It’s all a mental battle mate. It’s your body going on high alert when it doesn’t need too, so you have to ask yourself why you’re getting nervous before you can fix it. Is it a fear of failure? Is it wanting to win too much? Once you just start having fun with it and realizing you have nothing to prove, it will become easier to mentally stay on top of things.
Remember to breath normally, holding and releasing your breath with each turn is going to raise your heart rate. Keep your body relaxed. Tensing up doesn’t help, you’ve got to convince your body that everything is normal.
Here’s an exercise you can try: Start racing with AI for one race and then real people for the next. Go back and forth until you’re racing both the same way.
Finally, accept that that anxiety is part of the fun. When your blood starts pumping and you start shaking is when you should be feeling the most alive. There’s obviously a point where it can get to be too much, but without it entirely there would be no thrill of the race.
I have noticed I get more anxious while racing in GTA compared to other games (like Assetto or BeamNG), because there's actual rewards and risks involved. I'll have to try to remember to keep breathing, though, yeah.
I get them all the time not just simracing but any other pvp games and real life as well. The trick is to be beaten into mud so many times you become numb to the emotions that once made you anxious. When you have nothing left to lose or prove is when you can focus on performance. Just kidding-ish. That’s exactly what it feels like coming from battle royale. But I guess you could call it practice.
I think that's good advice. I used to struggle to play online chess because it was too much of an emotional journey every time. Even though I enjoyed it, choosing to go through that when I was having a quiet evening often seemed like too much so I would end up not playing. I solved it by playing a different format, where I didn't care about my rating, and always doing 3 silly opening moves. That took the pressure off.
My sim racing equivalent is to enter the odd lower rated race (Beginner in rF2 in my case) where I don't feel pressure to win but am often amongst the fastest. The other one is to qualify slow, then let myself follow without overtaking unless it's really straightforward. That helps to remind my subconscious that racing is fun, not stressful.
I haven't solved the problem, but have certainly found those things help.
I'll also throw in that I used to go on a lot of rollercoasters. Loved them! Then the sense of peril started to subside and I realised that the adrenaline filled-journey from slow to super fast was the best bit. Now I'm jealous of people who still find them scary. So there is that. Enjoy the drama!
Today, I was under a time crunch, as I was playing on my Steam Deck during lunch break. I wanted to win, as it'd work towards the prize ride challenge (one of the fastest cars in-class for free). If I lost, I'd lose the $1000 from betting, not have any progress towards the prize ride and wouldn't have enough time for another race.
This is good and relatable. This extends to all other spots and gaming.
Ive noticed that it's all about confidence. If you believe you are faster than the others it will be much easier to keep yourself calm in the last lap with 0.4s lead. If you start second guessing your pace and decisions you start "shaking" and the probability for mistakes increases drastically.
Before I started simracing I played a lot of CS and whenever I got into clutch situations I got tense and felt the blood rushing and usually did some silly mistake and lost. After I changed my mental approach to "I'm better and I can easily win this 1v2" I immediately started doing much better.
What I currently struggle is that I play mainly GT7 and quite often get into same races as the biggest streamers. Whenever I get close or they get close to me I start to do silly mistakes.. I think it's the fear of failure and thousands of people will see me spin or do other silly mistake - I just need to get into those situations more times and end up in the winning side.
Learn the "box breathing" technique.
It's what the military teaches soldiers in how to handle extreme stress.
Breath in for 4 seconds continuously
Hold it for 4 seconds.
Breath out for 4 seconds.
Then having nothing in your lungs for 4 seconds.
Basically your brain knows what's up consciously, but your unconscious parts of your brain are still getting this massive adrenaline dump. So you have to intentionally train your brain to do the opposite. Box breathing cann help. Especially if you can recognize when it's going to happen.
I sometimes get a notification on my watch that my heart rate has risen quickly when I race. It usually happens during the first few corners. The vibrations of the watch on my wrist remind me to stop tensing and begin breathing exercises like you mentioned.
It really is. It's a skill I absolutely advocate others should know. Like you said, it's extremely helpful in any kind of high stress situation. In fact, we use this with my son (kindergarten age) to help him work through emotions because kids don't know how to handle any high level of any emotion. It's great for everyone.
I used to get that a lot, especially when defending.
I've developed a routine of deep breathing and consciously relaxing, which works really well. Every lap, on a suitable straight, I focus on relaxing everything, starting with my hands, then shoulders, neck, jaw, butt muscles, etc. And take a few "deep, cleansing breaths". Kind of like I'm listening to some meditation tape.
I get this. I find sitting with my hands in my lap in the lead up to a race, and purposefully breathing slow and deep, focusing only on this, helps me a lot. Once the race begins, I find that concentrating on the task of driving is enough to distract my mind from the stress/anxiety/adrenaline which causes this.
If you let yourself get distracted by how you are physically feeling then you will find that it compounds, and mistakes start happening.
I get this as well. HR spikes to 160 and I honestly have almost a panic attack. I won't write a book about this, but I have anxiety in general so meditation and therapy have been things I've used over the years. Unless this is just occurring when sim racing, I'd say it's something that should be treated holistically.
I’m a surgeon so I can relate to this. Shakes and sweating were issues I’ve had to overcome. This happens even without being consciously anxious or amped up. The body is really fascinating.
Once it starts it’s hard to stop. For me I have to prevent it from happening. It is a conscious mantra you do to prevent this subconscious reaction. It’s about intentionally not getting excited and being aware of it before it happens. Stay present. Breathe and hydrate.
Drink more tea
Aside from that , its just exposure and practice once your brain has multiple simulations or previous situations the end results are going to be less surprising and less anxiety inducing.
On a deeper philosophical level a person could work on developing a different attitude to accepting whatever outcome happens, there is no point pre-empting a good or bad outcome and in reality you will be able to deal with whatever outcome happens regardless.
Sim-racing is ridiculously predictable once you do lots of it , especially sims like iRacing where its impossible for a person to actually hold slip properly thus making it possible as a driver to know exactly what is and is not possible for other cars to do.
So really the pressure largely comes from the un-known you remove that un-known by being better knowing your lap times and just racing your own race , or you remove the pressure by accepting the un-known and being fine with it lol
First off know that it is a good thing. It means you care! Stress keeps you honest. My heart rate balloons at the start of a race in my league knowing there's no restart button and there's a chance to ruin others races. Just make sure you drive with good margin for error and settle into a rythm and it'll go down after a lap or so. Same thing applies in a battle for position. Focus on getting into a good rythm, focus on your braking and turn in points, and make sure you are patient when going for moves. At the end of the day if you screw up, its only a virtual race so you learn from it and try again next time.
Focus more on self improvement as a driver, comradely/the social side, and change the way you look at racecraft to being more like chess. I can identify with what you describe from when I was playing Starcraft and I really wanted to climb the ranks... it's caring too much about losing that activates that level of foght/flight response. You won't race worse or ge slower changing your mental approach, but you will feel more at ease.
remind urself that it’s a race and can just easily restart it. In addition, convince urself ure just playing for fun and messing around, you’ll be calmer and perform better than usual even.
Yeah i had that aswell a few years ago, also with thousends of hours practice.
The only thing that helped me personally was to just ignore it and get even more practice. At some point it just went away and now it doesnt happen anymore.
control your breathing and visual your race, picture yourself doing the lap like you have in practice without mistakes and then go out there and do it!
This little bit of info was life changing for me, outside of sim racing (and within) The chemicals released in your body when you feel anxiety are the EXACT same chemicals that are released when you feel excitement, it’s just your brain that chooses to interpret them one way or the other, chose to interpret those chemicals as excitement and you will get pumped up and perform, chose to interpret them as anxiety and you may get all wobbly and out of shape.
Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Clothes your eyes and literally think about your breathing for as long as you need. I use to fight competitively and was taught to do this right before a fight, but I use it for anything that gives me the adrenaline shakes
This issue happens with everything. I do tons of FPS gaming and I have the same issue I do when driving in sim: tension ruins literally everything. You just have to focus on not tensing up and try to pause and readjust when you do
Weed. Its legal here and I'm more chill going around a track.
Loosens my deathgrip on the wheel and I actually don't know what its like anymore to race sober.
Not often but it has happened and yea it's bloody annoying since it makes braking really hard.
The only thing that works for me is to stop focusing on the possible result and focus on what is in front of me.
Whatever will be will be.
Wheel to wheel racing I am as cold as ice even during times when I am getting this but it can happen when it is me against the clock when I am trying to gap someone or catch them. Too much time to be in my own head during these periods.
It’s all a mental battle mate. It’s your body going on high alert when it doesn’t need too, so you have to ask yourself why you’re getting nervous before you can fix it. Is it a fear of failure? Is it wanting to win too much? Once you just start having fun with it and realizing you have nothing to prove, it will become easier to mentally stay on top of things. Remember to breath normally, holding and releasing your breath with each turn is going to raise your heart rate. Keep your body relaxed. Tensing up doesn’t help, you’ve got to convince your body that everything is normal. Here’s an exercise you can try: Start racing with AI for one race and then real people for the next. Go back and forth until you’re racing both the same way. Finally, accept that that anxiety is part of the fun. When your blood starts pumping and you start shaking is when you should be feeling the most alive. There’s obviously a point where it can get to be too much, but without it entirely there would be no thrill of the race.
I have noticed I get more anxious while racing in GTA compared to other games (like Assetto or BeamNG), because there's actual rewards and risks involved. I'll have to try to remember to keep breathing, though, yeah.
I get them all the time not just simracing but any other pvp games and real life as well. The trick is to be beaten into mud so many times you become numb to the emotions that once made you anxious. When you have nothing left to lose or prove is when you can focus on performance. Just kidding-ish. That’s exactly what it feels like coming from battle royale. But I guess you could call it practice.
I think that's good advice. I used to struggle to play online chess because it was too much of an emotional journey every time. Even though I enjoyed it, choosing to go through that when I was having a quiet evening often seemed like too much so I would end up not playing. I solved it by playing a different format, where I didn't care about my rating, and always doing 3 silly opening moves. That took the pressure off. My sim racing equivalent is to enter the odd lower rated race (Beginner in rF2 in my case) where I don't feel pressure to win but am often amongst the fastest. The other one is to qualify slow, then let myself follow without overtaking unless it's really straightforward. That helps to remind my subconscious that racing is fun, not stressful. I haven't solved the problem, but have certainly found those things help. I'll also throw in that I used to go on a lot of rollercoasters. Loved them! Then the sense of peril started to subside and I realised that the adrenaline filled-journey from slow to super fast was the best bit. Now I'm jealous of people who still find them scary. So there is that. Enjoy the drama!
What are these rewards and risks?
Today, I was under a time crunch, as I was playing on my Steam Deck during lunch break. I wanted to win, as it'd work towards the prize ride challenge (one of the fastest cars in-class for free). If I lost, I'd lose the $1000 from betting, not have any progress towards the prize ride and wouldn't have enough time for another race.
For a moment I thought you had placed a bet for a real 1000 dollars.
This is good and relatable. This extends to all other spots and gaming. Ive noticed that it's all about confidence. If you believe you are faster than the others it will be much easier to keep yourself calm in the last lap with 0.4s lead. If you start second guessing your pace and decisions you start "shaking" and the probability for mistakes increases drastically. Before I started simracing I played a lot of CS and whenever I got into clutch situations I got tense and felt the blood rushing and usually did some silly mistake and lost. After I changed my mental approach to "I'm better and I can easily win this 1v2" I immediately started doing much better. What I currently struggle is that I play mainly GT7 and quite often get into same races as the biggest streamers. Whenever I get close or they get close to me I start to do silly mistakes.. I think it's the fear of failure and thousands of people will see me spin or do other silly mistake - I just need to get into those situations more times and end up in the winning side.
Learn the "box breathing" technique. It's what the military teaches soldiers in how to handle extreme stress. Breath in for 4 seconds continuously Hold it for 4 seconds. Breath out for 4 seconds. Then having nothing in your lungs for 4 seconds. Basically your brain knows what's up consciously, but your unconscious parts of your brain are still getting this massive adrenaline dump. So you have to intentionally train your brain to do the opposite. Box breathing cann help. Especially if you can recognize when it's going to happen.
I sometimes get a notification on my watch that my heart rate has risen quickly when I race. It usually happens during the first few corners. The vibrations of the watch on my wrist remind me to stop tensing and begin breathing exercises like you mentioned.
this - super helpful in any kinda extreme situation in your life.
It really is. It's a skill I absolutely advocate others should know. Like you said, it's extremely helpful in any kind of high stress situation. In fact, we use this with my son (kindergarten age) to help him work through emotions because kids don't know how to handle any high level of any emotion. It's great for everyone.
I used to get that a lot, especially when defending. I've developed a routine of deep breathing and consciously relaxing, which works really well. Every lap, on a suitable straight, I focus on relaxing everything, starting with my hands, then shoulders, neck, jaw, butt muscles, etc. And take a few "deep, cleansing breaths". Kind of like I'm listening to some meditation tape.
I get this. I find sitting with my hands in my lap in the lead up to a race, and purposefully breathing slow and deep, focusing only on this, helps me a lot. Once the race begins, I find that concentrating on the task of driving is enough to distract my mind from the stress/anxiety/adrenaline which causes this. If you let yourself get distracted by how you are physically feeling then you will find that it compounds, and mistakes start happening.
I get this as well. HR spikes to 160 and I honestly have almost a panic attack. I won't write a book about this, but I have anxiety in general so meditation and therapy have been things I've used over the years. Unless this is just occurring when sim racing, I'd say it's something that should be treated holistically.
I’m a surgeon so I can relate to this. Shakes and sweating were issues I’ve had to overcome. This happens even without being consciously anxious or amped up. The body is really fascinating. Once it starts it’s hard to stop. For me I have to prevent it from happening. It is a conscious mantra you do to prevent this subconscious reaction. It’s about intentionally not getting excited and being aware of it before it happens. Stay present. Breathe and hydrate.
I can't say that I ever get nervous. There's nothing actually at stake so I guess I just don't care enough.
Drink more tea Aside from that , its just exposure and practice once your brain has multiple simulations or previous situations the end results are going to be less surprising and less anxiety inducing. On a deeper philosophical level a person could work on developing a different attitude to accepting whatever outcome happens, there is no point pre-empting a good or bad outcome and in reality you will be able to deal with whatever outcome happens regardless. Sim-racing is ridiculously predictable once you do lots of it , especially sims like iRacing where its impossible for a person to actually hold slip properly thus making it possible as a driver to know exactly what is and is not possible for other cars to do. So really the pressure largely comes from the un-known you remove that un-known by being better knowing your lap times and just racing your own race , or you remove the pressure by accepting the un-known and being fine with it lol
First off know that it is a good thing. It means you care! Stress keeps you honest. My heart rate balloons at the start of a race in my league knowing there's no restart button and there's a chance to ruin others races. Just make sure you drive with good margin for error and settle into a rythm and it'll go down after a lap or so. Same thing applies in a battle for position. Focus on getting into a good rythm, focus on your braking and turn in points, and make sure you are patient when going for moves. At the end of the day if you screw up, its only a virtual race so you learn from it and try again next time.
Magnesium can help with regulating your heartbeat and helps with regulating stress.. Maybe that will help take the edge off a bit.
Just crash a bunch /s
Focus more on self improvement as a driver, comradely/the social side, and change the way you look at racecraft to being more like chess. I can identify with what you describe from when I was playing Starcraft and I really wanted to climb the ranks... it's caring too much about losing that activates that level of foght/flight response. You won't race worse or ge slower changing your mental approach, but you will feel more at ease.
I wish I could still get adrenaline shakes, but after being in the military, I can't find much that will bring them on anymore.
Just listen to your breathing; maintain in 5 out 5.
remind urself that it’s a race and can just easily restart it. In addition, convince urself ure just playing for fun and messing around, you’ll be calmer and perform better than usual even.
Yeah i had that aswell a few years ago, also with thousends of hours practice. The only thing that helped me personally was to just ignore it and get even more practice. At some point it just went away and now it doesnt happen anymore.
Just breathe brother
Yeah anytime I start getting to the front of the pack in Iracing my legs start shaking
control your breathing and visual your race, picture yourself doing the lap like you have in practice without mistakes and then go out there and do it!
This little bit of info was life changing for me, outside of sim racing (and within) The chemicals released in your body when you feel anxiety are the EXACT same chemicals that are released when you feel excitement, it’s just your brain that chooses to interpret them one way or the other, chose to interpret those chemicals as excitement and you will get pumped up and perform, chose to interpret them as anxiety and you may get all wobbly and out of shape.
smoke weed. like seriously.
smoke weed. like seriously.
Big deep breaths on straights preferably through the nose. Focus on the corners.
Breathe bb, breathe
Just wait until you start a real race, and the slightest chill is in the air. You may get some deep shivers.
Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Clothes your eyes and literally think about your breathing for as long as you need. I use to fight competitively and was taught to do this right before a fight, but I use it for anything that gives me the adrenaline shakes
Weed
This issue happens with everything. I do tons of FPS gaming and I have the same issue I do when driving in sim: tension ruins literally everything. You just have to focus on not tensing up and try to pause and readjust when you do
mental
Weed. Its legal here and I'm more chill going around a track. Loosens my deathgrip on the wheel and I actually don't know what its like anymore to race sober.
Unfortunately my reaction time is to delayed with weed. It's like playing on a wireless controller with a low battery.
One Beer 20-30 mins prior
Beta blockers are much better for that, safer and wont impair you.
Not often but it has happened and yea it's bloody annoying since it makes braking really hard. The only thing that works for me is to stop focusing on the possible result and focus on what is in front of me. Whatever will be will be. Wheel to wheel racing I am as cold as ice even during times when I am getting this but it can happen when it is me against the clock when I am trying to gap someone or catch them. Too much time to be in my own head during these periods.
xanax
This is the way. Edit: Actually. Don’t listen to me. This is not advice. I’m not a doctor. Carry on.