My volleyball team always gets psyched out before a game. (In a bad way). What do I do?

Question

Even before we start playing I can feel the tension. Everyone's always like 'We can't loose this' 'Don't let them intimidate us'. Blah blah 'We need to be loud!'. What do I do to ease them up?

Answer 1

be the leader...be the one who says "ya know, we CAN do this." tell them with an attitude like that, your right you wont win...but practice practice practice....rome wasnt built in a day :]

you can do it

Answer 2

pass around a blunt

Answer 3

What you can do is tell them that you know that you are going to do good.  Not to worry so much about the game.  All you have to tell them to do is talk out on the court and thats it.  Other wise tell the team that you will do fine.  And just try your best that is all that you can ask.

Answer 4

Are you a winning team? But don't let them intimidate you, like your teammates said. Try being cheerful and happy before a games instead of so intense. Intensity is good for a playoff game or another important game, but there is such a thing as too much.  

You could say as 'long as we play our best we can win this' or something like 'they're no better than us'. Hope it works!

Answer 5

You might try my method...it worked for me.

Several years ago, I coached seven different softball teams of girls.  One year, we were playing the best team in the league, and my girls thought they were going to lose, ... so I said to them, before the game, ..."Remember, on any given day, any team can beat any other team, you just have to play hard."

We played that championship game, and after the game ended, and the dust cleared, the final score was 12 to 8.

My team had won the game, and had beaten the best team in the league. One girl came over to me, and said, "Thanks, coach, we appreciate you telling us that we COULD beat them."  They were so thrilled, that they threw their ball gloves up into the air, and screamed as loud as they could.

I was so happy for them, and it was hard for me to hold back the tears, ...of happiness.

Answer 6

Be the source of their confidence. We even practice this during practice. If we do not "talk it up" then we have to do push-ups or some kind of punishment. On the court we even have cheers that we do when someone does something good. My advice is be EXTREMELY talkative on the court.

Answer 7

This is normal. One strong physical team can lose out because of being psyched. I used to play for a strong team but always lost out to a mentally strong team although they could hardly spike the ball.

You should use reverse psycho. Try to think of something that can shut them off. Try to make the opponent look fool when you get ace during serve or spike. Try to find the weakest link in the opponent team and attack the person. Try to make use of him and until he becomes pressured, he will make mistakes. Now the pressure will shift to the opponent team and the opponent supporters can even shut up too.

Besides physical training, mental training is also important. Your coach should train your team on this kind of training too. Try to play a game which your team score is 0 but the opponent score is 15, for example. Your team need to win the set by reaching the final point first. If your team lose out, your team are punished by doing 20 times push up. It can be fun as you train within your team but can be useful too in order to strengthen your team's minds.

Answer 8

Look up an article on how tension is a bad thing, not a good thing and show it to them - there are tons of them out there. Try to persuade them that just being positive is the right way to go. Otherwise, tension and stress will take over and you won't play you're best. It will end up being worse in the long run.

Answer 9

theres always going to be one or two people who are always like that, and it spreads fast. you should first tell everyone to relax. put on some music, movie, or just get an irrelavant conversation started. This works a lot when im going to tournaments.

Answer 10

"We are the champions" by Queen works for me everytime!

Answer 11

It's all about staying loose. Listen to music, tell jokes, visualize winning. Usually the more you talk about s******g up the more you s***w up. Stay confident but stay loose.

Answer 12

just step up and be a leader that tells the team to work their hardest and what happens happens....sometimes you cant changer other peoples minds

Answer 13

agreed. have them smoke a doobie, always calms me.

Answer 14

just get everyone to go around and say what they are going to work on in the game or their goals for the match. it always helps my team

Answer 15

I am a volleyball player, and at my very first game my whole team and I didnt even talk to each other. But during that game we just really got hyped up n were telling each other that we can do this n that we need that championship. Just tell them stuff like pretend we're just having fun and practicing. Hope this helped, n good luck

Answer 16

Bring in a portable CD player and start blaring

"My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard ..."

Start dancing like a crazy chick and get them PSYCHED!!!!!

Answer 17

I was a captain of a volleyball team before. all I can say is... breathe!! remember! win or lose the most important thing is that you played well, you played fair and you had fun with the "game".

tell your teammates to relax and think of their strenghts and use them. think of their weaknesses and avoid them.

Aja! Aja! Go! Go!

Answer 18

With my old volleyball team, we used to not think about getting psyched by dancing to music in the locker room....now I mean dances we used to make up during team dinners, like a "bonding" sort of thing....crank the music up, and dont even think about the game...it will work.