Mental Intimidation

These are tricks to enhance the natural and ordinary nervous anticipation felt by many competitors at the beginning of an important match. It is the body's fight or flight response getting prepared to do one or the other. Since you have not chosen either one, you experience this nervous condition. Some of the symptoms can include:

• Fast breathing.
• Constriction of the throat.
• Tightness in the chest.
• Sweating and dizziness.
• Difficulty in concentration and focus.
• Hyper-awareness of sounds and movements.

If your opponent realizes you are suffering these reactions, he can improve his chances by making you even more nervous. If he is successful, your game suffers during the opening of the competition. It is to his advantage to "help" you stimulate worries in your head. Here are some of his techniques:

• Make statements that early mistakes demonstrate that you aren't ready for prime time.
• Brags up his own past victories and successes in this venue.
• Implies that these competitive circumstances are much more difficult than anything you previously experienced.
• Describes how easily other newbie players choked and lost.
• Describes how only perfect play can be considered satisfactory.

You may not need input from "experienced" competitors to increase your nervous condition. You can do this all by yourself. Here are some of the ways you can self-destruct and sabotage your chances to win:

• Obsessing about losing.
• Remembering past failures.
• Becoming panicky and losing any focus.

Response

If you are self-inflicting your own intimidation, this generally passes after several minutes of play. Utilize the same actions that you used to beat others. Perform a proper opponent analysis, define his strengths and weaknesses. Craft plans to manage his opportunities. Then execute those plans.

There is one emotional reaction that almost immediately washes away any indecision and fear. Anger is the fight response. This is not the wild reactionary anger of lashing out to damage something. This is the cold, focused anger of Popeye, when he is finally forced to grab his spinach. It is embodied in his signature quote, "That's all I can stands, and I can't stands no more!"

And, finally, simple experience overcomes this problem. The more times you place yourself in similar competitive situations, the more comfortable you become in handling anything that happens.

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