Playing in front of people

[Tarv]

I've learned today that I crack under the pressure of having other people watch me play. Mind you it wasn't a big crowd (hell it wasn't even a crowd it was just a group of 5 or 6 people), but I found myself so distracted and my play definitely suffered for it. I think it was partially because I could hear what each person was saying and they were in no way positive remarks towards me; I mean not that I blame I have a record of like 2 - 850 against the person I was playing against but the comments of "you can't beat him" and all that certainly wasn't helping. I kept missing the stupidest, simplest stuff and to add on to that I kept suiciding... which made me play even worse. It was not fun.

So, I ask those of you who have experience playing in front of crowds in any capacity; how in the world do you do that? How in the world do people like Dr. Peepee or Armada maintain perfect concentration while a few hundred people are watching you, perhaps screaming in the hopes that you lose. Better yet, how do you maintain composure knowing that thousands of people are watching on stream. How do you block all that out?

Any advice people can give me would be great because I dont want to not go to tournaments and stuff just because I cant play in front of people.

 

[oukd]

i have problems with pressure too and it hasn't changed for the last 3 years, although crowd size doesn't really affect me...just tourney nerves. i guess that's what i get for going to few tourneys <_<

headphones are a godsend when the crowd is bothering you. other than that i'd suggest putting yourself in crowd pressure more often until you're used to it, no real way around it...maybe try out meditation

 

[Zodiac]

try direct game audio, that's what I am starting to do, I carry around headphones now so I can get the audio and not get distracted by what's going on around me. Part of this pressure may be because you are so used to winning against this guy and you are used to everyone just knowing your're the better player, and when they turn on it can be pretty demoralizing. Just shut it all out.

 

[Rockenos]

i have problems with pressure too and it hasn't changed for the last 3 years, although crowd size doesn't really affect me...just tourney nerves. i guess that's what i get for going to few tourneys <_<

headphones are a godsend when the crowd is bothering you. other than that i'd suggest putting yourself in crowd pressure more often until you're used to it, no real way around it...maybe try out meditation

This.
just go to a lot of smash fests and practice around people, get your friends to spectate you, and if that's difficult then do MMs for like a dollar.

It really sucks though, I'm not over it yet and it's frustrating that my play would improve drastically if I could just control my tourney nerves, which I feel like I can't help.
No johns though, just gotta toughen up and keep improving.

 

[Tarv]

Part of this pressure may be because you are so used to winning against this guy and you are used to everyone just knowing your're the better player, and when they turn on it can be pretty demoralizing.

Thanks for the advice everyone but just to make it clear that I'm the one losing usually. Ive only beaten him twice out of the hundreds of sets we've played and never against his top characters or when he was trying.

Playing him in itself is demoralizing enough as it is without the pressure of other people watching.

 

[Ether]

Do you have any vids of you two playing? Let's just give you some tips to make you better, so you never lose again. problem solved.

 

[MountainGoat]

Just try to learn from your losses. There will always be someone better than you (unless you're Armada) that you can learn from so don't get demoralized. Try to learn something new everytime you play them. Eventually you'll be playing better than before.

On the subject of playing in front of crowds, it just takes time and experience. I'm not an experienced smasher but that's how it is in all sports and competitive activities. The crowd creates a lot of pressure but you can eventually get more and more used to it and learn to tune it out or even thrive on it.

 

[The Star King]

Experience. Applies to anything competitive ever - experience will teach you to deal with the pressure, the nerves, the crowd, etc.

Although some people are just naturally more predisposed to be a "performer" than others. But everyone can improve.

 

[Tarv]

Do you have any vids of you two playing? Let's just give you some tips to make you better, so you never lose again. problem solved.

Don't have any recording equipment but I'll try to get my hands on some (been saying that since I joined.)

I honestly think that a lot of it has to do with my nerves. I KNOW I can play ten times better than I do against him, maybe not so much that I'll win but I never feel completely on point during matches. There's always that feeling of, "Hey, I'm better than this..."

Seriously though if I can get some sets recorded I would absolutely love any critiques people had.

 

[Renth]

Wear headphones.

 

[Omni]

Welcome to your newest challenge: overcoming nerves.

In my opinion, the best way to overcome nerves is to put yourself in constant nervewrecking situations. Money match everyone. Steer away from friendlies if possible. Always have something on the line. Do it constantly to the point where playing with something on the line becomes the norm and you'll find the ability to transition your "natural flow" normally found in friendlies into "seriouslies" or tournament matches.

Practicing and friendlies are great for warm-up, relaxing, etc. but applying what you've practiced in a tense situation is a whole new world.

 

[Tarv]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

[EPsilon933]

Don't think about not thinking about anything outside the game. Just ignore it like it doesn't even exist. No one's really judging your performance or anything

Make sure the TV is audible. Not exactly related, but people can react to sound sooner than they can react to sight. And it might help drown out outside noise

 

[McFlyy]

Welcome to your newest challenge: overcoming nerves.

In my opinion, the best way to overcome nerves is to put yourself in constant nervewrecking situations. Money match everyone. Steer away from friendlies if possible. Always have something on the line. Do it constantly to the point where playing with something on the line becomes the norm and you'll find the ability to transition your "natural flow" normally found in friendlies into "seriouslies" or tournament matches.

Practicing and friendlies are great for warm-up, relaxing, etc. but applying what you've practiced in a tense situation is a whole new world.

I agree with this 100%. It's just stage fright, but the more often you throw yourself into those situations, the less it's going to affect you.

I play guitar and I used to get really nervous when I played in front of people. Then I learned to sing and play at the same time and that **** was ****ing intimidating when I was in front of people. Eventually I stopped singing and put all my focus on playing. Looking back, I have NO idea why I was ever nervous with playing only guitar in front of people. It's really very easy for me now and I'm also a bit of a show boat lol

Kind of off topic, but I felt it related. Other than that though, I would say use the negative comments as a tool for motivation. Get angry and give them something else to talk about other than you losing

 

[Beat!]

Experience. Applies to anything competitive ever - experience will teach you to deal with the pressure, the nerves, the crowd, etc.

Although some people are just naturally more predisposed to be a "performer" than others. But everyone can improve.

This.

There's a lot of good advice in this thread, but don't expect an instant and sizeable improvement even if you follow all of it. Try to stay as focused as possible during matches while keeping all the advice you've gotten in mind, and good ol' experience will eventually start doing the job for you.

These things take time to learn. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Anyway, good luck with this.

 

[Mahie]

The way I dealt with it was by just asking as many people as possible to come and support me everytime, and eventually it led to me being more comfortable with a crowd backing me than on my own.

 

[GONZLAMM]

Dude its the opposite for me. I LOVE it when there's a crowd watching. Especially when i used to play DDR. I got so hyped 1 time when i got a huge crowd of people who stopped in the mall to watch me play a whole set of songs. The first tournament i went to for smash i WANTED people to watch me haha.

Anyway everyone already said what needed to be said. There is no real trick to it you just gotta get used to it bro.