Discussions about something people always look over

Good hydration 3 days straight prior to match day. Sleep Moar. Bring eggs and cheese and water and bananas with you. Be happy, drink with your club or enemy club at venue in the bleachers, bring a lot of water, bring a big notebook to take notes and kick azz/take down names.

Because I sweat a lot, I always take some extra shirts, towels, headbands and even use wristbands not to protect wrists, but just to stop the sweat from comming down.
Good protein diet before the rally, some for the day, but I always have some sweets in case I feel more exhausted than usual /but I'm an old man, maybe you won't need sweets/

P.S. don't count points too much and don't get confused if you lose. Better results come with better concentration. Look after your physical, psychological and emotional comfort and enjoy the game.

You can do practice matches and do it 100% seriously. If you can't get serious enough, put actual stakes, like a small bet of some sort.

You have to learn to be focused on your gameplay and minimize your unforced errors. If you do that, you will be much more confident with your game, giving you a reason why to not be nervous. A missed serve or a missed attack can change an entire game.

Similarly, you should have a routine that will consistently win you points. Actually, you will ideally have multiple routines as you improve your skills. This should also give you more confidence.

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Make sure you practice your serve and have at least one 'safe serve' (a short and low serve). If you are going to be playing against higher rated players, you are going to need a good serve to at least have a chance.


And if you do play against players better than you, you will have to take risks to win points (since they will beat you otherwise).

I like to get to a match early and have a good physical warm up before hand. This includes lunges, jumps and various stretches. I find I move a lot better and have more agility. This helps with consistent stroke play. I am 53 and abit stiff otherwise

Another thing that is not so important, but for some and sometimes make sense - its good to pay visits to other clubs and play on different tables and balls in a different envirement. If you still don't have enough tours, even the different light may disturb your play. Its a good idea to check what tables and balls will be used on the tournement and if avaylable to play a session somewhere with the same.

In preparation for the tournament taper down the duration and intensity of your practice. Just enough time to keep your feel for the game. Maybe just 60 minutes or so on any day. During this next week you are not going to improve now matter what you do, so where you are now is where you will be when the tournament comes. Therefore take this week to make sure you are rested and your body has recovered from any little injuries or soreness.

This idea of tapering before competition is a fundamental principle of sports science found in every textbook. So I strongly disagree with anyone who says you need to be playing intense practice matches right now. Working on some serve and return of serve drills would be good though.

My Tournament checklist
- Towel (use those 6 point towel breaks)
- Remember you get 1 timeout during a match. Has been big for me for stopping runs that are going against you.
- Aspirin. Yes you could tweak something and/or get a headache if you're not use to that much intensity all day long.
- Do not play or practice too much during the tournament. You're not there to practice. Save that for club. You're there to test yourself. Save your energy & body by resting when you can. Just be warm enough when it comes time to play. I once had a silly tendon flare up injury in my knee when I went down to pick up a ball at the end of a day after playing TT all day long at a tournament & not properly resting. My body wasn't trained for playing for 10 hours in a given day. I'll never make that mistake again.
- Drink plenty of water
- Bring healthy snacks to keep your energy up to eat between events.

I think the people before me have covered most of the things you need to do during the tournament , before the tournament , make sure to practice serves ... and remember to stay loose when returning serves ...

-About Aspirin - well, if you use its name just for a tweak, its ok. NEVER drink aspirin or any other coronary active substances just before or during a match! It may look harmless, but it may be not.
Someone may offer you even Ephedrine... Which reminds me to notice that some nosal drops contain Ephedrine. Don't use them.

Life metters more.

Winning Ugly by Brad Gilbert

Buy the book, 'Winning Ugly' by Brad Gilbert. It's about tennis but very relevant to TT.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brad-Gilbert-Winning-Ugly-New/dp/B00I61PNF2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504207363&sr=8-1&keywords=winning+ugly+brad+gilbert

Some aspects from the book, very close to my notices:

"The thought of losing doesn’t bother me now. It only bothers me if I haven’t given 100-percent
effort. So the pressure is off. If I lose, I lose. I now know that if I stay positive and keep
working, my talent will eventually come out.
Being a mentally tough competitor means controlling how you feel inside. Three primary
strategies accomplish that. The first is controlling what you think; the second is controlling
what you visualize; the third is controlling how you look on the outside, in short, your physical
presence. Make a commitment to improve your physical image every time you play or practice your
sport. Improve your walk, your appearance of intensity, and your look of aggressiveness. Athletes
rarely, if ever, train in this area, yet my experience reveals its importance in building mental
toughness.
One reason why we outwardly display negative emotions is to let everyone around us,
including our opponent, know that we’re really much better than we’re playing. We want them
to know that we’re “off” and are capable of much more. “If I don’t show I’m upset, they’ll think
that’s how I play all the time.” That strategy may appear to save your ego or pride, but it will
eventually undermine you. Indeed, you rarely convince anyone, including your opponents,
and you end up locking in the negative feelings. You continue to feel precisely like you act –
miserable, upset, and negative. The performance consequences of those feelings are clear.
Furthermore, when an athlete acts negatively, he often raises the confidence level of his
opponents."

Counting points and focusing on score makes your ego to focus on what YOU need. You better focus on what the Ball needs. Even the best top players sometimes lose their 5 match points with the confidence that they've done what they need. And on the opposite - well concetrated on the Ball players with strong psychics can come back and turn over and win.
About physical, psychological and emotional shape - its very well stated above.

Remember to play hard every single point during the match. This will make you pay more attention and opponents nervous. NO easy point for opponents. If they win a point they must work for it.

Capturing video of your matches might not be a bad idea.

Relax and enjoy:you will play much better

This is the single most important thing ...

Lolman said:

Relax and enjoy:you will play much better

Click to expand...

do not drink fluids that are too sweet before playing. they will increase your insulin and will make your body feel weak because of the "let down effect". also, try listening to music if you are nervous to make you more relaxed. if it is the opposite, try to rev up your body by doing warm up exercises.