How do I get over stagefright as a martial artist?
By thsu4321
@thsu4321 (1)
United States
May 27, 2009 12:06am CST
I am a kung fu practitioner. My sifu (kung fu teacher) told me that he wants me to perform an iron palm demonstration at an exhibition that our school is doing next month. for those of you that are unfamiliar, iron palm is basically a method of conditioning your hand and body to be able to deliver hard strikes without injuring yourself. More info here: http://www.iron-palm-training.com
Anyway, I have horrible stage fright. It's not that I'm not confident in my abilities, as I have been training for a while, it's just that I always have this fear when 100s of people are watching me of "what if this is the one time when something goes wrong?" I kinda had a little emo moment when I wrote about it here: http://www.bloglines.com/blog/thsu4321
Anyway, does anyone have any good techniques for getting over stage fright? It's not that I'm not confident in my abilities, it's just that I worry about other bad things happening.
1 person likes this
3 responses
@neojan (83)
• Philippines
7 Jun 09
i think in order to overcome your stagefright is to try to be always in front of the crowds. Try not to think of the bad things that people say unto you.. try the to think that your mother is smiling watching you on stage and shouting that she is very proud of you. You things like that could help..i've tried that before and its very effective.
@YoungTay (83)
• United States
7 Jun 09
easy well not easy but just think its your only chance to really become somebody an there normal people some people say just think the whole crowd has no clothes on well thats dumb its all about how bad you love doin what it is that your doing or how bad you want to get paid an live a better life than you are living now just think dont you want your familiy to live better just keep that in yo head an if you really believe it you'll do perfect.
@GraySpirit (103)
• United States
30 May 09
The way that I dealt with stage fright was to have two different versions of myself on stage. The first version was the "get the job done" person. He did not look at the crowd and only focused on the task at hand. As far as he was concerned there was no one there except himself. I did not do kung fu but I often gave speeches. In this mode, my eyes could be on the crowd, but I saw no one because I was looking in the distance and focusing on the speech.
The other person was the "smiley person" who dealt with the crowd and not the task. Before the task, he would look at the crowd and smile and do the greetings. After the task was done, he would look at the crowd and smile and do the thank you's and good byes. If I had to do long speeches, then "get the job done" would pause, let "smiley person" look at the crowd for a couple of seconds for effect, then go back to "get the job done person."
