Getting ready for tournaments

[Maester]

How do you prepare for a match? Or, what calms you and gets you ready to kick some butt?

[FeatherBlade]

Train really hard and then the day before the tournament I don´t fence at all and I go for a beer... Unfortunately, so far I haven´t found out anything that would keep me calm before a tournament

[Peach]

Having a car accident beforehand seems to work for me.

[lindajdunn]

When I give myself permission to fence badly, I usually fence better.

[KD5MDK]

Make sure my blazer and pants went to the dry cleaners, check for cards, note cards, weight, shims, etc. Then pack my sabre gear and be ready for a quick change.

[glowstix]

getting no sleep the night before and driving 4 hours to the venue usually did it for me..

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Just chill. When I get to the tournament, I eat a power bar and warm up.

[mrbiggs]

Intense mental preparation. If I am to fence my absolute best at a tournament, I have to think through my actions the day and night before the tournament, as well as at the tournament itself.

It sounds stupid, but it's how I work.

[Elkhansaa]

.....oh how i wish i knew!

[Josedariom]

yeah i imagine the competition beforehand and do some breathing exercises during the competition which consist of breathing heavily and snap your fingers in an alternating fashion and never looking at the ne your snapping. I know its weird, but it was recommended to us by some spors psychologists that are preparing the National Team for the Central American Games

[MyrddinsPrecint]

Originally Posted by Peach

Having a car accident beforehand seems to work for me.

Yeah, there was an entire year there where vomiting was the only thing that worked for me.

Now I just start the morning with Mountain Dew, which avoids the vomiting.

Originally Posted by Josedariom

yeah i imagine the competition beforehand and do some breathing exercises during the competition which consist of breathing heavily and snap your fingers in an alternating fashion and never looking at the ne your snapping. I know its weird, but it was recommended to us by some spors psychologists that are preparing the National Team for the Central American Games

One should note that this method is great for energizing, but not calming (if you tend to be worked up before competition).

Increasing your breathing rate is a good way to get your body into competition mode, and Moving your eyes aroud in some sort of specific way is also key-- the ocular nerve is supposedly the closest nerve ending to the parts of your brain you're trying to stimulate.... (or so my sports psych prof said.... i'm not sure if i really trust him, though)

[Josedariom]

Cool I just knew that it helped me fence and my teammates made fun of me for it, but he it works