“When you are eating before a game, or watching a preliminary game and waiting to go to the locker room to get dressed, or sitting in a classroom hours before “the big one,” let yourself feel your nervousness fully and be grateful that you have it. Do you know how many people live their lives day after day without ever having the opportunity to feel nervous? They get up and rub their eyes and throw water on their faces, they get something to eat, they drive to the office and they do their work—and some even do important work exceptionally well—and yet through it all, they have hardly experienced any emotional highs the way you feel before every game. …The next time you get that nervous feeling, you ought to recognize it as the great opportunity it is and say to yourself, “Here’s the nervous feeling, that hope-and-fear quality that makes playing sports such a special opportunity. I’m not going to hide from it. I’m not going to worry that my palms are sweaty or my stomach is in knots. I’m nervous. Great. Just what I wanted.”
From Dick’s book “Stuff”
Welcome To Keys To The Gym 