Give your mind something else (other than the score) to focus on... E.g. based on your observation of your opponent (strength/weakness), identify a tactic you may want to use to mix up the game, to maintain/increase pressure. You can also identify things your opponent do to you (e.g. 1-2 things you should avoid). In other words, focus on the game situation, not the scores, not the outcome (who would advance, e.g.).
You sound like a person to whom the score matters. So the trick is to constantly reset the score. When you are 15-9 up, pretend it is 0 - 0 and the first person to 3 points wins. That way, you need to beat him for the next 5 points. If you achieve that, the score would be 18-11. Then repeat again once you have beaten him to 3 points. Good luck! p.s. you have to be ruthless. Beat them by as much as you can.
MSeeley's advice is good for when you are ahead ..... but also when you are behind. It is mentally easier to set a goal to win 3 of the next 5 points rather than think that you need to win 10 points in a row.
- try to hate your opponent (only oncourt of course!) - i always want to win and if im ahead i want to win high! i want to demolish my opponent! for ego reasons! i never have your problem because this approach. however i guess it is born in me... i also know times when im empty in my head and i play significant worse then...(example would be a (mentally) tough league matchday and then the next trainingsession i will be mentally drained..) i will never understand people who dont give all in tournaments..what are you training for anyway if you cannot take your tournament opponent serious and let yourself hang low??? why get up early in the morning and drive to a tournament to then not play seriously?! i know quite some ppl who are that way... I am no good player but i play a lot to get better and when there is a competition i can be really on fire...thats also so much fun! you can get into "the zone" easier if youre burning to win - which, again, is so much fun well that was a bit ranting...to OPs question specifically: I not only like to win, I also like a good result! If I know my opponent and i usually beat him to 17 or 19 and im up 8-1 for whatever reasons i want to make it singledigit!!
When I used to play competitions, the way I used to stay focused when ahead was to to keep wanting to annihilate your opponent by beating them with the biggest margin and not letting have any points off me. By thinking like this, I kept my concentration on every single shot I played. Some people do the opposite, by tricking themselves into thinking they are actually behind and need every point to catch up. This never works for me as I can never trick myself into thinking that.
good to know others think so too thats also one more reason for me to play competetive tournaments - chance to play good opponents who take the game seriously against me - so i can see where i stand against those guys (would i play them in training it would be (if at all they would do it) at the end of a long trainingssession when theyre exhausted and goofing around..no effort of them anymore to play real
Yes I adopt the same idea but not for ego reasons and I don't try to hate my opponents. LOL. I merely want to keep my mental momentum going.
I think the solution is simply just be aware when you're being complacent. Remind yourself after each point. Boom suddenly you're not complacent anymore.
I've always enjoyed reading your post, always interesting and well found. I know about resetting the score in your mind or chuncking it up in smaller bits. But I have a rather stupid question about this though: How would you do this and keep the actual score when there is no referee or someone else who can help you keep the actual score?
