I feel for you. I've been a lot of really stressful situations in my life (deployments, airborne jumps, etc) and I don't ever recall having the shakes quite like my first round at the Omaha regionals. The game went really well, but they stayed until after it was over. What worked for me was to munch on some beef jerky. Just gotta try some stuff. Don't be embarrassed. Get your opponent to help you with movement or bombs, and stay focused on movement.

IMO, one of the best X-wing hacks for bomb dropping is to declare you're doing it, then flip over your maneuver dial, and put the maneuver template down. Remove your ship, and place a 2 straight template at the starting point of your maneuver.

This puts the bomb in the exact same position, but neatly sidesteps the issues of fitting so many things so close to a usually large wingspan bomber.

Obviously you need to be very clear with your opponent about what you're doing and why, but it really can save a lot of hassle and bumping stuff.

Make an appointment with a doctor at your earliest convenience to determine the cause, then treat them accordingly. Even minor tremors can be symptoms of serious problems and it's always better to be sure.

I like @Herowannabe 's suggestion to make an effort to fly for fun. My own strategy is to start with choosing ships I enjoy flying, then during the tournament crack a few jokes (mostly to do with list composition), and make swooshing & shooting noises while moving & rolling dice

Hasn't gotten me past top 8 at a premier event, but that's still a respectable showing

Weed?

14 minutes ago, RufusDaMan said:

Weed?

Nah, you just need another drink ????? or five

I’ve been drawing people’s blood for 6 years. My hands never shake through years of practice. So try that out?

turn your shaking into a distinct advantage by using your hands to throttle your opponent

On 3/9/2018 at 3:37 AM, Dreadai said:

So I’ve got a problem. It’s not something that happens all the time, but enough to make me occasionally embarrassed the first time it happens when I’m with someone.

I get terrible shakes.

Usually in a tournament they are awful game 1 and then settle, but the more rides on a game, the worse they get. Especially bad when doing bombs - to the point that I pretty much don’t use em any more.

Particularly when it is a close game and my adrenaline is up.

Lets not even talk about stream jitters

Does anyone have any hints for controlling these shakes?

Less coffee and other caffeinated drinks.

More outcome independence and confidence in yourself. Part of the point of playing is to get that keyed up rush. But that also partly comes from fear. Fear of losing, fear of messing up, fear of opponent, fear of being keyed up, et al. Embrace the moment more. Fear the outcome less.

The other thing is do it more often. Play more tourneys. Get your head set like it is a tourney even when it is casual game either just in your head or bet a soda or something. If you practice at home put yourself in a tourney situation. Then at the tourney pretend it is practice. Practice facing that big moment.

I know it is just plastic spaceships but it is still a competition. Look to how athletes deal with pressure. https://www.freelapusa.com/6-tips-on-dealing-with-pressure-in-sports/

Lose. Lose really bad.

That worked for me. Last summer at my first Store Championship I came at the bottom of the barrel. Last of the last. Worst of the worst. After that, I realized that the pressure to be #1 wasn't there any more and besides having the nervous shakes subside, I began having more fun playing what I wanted and getting better because the focus was off of winning.

Granted we'd all like to win, but that wasn't the overwhelming driving force I thought I needed from this game. It's become more of learning from the other players and sharing experiences, cool combos and just "being there" in the moment.

That aside, my first opponent in that less than stellar SC performance had some terrible shakes, worse than anything I'd seen or had myself. He was up front about it; he has some kind of nerve condition, and asked if I could handle some of the trickier, more fiddly things when/if the occurred. For the most part, I noticed he kept his hands on the table to steady them while laying down templates, etc. and he very deliberately moved his hands towards or away from the ships. Play was a hair slower than is typical but nothing significant, and I wasn't going to begrudge him if ships did get pushed or bumped accidentally. We've all done that at some point.

Most people are going to be cool about the shakes if you address it yourself. They'll probably be more at ease as well since you'll be more easy gong about bumps that they incur.

The one other comment I have is that from the looks of when you joined the forums (a year ago now: March '17) you still fall under the "new player" category. Play more games and you'll get more comfortable with all of it: list building, winning & losing, placing rocks, maneuvering ships on the table, and so on. You'll get comfortable and your nerves should subside. You got this!

2 hours ago, Force Majeure said:

The one other comment I have is that from the looks of when you joined the forums (a year ago now: March '17) you still fall under the "new player" category. Play more games and you'll get more comfortable with all of it: list building, winning & losing, placing rocks, maneuvering ships on the table, and so on. You'll get comfortable and your nerves should subside. You got this!

Thanks - at a year play I don’t think of myself as ‘new’ any more. Not seasoned by any means. I play 3-4 games a week at local clubs and the odd kitchen table game too. Some more casual friends have said I’ve ‘Gone full *****’ mostly because I’ve done a couple of store champs and a regionals this year. Big system open in 2 weeks though.

A glass of red wine. Electrical engineers and miniature painters alike agree that a nice glass of cab does wonders for shakey hands!