people watching or judging and seriously have fun.

In general they say that those who are process focussed rather than result focussed tend to do better in sport. I wouldn't worry about whether you win or loose. In reality it's all about the experience so either way you do actually win.

[jellybean1986]

yeah thats true, i studied sport psychology and it said there were two types of people - people who have a 'need to achieve' and people who had a 'fear of failire' the latter usually did worse so that must be like the same kinna thing. Yes i think i need to focus more on having fun. But as soon as i see who it is im fighting im nearly sick. I just always assume they will be better than me and then they usually are coz i freak out lol. Guess its kinna a self fufilling prophecy. I tried the visualisation thing but it makes me focus so much on wionning that wen the fight starts and it doesnt go my way i kinna lose it coz its not what i visualised lol!

[sourpuss]

I try focusing on my goals rather than my opponent or winning.

Pick two things you'd like to achieve in your next bout. Consider doing those two things winning/success. For example, if you are normally flat footed, try moving more as a goal or pick a combination that you have trouble with and execute it a few times during the bout.

Don't worry about your opponent. If anything, try to get excited about go against someone better and more experienced than you. You'll progress much faster than taking easy wins. Fighting people who are better forces you you come up to their level much faster. It's a good thing. And if you win, it's all that much better, and if you lose...well, they are really good and as long as you were competitive- that's good.

[Chris Nagel]

I remember watching a Sam Soloman interview and he had the same problem when he was getting into pro boxing. He could go 15 rounds in sparring, but he'd get tense when he got into the ring. Anyways he started to go out there and enjoy himself, he'd even smile and with that working for him he could relax. Try to smile, draw upon your good experiences in training maybe the funny moments. The neat thing about a genuine smile is that it changes your brainwaves, i.e. it causes your mind to relax.

[Trainer Monkey]

There's a form of meditation called centering they teach in many martial arts,Ive been able to wail most of my boxers right in the gut hard enough to lift them when they get it right

[Sharla]

one other thing i forgot which works for me is to have some familiar things on hand.

For me it was the skipping part of my warm up. I was really able to relax while skipping, breathe and close my eyes and just think about what i had to do. I'd think about a couple of things because if it got too complex it wouldn't stick but a couple of key things would.

I also had an attachment to my mouthguard. We've been together many years and when I put it in it was like a baby with a pacifier. I just associated some kind of safety and comfort with it.

[Howlin Mad Missy]

From reading this it seems to be - find what works for you.

It's a fight, it's a sport, it's also a performance.

Some people go through a routine, some people get chatty, some people want to be left alone (me). If I can't get away from folks I pop my headphones on & walk about to get rid of nervous energy and if I can close my eyes, take some deep breaths, blot people out. Then showtime

Do you get tense during the ring walk but loosen up in the ring?
You could practice your ring walk, climbing through the ropes and having a little shadow box. However you want to do it. Have everyone in the club line the route and have them yell and boo at you, alternately have them cheer. Or just do it when no one is about Whatever you try do it with your fighthead on. Visulise the scene. It may sound poncy but I've used it in performance skills workshops and it does work.

[BoxingDude66]

Have a fight coming up soon. My problem is nerves. In class I can fight anyone, im great on the pads, my technique is good, i work hard and am quick enuff. Iv only had about 4 or 5 fights. When i walk into the ring, i completly freeze up. I am out of breath, my legs are like lead, all logical thinking about tactic goesout the window. I know this is nerves, but i really need to overcome it. I be trembling. It ruins my fight. I dont mind losing, if i know i put up a good fight first, if the opponant is fair and square better than me, but nerves means i come out knowing i didnt fight my best. Any tips?

I know exactly what you mean, I've had the same thing happen to me too. I sparred in the gym, hit the pads, hit the heavy bag and did the normal boxing stuff. I had good technique and style too, but the first and only time I competed (which was Golden Gloves), everything went out the window. I was scared shitless for no good reason and I couldn't even concentrate. They had to take my blood pressure three times before I could fight, and even then, I did a horrible job my first match and decided to quit competing after that. I could have won the fight if I was in the right mind set, but for some reason I wasn't

It pisses me off, I had the talent to do well, but my mind wasn't with me,
and it still isn't. Every time I go to a Golden Gloves fight (as an observer, not a fighter), I get really nervous for no good reason, it is like a minor anxiety attack, which I hate because I enjoy watching boxing.

I'd like to understand why people like you and me get anxious before a fight and are mentally ruined because of it. Any of you guys on this forum who have competed and done well, I'd like to know how you cope with your anxiety.

[sourpuss]

I have a friend who had panic attacks every time he fought. He lost his first 9 fight (almost all by RSC in the first round) because of it.
He went to therapy for a year to get over it and finally got a prescription for beta-blockers and those seemed to work.

I find for me, if I KNOW for certain that I've done everything and then some that there is NO WAY that my opponent has put in as much time and effort as me, that really helps.

[BoxingDude66]

I have a friend who had panic attacks every time he fought. He lost his first 9 fight (almost all by RSC in the first round) because of it.
He went to therapy for a year to get over it and finally got a prescription for beta-blockers and those seemed to work.

I find for me, if I KNOW for certain that I've done everything and then some that there is NO WAY that my opponent has put in as much time and effort as me, that really helps.

That's very interesting, do you know what kind of therapy he went through? I would like to know, it is embarrassing to enjoy watching boxing, but to never be able to engage in it full force because your mental processes are screwed up.

I believe most people can overcome any mental difficulty without too much difficulty. Anxiety occurs when we have negative, repetitive thoughts in our head that mentally throw us off and cause us to "feel" the symptoms of fear, like sweating, feeling light-headed, panicking, etc. I believe with some training neurotypicals (meaning people without mental abnormalities, people who don't have mental diseases or disorders), can overcome fear.

However, if you're not neurotypical, or if you're prone to panic attacks for no reason, then you know that your fear is not based off cognitive worry. You feel the symptoms before you even think about them, and that is a bitch right there. So I'm curious if it can be remedied.

[sourpuss]

I think he did a lot of trying to figure out where the anxiety was coming from. Then they did a lot of positive visualizations and relaxation exercises.

I'll have him post from my account so he can explain it to you.

[sourpuss]

Ok, this is Amy's friend posting now. I'll explain what I dealt with. First of all, I don't have any really bad anxiety disorder in day to day life. Outside of boxing I've never had real extreme anxiety or nervousness in my life. With me it felt like I was throwing up even though nothing was coming up. And also, just to correct the record-my first two fights I had anxiety in a bad, bad way. I got RSC'd in one round in both of those because I was pretty much dry heaving in the ring. After the second time I saw a therapist and we started working on relaxation exercises; abdominal breathing and visualization and Socratic reasoning to help overcome the irrational nerves. I overcame it pretty well in my 3rd, 4th, and 5th fights where I didn't have full blown panic attacks, but I Still got nerves and gagged, for lack of a better term, once a fight or so. After that I had two more fights where the anxiety resumed, for no apparent reason that I could see. One of them was understandable, because I didn't do the breathing exercises beforehand and got kind of overwhelmed by my opponent (he was a southpaw who was crazy aggressive), and it happened in the 2nd round. But the other time truly made no sense. It was a rematch against the guy I had fought in my 3rd fight, a guy I gave 3 standing 8 counts to and who, by all accounts, I should have zero reason to be nervous about. So I went back to the drawing board, continued working on visualization; etc, but realized the way I was doing the breathing wasn't working for me and if anything might be making me tenser. So I worked that out but also went to my doctor, who as Amy said, prescribed me a Beta-Blocker, an extremely low dose of it. For all I know it could just be a placebo and be proof of mind over matter, but it works for me. I don't feel wound up and I'm much, much more relaxed before I box, which helps a lot. I don't even get the gagging feeling and now I'm able to improve in leaps and bounds because I'm more able to focus on fighting rather than having the worry in the back of my head that I might have a panic attack. Not only that, but it's helped me reach a point where I'm comfortable and excited to be in the ring, rather than nervous, and so I'm much more desensitized to a live fight environment with a crowd, etc. So that's my story. I also usually pop a few Tums before I fight to help settle my stomach down, because that's how it always manifested for me-like I was throwing up, so this keeps my stomach acid from churning and making me feel queasy.

[Youngblood]

Thanks for sharing that, Amy's friend.

That is some intense nerves, that I really have no comprehension of. What I do believe, is that it is a testemant to your will that you went through that and continued on be it for love of boxing or to overcome it in itself, and that it speaks volumes about your character. I honestly don't think I would have kept going.