So your preparing for your next tournament, whether its your first, second, or twentieth tournament the paintball butterflies will always start hitting you the night before the big day. The good news is no matter how much experience you have this is common in all professional sports. The way you harness your nerves distinguishes you from your competition.
Preperation is always key (here are few things that will help)
Practice:
the more you practice with your teammates the more confindence you will have going into the tournment. Practice, practice, practice....
Game Plans:
experinced teams will go into a tournament having a tenative game plan. Players will have tenative positions snake, doritos, corners, back etc... This is expecially helpful when fields publish the filed layouts prior to the event. Experienced teams will practice the field layout before going to the event. If you dont have this ability no worries, generally most tournaments will have the field avail. online for you to print out. Try and go over the field the night before and place players in tenative positions. This is key*** this will allow you to make sure players know areas of the field to mainly focus on.
If for some reason the tournament doesnt make the field layout avail. before hand you have 2 options: My favorite and highly suggested if possible is to go up to the field a day early to walk it(sometimes even practice it). If this isnt an option then show up to the field as early as possible the morning of and be prepared to walk at the beginning of day light.
Final Game Plan:
the final game plan should never be finalized until you arrive to the actual tournament field. From professional experience I can assure you the actual tourny field layout is always slightly different from your practice field or print out (angles, bunker locations etc). Spend your time wisely walking the field(s) and make sure all players on the team are aware of all changes. Trust me... this will help build individual and overall team confindence going into the tournament.
For those walking the field the day of, make sure you have a chart or dry erase board with the field layout. All players should have the game plan charted out.
***Always plan for alternative routes and game plans especially when the tournament is played on only 1 field.
Paintball Jitters/Nerves:
Like I mentioned earlier there is really no cure for the paintball jitters, exceptional players like Oliver Lang to Todd Marinez have them. I've even seen some pro players throw up before matches in a tournament. The true pro players have learned how to master these nerves and use them to their benefit. Ipods, stretching, team stretching, and field/position visualization are all great ways to build mental focus and harness those jitters.
Contact me with any questions
"Dirty" Dave Pastore
Train Hard Paintball
www.trainhardpaintball.com
Paintball Clinics that Rock!
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