Push ups before a game.

Recently, I've met a player in SMAK 6 Cup, Johannes (from St. Yakobus School),  who always do push ups before each game. When I played him, I asked him why before we started our moves, and he was like "Oh yes, push ups" and he laid down the floor and do 10 push ups. After the game, I asked again, and he explained that push ups releases tension and stress and he said that it works for him. Anyway, he is a quite a nice guy, and I found his push up rituals quite unusual and interesting.

Do any of you have some rituals (push ups, eating something, etc) to do before a game? Or have you ever met such a player?

 

Tai Chi and Qi Gong breathing exercises helps me relieve stress and tension I bought this DVD called Cross Training for Fitness with Jessica Smith and Guillmero Gomez last year the relax and restore part of the DVD taught me exercises that I do every single day like chi expansion, tidal wave, shaolin stretch, misogi, chi tree they feel incredible it only takes me around 16-19 minutes to work through all of them.

I do them after a really cardio kickbox or kettle bell workout or when I'm preparing to play Chess it's great helps me feel centered and ready to go!

I roll a 9 volt battery in sea salt and then suck on it before each game.

I ALWAYS do at least one sitdown before playing...

(p. 23)

How to think

 

   Aaron Nimzovich, the great theoretician and one of

the original grandmasters crowned by Czar Nicholas at

the St. Petersburg tour-

nament of 1914, used

to stand on his head in

the corner of the hall

before a tournament

game. We suppose he

wanted to increase the

blood available to his

brain, hoping this

would help him think

more clearly.

Alburt, Lev, and Al Lawrence. 2008. Chess Training Pocket Book II: How to spot tactics and how far ahead to calculate. New York, New York: Chess Information and Research Center.

A cup of coffee about 30 minutes before i play, and a light breakfast.  Im not good enough to be that concerned about how i prepare.  I do know that a HUGE meal before a game is pretty much a guaranteed loss for me.

Physical exercises like that help me as well. I don't think they release stress but they may increase blood circulation and perhaps the brain and body feels more refreshed from oxygen flow and higher pulse for some time after last push up. I highly recommend some light exercise before chess games. It doesn't have to be push ups. Not everyone can do that either due to health or due to space. But you can swing your arms like you are "swimming". It could be both, alternating. Doesn't matter as long as you feel more blood flow.

Oops! I forgot to mention other things I do that help me. I find it helps think and be less nervous when I do deep breath exercises. I inhale with my nose then I exhale through the mouth but not all at once. You have to make your mouth open just a little bit as if you're inflating a balloon or sipping from a thin straw and let the air have some resistance with your mouth when you exhale. The you exhale slowly yet your lungs are pushing hard. Youre supposed to feel air pressure in the mouth and your lungs should be pushing.

I also feel like eating a small amount of something sweet or drinking some non diet juice or soda. In my case it probably makes a bigger difference because I almost don't consume any sugar since sugar is almost always bad for health. So for me I feel some short burst of energy from drinking or eating carbs. IMO it doesn't matter what form it is in since all carbs are the same in the body.

I saw in a Russian documentary about Botvinnik that he believed eating dark chocolate helped him think. But I think it is a pseudo scientific belief. Shouldn't matter whether sugar comes from chocolate or some random soda.

I also take some vitamin b-12 but I don't think it helps.