Calming the nerves

[iDante]

You may recall I went to a brawl tournament a few months ago. Since then I've gone to one twice more, and I noticed something bad in yesterday's tourney.

My first set was against a marth that was spam-tastic about his smashes and not very good. I recognized this in the first game and was happy, because all of my matches so far were against people far better than me. Then I freaked out. If you watched me play I was visibly shaking. I got extremely sloppy, started DI-ing in all the wrong directions, got spam-happy myself, and lost in two very close games.
My next set was against a guy I knew was far better than me. I did better against him than I did against the marth, simply because I was calm and resigned to lose. I still did lose, but at least I didn't completely forgo all the practice and common sense that I've developed in the last few months.
How can I fix this problem? It seems to happen every time I play an important match, even with friends.

tl;dr: How do you calm your nerves and act normally in stressful situations?

[PANZERCATWAGON]

smoke a cigarette or have a wank

[iDante]

smoke a cigarette

Forgot to mention that I can't do this, on principle and because of asthma.

[echo_trail]

smoke weed or have a wank

This man speaks the truth. I was all hyped when I had my final danish exam in highschool, like really mindblowingly uneasy about it. I got an A.

[Graham]

Everyone gets jitters. Keep on keeping on. They will go away.

[a-4-year-old]

discipline yourself. approach the situation tactically. The only thing in the front of your mind should be finding a weakness and exploiting it.

[{LAW} Gamer_2k4]

Everyone gets jitters. Keep on keeping on. They will go away.

This.  In my experience, there's no reliable way to artificially cure nervousness; it just takes time.  Keep participating in tournaments, and you'll be fine.

[echo_trail]

Everyone gets jitters. Keep on keeping on. They will go away.

This.  In my experience, there's no reliable way to artificially cure nervousness;

Not true

[Espadon]

4yo is correct. Discipline yourself.

In my experience if you're mentally strong enough you can do anything without relying on external support.

[Graham]

Everyone gets jitters. Keep on keeping on. They will go away.

This.  In my experience, there's no reliable way to artificially cure nervousness;

Not true

True, gaining experience under pressure is the only way to effectively handle pressure.

[Dascoo]

I'm just jittery all the time.

No wonder no one wants to hang out with me ;_;

[jrgp]

IRL I internalize/hold-back my emotions and usually try to keep a consistent poker face to prevent people from knowing what I'm thinking.

[Graham]

IRL I internalize/hold-back my emotions and usually try to keep a consistent poker face to prevent people from knowing what I'm thinking.

That has absolutely nothing to do with what this topic is about.

[Horve]

IRL I internalize/hold-back my emotions and usually try to keep a consistent poker face to prevent people from knowing what I'm thinking.

what is WRONG?

If you don't want to feel the pain, do not plei the geim. Perhaps your opponents had their menstrual cycle time, giving you an unfair advantage. Later, the cycle ended and you got torn a new asshole, simple?

Ejaculate

[Smegma]

IRL I internalize/hold-back my emotions and usually try to keep a consistent poker face to prevent people from knowing what I'm thinking.

I dont think in a stressful situation you'd be able to pull that off without any tells.

[Blacksheepboy]

Matter of fact, I've been on some month long expedition to learn different techniques for how to deal with situations similar to what you've mentioned.

Basically it's all a mind game. That much is obvious. Stick with the knowledge that if you take some deep breaths, live for the next moment instead of trying to redeem some past mistake/screw up, and move on, your body will naturally and eventually calm itself down. Keep in mind that your breathing patterns change during times of stress. Take note of that.

...and now I have been sitting here thinking for several minutes about what else to say, and nothing is coming. There is a bigger picture to this whole thing, and I have no way of summing it up.

[Espadon]

live for the next moment instead of trying to redeem some past mistake/screw up, and move on

This. Always thinking in terms of taking the initiative helps everything.

[{LAW} Gamer_2k4]

In my experience, there's no reliable way to artificially cure nervousness;

Not true

Well, perhaps it's a subconscious thing.  At wrestling meets in high school, for example, I was crazy nervous at the start, and after three years, it was just another thing.  I guess the implied change of mindset is that you force yourself to believe that it's nothing serious, nothing special, and that you would have to approach it like you would any other match, or like you would approach wrestling a partner in practice.  And in wrestling tournaments, that's HARD; you have a whole crowd watching nothing but you and your opponent.  At some level, that knowledge won't ever leave; for example, in my only conference championship wrestling match, my mouth went completely dry as soon as I stepped on the mat and remained that way for all six minutes.  When I fought in my first judo match, all I could feel as I ran at the guy was "Oh geez oh no oh wow I'm actually fighting I'm actually in a match this is crazy" and I just had to let my body take over.  That's the key, I suppose; don't think at all.  If you're thinking, you're not reacting.  If you're not reacting, you're slowing down.  If you're slowing down, you're losing.

[jrgp]

IRL I internalize/hold-back my emotions and usually try to keep a consistent poker face to prevent people from knowing what I'm thinking.

That has absolutely nothing to do with what this topic is about.

I'm just saying learning to ignore stressed out nerves and becoming numb is one way of dealing with it.

[Chariot]

ignoring it and dealing with it are two different things