Stage fright is one of the most stressful most irrating problem anyone can have. It's extremely common but it can tend to get out of control on big events like a roller derby bout!
It usually starts for me a few nights before haunts you like a never ending nightmare, and the closer the game gets the more nervous and scared I become. Sweaty palms, Hypervenalating, crying and sometimes throwing up due to fear. It happens every time before a game. I have to isolate myself from the crowd and even my own team and go outside cry and just stay as positive as I can and just do what I'm there to do. After the first time around on the skating floor, the fear disapears slowly.
Noone can believe this stage fright that comes around before every game, cause I'm known to be in front of a crowd since i was a kid due to figure skating and talking on the mic when DJing at the rink. I'm not sure why it comes about but I think its just pressure that builds up and takes control over me. I think sometimes people expect me to just be number one and it pressures me cause all I want to do is skate and do as good as I can do. My roller derby number is 101 due to always putting a 101% into what you do, no matter what you can't ever give up. I save as many falls as I can, I get up the second I hit the floor. People find it pretty humerous as how I just jump off the floor like a frog after getting slammed into it. A lot of times I'll do spead eagles, where I put my legs facing ankle to ankle and then I turn around in a circle, and it avoids a lot of my falls. I can't cross pull the whole time on the corner parts cause the tracks too small for the speed I go and I usually slam into a wall.
Before a game during my anxiety I plot down some gameplans in my mind. Like who on my team I feel more confortable to create walls with, or to do a whip for me, who has my back throughout the entire game. I use everyone on my team but there's always that one person that can just swing you and you fly in full speed!
My captain brings bananas before a game, due to it preventing cramps and we have and drink lots of water along with gaterade. After each round I jam I have to immediatly sit down and drink water. A lot of girls will stand due to them not relaxing the muscles but I reallly have to sit and I watch the game. I kinda see the techniques of skaters on the other team and I see weaknessess and strongness between each skater and I love just taking advantage and showing their weaknesses during my part of the game.
After the games over you either feel amazing about how you did or you feel like you could've done better or you should've done this but you will always leave with the pride and courage of doing what you needed to do during that entire game. You never ever know what's gonna happen, you don't know how many people are gonna get hurt and out of the game where you have to skate during each round, it happens and it's frusterating, it's completly tiring but that's what endurance during practice is suppose to pay off. You should skate like you would during a game during every practice. I tend to see a lot of girls take easy at practice and then go all out during a game, and that's how you can get hurt. Your body is not use to all the work your putting into one hour and your basically beating yourself up. So word of advise for those who tend to get super tired during the game, you should practice as if it's a game.
So if you feel like it's not normal to get stage fright or even a little bit nervous, every girl on the team is nervous, some just have more of an issue with it you just gotta learn how to deal with it and stay positive.
