Anyone have any ideas to help me calm down and keep my head during volleyball practice?

Question

When I mess up, I let it get to me. I miss a pass, and I am upset for the rest of practice. Today, I couldn't do anything right, and I wasn't feeling good, so I stomped around and rolled my eyes at everyone. I felt bad because no one really did anything to me, but every little thing was getting to me, and I just couldn't let it go. Please, please, please help!!! My coach says I am one of the most hard-working girls on the team, and that I show more heart than anybody, but now I seem to be losing it!! I need to calm down and just let it go, but I can't!!!! Advice?

Answer 1

hmmmm....it sounds indeed as if you are overreacting. It could be your normal temper or could be something with a more psychological background. In the latter case you can perhaps do something.

Here is what worked for me:

Calming the inner self down first a bit - as a preparation. So - for a few days no TV, no radio, no "white noise", no meaningless chatter if this can be avoided. It is all about quieting the mind a bit down. And then go into nature, or some really quiet place.  Somewhere where nobody can disturb you. Not sure whether you have a place like that.

The next is you sit down comfortably and breath deep and close your eyes. Then you visualize in front of your inner eye the situation you described. It's hard because the first ten times you will stop, be distracted by all the thoughts and waves of emotions. But then at some point your emotions may quiet down and you can focus. .

Now 2 things:

1. Go mentally regularly through this situation and experience all those emotions, over and over. Inbetween always imagine something peaceful, like ocean waves, a sunset, leaves in a breeze. And then back to the visualization. Do it regularly and you will notice that first in the mental simulation and then also in the real life situation you will react much calmer.

2. More advanced. If you sit like this and you go mentally through those situations try to go directly  into the feeling of anger, try to "meet" it directly. Find it. I promise you that you will make a surprising discovery. Once you know -  the anger will probably be gone for ever. But have to find out for yourself.

All that worked for me really well.

Answer 2

hey my name is Samantha... I play volleyball and i let it get to me before i realized... U r not there to win! U r there to have fun and to play volleyball. And yeah i sucked.. but i got better at it with the help from all of my friends.. Yeah if u ever want to get together and like play.. we can. well we have to know each other more! But yeah i am on c-team.. We have not one a game yet. and last year we did not also. but i did not let it get to me! I have a lot of my friends on my team, and that's all that i wanted! Yeah i want to win! But having fun is more important.  and if u feel like u r getting mad think about something that makes u happy! That's what i did! Don't let it get to u! well g2g if u ever need to talk I'm hear my # is244-8861. bye

Answer 3

It sounds like you care about how you do, and that's great!  Now all you have to do is channel your energy in the right direction.  Handling the pressure is a huge part of volleyball.  As a coach, I would look very unfavorably at a player that pouts or gives up in practice.  How can you count on her during a game?  The passing, serving, digging, hitting, etc are all apart of volleyball, but so is keeping your composure.  Make just one mistake at a time.  It is time for you to make a decision;  Are you tough enough to play volleyball?   Get back out there and do it right.  No excuses!

Answer 4

winning is important but being able to learn from mistakes and having fun while playing is valuable.

playing may have there own ups and downs, your perseverance to play always counts, never loose patience, you could be an asset,  if you will learn to control youre emotion in and out of the court. dont blame yourself if your not doing well.. there's always a room for improvement.. practice makes perfect.

tips: before playing, make sure that u have warmed up, like you are already sweating, this takes away the tenses in your body

concentrate..... focus..... and do it.

g'luck

Answer 5

All I know is to take a REALLY BIG BREATH because if u get mad at every little thing ur coaches r going to kick u off and i know it.I'm in the varsity team. just really relax.

Just remember me and if u need help email at [e-mail] but please don't email me very often then i will get in trouble this is a family computer.and i don't want the to read my personal emails.THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 6

Just shake it off! Even if you have to phisically shake! or more like do a little dance or something or else if that doesn't work then sing a song (like in you head) that you know makes you happy! If you are one of the hardest working girls on the team then you must be good so you should just mabey think about something really good you did before like in the last practice!

Good Luck!

Answer 7

OK 4 u it  hard i  know Wat Ur say in it happends to me all the time   ok u need to say it was  just 1  u willl do better next time  shake it off  let urs  self seld don t get to mad  all mad and leave that is letin ur team down   so  just let it out on the ball it wont get mad    and thats wat u should do                                                                         kim

Answer 8

Keep your cool.  Remember that it is nobody's fault and you fon't want to seem like a butt.  Count to 10.  You'll get the next pass.  Give yourself a pep talk.  talk with your coach about it and your clode team-mates and tell them that if you start acting like a butt that they should tell you so.

Answer 9

What I do is say to my self let it go and ill get the next one. To help calm me down usually is to sing songs to myself. Try it it helps calm you down.

Answer 10

try not letting it get to you. when u mess up. just refocus and concentrate on your next pass. just because you mess up once doesnt mean you will mess up again. just concentrate on each pass individually