Coping with nerves

Nerves are a survival trait inherited from our ape ancestors to ensure their survival in the jungle.

Feelings of fear promote the adrenal glands flooding the body with adrenaline. The purpose of adrenaline is to speed up reaction times, it does encourage you to void yourself of waste so that you are lighter and therefore quicker, hence all those trips to the toilet!

Adrenaline therefore is your friend; but mastering the feeling of fear is far harder. Dr Steve Peters in the bestselling The Chimp Paradox suggests many ways to deal with your inner chimp, and is widely endorsed by leading sports people such as Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Judo’s Karina Bryant.

Here is what Neil Adams MBE has to say about dealing with nerves… Neil himself admits in his autobiography A Life in Judo that failing to master his own psychology probably let him down on occasions when there was no reason when he shouldn’t have won.