Dealing with nerves?

[Littlebear]

So I've paid attention to the competitive scene on and off over the last few years, and recently (last couple months) I've been paying a LOT of attention to it and have been trying to get into the scene more. I main Marth, and have all the technical stuff down. When I practice against CPUs, I feel very confident.

None of my other friends are as technical as me. One of them knows what wavedashing is but doesn't apply it. He knows how to tech, but that's it. I feel like I should be able to beat my friends every time, but for some reason, I choke whenever I play them.

I think it has something to do with me believing "Oh I should destroy these guys, they aren't as good as me" which I believe. So I put way too much pressure on myself to win, even in friendlies. Because of this, I get SUPER nervous for some reason. I'm used to dealing with nerves, since I've played sports my whole life. But in athletic sports, you can use the nerves to your advantage, and they go away after a while. But in Smash when I get nervous, I simply can't play (probably because it's mainly mental and there's less room for error). I can't even L-cancel and I just find myself fishing for smashes. After I lose I reassure myself that I'm better, and that I just need to calm and all I need to do is focus on X or avoid Y to win. But then the next game I get nervous again and pretty much lose all tech skill.

Has anyone had similar problems to this? It's just frustrating because I practice all this advanced tech and just lose it when it comes time to play. It doesn't help that my friend plays Peach either, because it gets super discouraging when she's surviving at 200+%.

 

[Xyzz]

First of all, don't assume that advanced techniques magically make you better than somebody who doesn't use them. They are tools, it's all about how you apply them. A good carpenter with just a saw and some wood will still produce a better table than I would given all the fancy equipment I could ask for. Or Borp will happily four stock people who wave dash and everything

Doing stuff mid match is way harder than in practice, that's normal. Keep trying to remember that you want to do something and eventually you'll get there. It might be a good idea to try and implement one technique at a time, maybe to the point of only looking for opportunities to use that thing for some matches (e.g. wave dashs... Want to egde hog? Wave dash! He approaches? WD back and punish! Moving across the stage? Wave dash!)

 

[TimeSmash]

If you put too much pressure on yourself all the time, you're bound to collapse. Or I guess, implode would be the better word. Watching videos of gameplay, specifically who you main and trying that stuff in battle never hurts. That's what friendlies are for, to experiment. But playing a lot is a good thing, because you can pick up on your opponent's habits. They can also pick up on yours, and you can react accordingly. Like I am always so prone to dash attacking because I main people with short wavedashes. But it's a predictable move the umpteenth time in a row, and I just get shieldgrabbed. So you have to learn to break habits, and not form bad ones.

The way your brain works in regards to habits (or at least some) is by forming neural networks that reinforce those habits. Simply put, if you do something your brain perceives as rewarding, then you're more likely to keep doing that. So if you wavedash back onto the ledge like the wonderful Xyzz suggested, and it gets you results (it will), then you'll want to keep doing that, and if you do, it'll be easier to do because your brain memorizes what to do in that situation, as well as the muscle coordinations that go along with that. Fun fact: this mechanism is also why it's so hard to break habits formed by OCD.

Tl;dr read your opponents reactions, don't be on edge all the time, feel free to experiment during friendlies, and be cognizant of what you want to do and then do it. A few seconds of panicking is much better than doing it every time the whole match orevery time you get hit. If you're in a really bad situation, try reverting to neutral to give you some space, and time to think

 

[Littlebear]

Thanks for the responses! I think I just need to play more people. It's frustrating because I do know the matchup well (DD out of dash attack range, spaced fairs, punish with grabs when she pulls turnips, killing with side-b to uptilt) I just don't apply them well enough when I put the pressure on myself that the game matters.

 

[EPsilon933]

The simplest thing is to get used to the situations. Just keep playing in them. Get people to watch you. Get yourself recorded/streamed if you can. Want these things to happen, even if you lose or do dumb things in front of everyone. When you've achieved them, consider it a victory. You'll think about it less once you get what you want

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

I hope I can keep this short.

-Forget about winning.
-Shake off mistakes.
-Focus solely on the next series of actions.

I believe this is what one should be doing. If you are focusing in a match for say several seconds on a single "something" in the game you block out everything else.

You mentioned about peach living to 200%. I would assume you are focusing too much on "I have to KO peach with a KO move". In which case you start replacing smart actions with non-ideal ones. Say you simply fsmash from standing simply because peach got close by while she is floating. You whiff and get punished back, but this repeats on other non-ideal actions by you and peach starts to make a comeback. All because you wanted to get the KO and weren't continuing to play well.

That is a situation of stop caring about KO'ing peach and simply try to maintain smart play. All characters will die eventually to some move at some percent and Marth has the ability to keep walling peach out until she dies to say a stale Fair at 210% or something. Whatever you were doing to get peach up to that percent was getting you hits on peach. Keep at it until either she makes a mistake (put into a spot) for you to get a KO. Do not try to necessarily force a KO with a non-ideal move in a certain situation.

If you start to care about wanting to play well more so than simply about who you beat or winning you should find it easier to avoid stuff like nerves. If anything, you might find yourself getting excited to play who might usually destroy you. When you start to play well your ability to win will speak for itself.

 

[Pawls to the Wall]

Anxiety (nervousness) causes increased muscle tone. This will result in jerky movements, shakiness, and terrible tech skill.

If you frequently have issues with nervousness or agitation, you should talk to your doctor about it. Do you get a lot of muscle tension? Got painful knots in your back? Untreated anxiety can lead to cardiac problems later in life. Willpower can conquer a lot of things, but not when it comes down to altered brain chemistry. Not saying this is definitely it, but keep it in mind.

Don't drink caffeine prior to playing if you have issues with nervousness, as this will make it much worse.

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

I always disliked the non-continuity of human factors. How the body's physical and mental capabilities fluctuate from person to person.

To me a cup of coffee seems to do nothing. However, I expect its due to some tolerance I built up or perhaps some other factor. With that in mind a person might play worse due to not having the caffeine. Withdrawal symptoms.

lol I suppose the reality is no one can give you a full guide on what to do necessarily. Simply provide things to point out and the rest is a self-journey to compensate. Testing, checking, and experiencing with ideas to fix whatever problems you run into.

Ah, life :D

 

[Littlebear]

Anxiety (nervousness) causes increased muscle tone. This will result in jerky movements, shakiness, and terrible tech skill.

If you frequently have issues with nervousness or agitation, you should talk to your doctor about it. Do you get a lot of muscle tension? Got painful knots in your back? Untreated anxiety can lead to cardiac problems later in life. Willpower can conquer a lot of things, but not when it comes down to altered brain chemistry. Not saying this is definitely it, but keep it in mind.

Don't drink caffeine prior to playing if you have issues with nervousness, as this will make it much worse.

I don't really have issues with nervousness. It's just when I play something that I'm really competitive about. For example, in wrestling, I thought I was going to puke before every match, but that's normal among wrestlers. But yeah, I don't have chronic anxiety or anything like that.

 

[Littlebear]

I hope I can keep this short.

-Forget about winning.
-Shake off mistakes.
-Focus solely on the next series of actions.

I believe this is what one should be doing. If you are focusing in a match for say several seconds on a single "something" in the game you block out everything else.

You mentioned about peach living to 200%. I would assume you are focusing too much on "I have to KO peach with a KO move". In which case you start replacing smart actions with non-ideal ones. Say you simply fsmash from standing simply because peach got close by while she is floating. You whiff and get punished back, but this repeats on other non-ideal actions by you and peach starts to make a comeback. All because you wanted to get the KO and weren't continuing to play well.

That is a situation of stop caring about KO'ing peach and simply try to maintain smart play. All characters will die eventually to some move at some percent and Marth has the ability to keep walling peach out until she dies to say a stale Fair at 210% or something. Whatever you were doing to get peach up to that percent was getting you hits on peach. Keep at it until either she makes a mistake (put into a spot) for you to get a KO. Do not try to necessarily force a KO with a non-ideal move in a certain situation.

If you start to care about wanting to play well more so than simply about who you beat or winning you should find it easier to avoid stuff like nerves. If anything, you might find yourself getting excited to play who might usually destroy you. When you start to play well your ability to win will speak for itself.

I think this is what I needed to hear, thank you! I think my desire to win overcomes my natural ability sometimes, and I do stupid stuff. I just need to remember this post next time I'm playing, just remembering to stay calm and think of the next series of events so I can set the pace of the game. Also I just watched the Dark Knight Rises before seeing your post, so that's ironic.

 

[skwaag5233]

I have this problem too so though probably not as valuable as some of the other posts here, I thought I'd share some of my own experiences dealing with this.

For me, I can go toe to toe with certain people in friendlies but when it comes to tournament, I choke too hard and lose to people I shouldn't. Sometimes I completely lose composure and do something stupid like dash attack and even forget to DI.

/john

But in all seriousness, the thing I try to do with this is just to take a deep breath and tell myself to focus. Remember my fundementals and to use them accordingly. I think when you're getting bashed around because you're nervous causes you to become even less focused and once you lose the mental game you're done for, so just taking a moment to refocus is something I try to do a lot. It's helped me bring back games and even sets that I was behind in or lost the lead.

Of course maintaining focus and refocusing when you need to takes time. I've been trying to enter more tournaments to help my tournament nerves, but it should be better for you since you don't choke after spending money only to drown in pools

 

[skwaag5233]

Positive reinforcement also helps! Telling yourself that "I can do it" , "I can bring it back", "I know this matchup and can win against this person" has worked wonders for me!