How to control nerves in a tt tournament..??

"Everybody says that I need to control my nerves and then i will be the winner. "

really, sound like they said it to only to comfort you

Hi,

Even tho' am not a good player, I've observed when TT players loose nerve or concentration on the match. I'll point out few situation here:
1) When the opponent smashes few shots: this normally demoralizes the player. He either goes into defensive mode or starts smashing meaninglessly all around.
2) When the opponent cheers or shouts for point won.
3) When you dont think twice before delivering a serve: The opponents can anticipate ur serve n possibly plan a counter attack even before u know. So u need to add diversity to ur serve techniques.
4) Player does not come back to his ready state: normally players are trained to comeback to ready state after hitting a return ie the position facing front+knees slightly bent down+ bat back to position in front of ur chin. This position enables u to take both backhand n forehand shots quite quickly. So after hitting every shot u must come back to this so called ready state to counter attack.

The mental state is another imp thing while TT. You cant play TT thinking abt ur GF/Wife/Boss/Job etc.. it does hamper ur ability to think fast n anticipate a return shot.
Well thats from me.. hope it helps you in some way..

-Sunil

Train more and practice more games. only way to improve

Well try to enjoy it more.Keep in mind that not everything is about winning.A big breath always helps me not to lose control when an unforced error occurs in my game

peter said:

"Everybody says that I need to control my nerves and then i will be the winner. "

really, sound like they said it to only to comfort you

Click to expand...

How have you drawn that conclusion from the information he gave?

Take deep breaths
Sing a relaxing song to yourself
Smile
Bounce on feet

How to combat nerves. As Louisc has suggested, big breaths will help, it will but to be more exact, before each match take 2 or 3 deep breaths, breathing out slowly after each one. This will help to calm the nerves and get more oxygen to the brain so that you can think more clearly

i was also like this, my fingers feel cold n' clammy... deep breaths and stretching helped and join as much tourneys as you can

during tournament i often feel nervous..specially when i can see others play better than me..some say that if i can have a good coach then i will be a better player..
But everytime i play and every time a score i'll just let my feelings out by sayin " sa" hehehe

Take your towel brake every 6 points whether you need it or not. Take your time before you serve to count down from 5 EVERY SERVE just to breathe and make sure you know what you are serving. This helps you set the pace of the game, allowing you to have psychological control.

I have the same problem and I also figured out a way to overcome it.

You just have to find a good reason to play the tournament. That will make you mind cleaner and you will play without compromise.

Got it?

I'll also play a tournament this Saturday. It's the most important TT event in my state and it happens once a year.

The good reason that I found is my fathers presence at the place. It's rare for me to see him, specially at a TT tournament.

it happens very often...call a timeout or take a good breath and try to think something else...at least,that's what i do

well... suggest to chew anykind of chewing gum coz it gives you more saliva coming out it makes calm you down coz if you got nerve you can feel that your mouth was dry....then bounce...^_^

Part of it just comes from experience, but honestly like most people say, you just have to remember to take a few deep breaths, if you watch the pros in big matches, after every point, they kind of walk around a little in their half of the court. It gives them a little breather and is a good way to collect your thoughts. I tend to make myself remember to do that after each point in a big match. Just walk a little, and while walking think over the point, or think over if there are any changes I need to make in my game, little adjustments or whatnot, and if I am serving, think of what type of serve would be advantageous to do. It important to consciously make yourself do that, and to make each little walk last for maybe 10-15 seconds. Who cares if its kind of "stalling" a little, its helpful to you game.

So before I began, I want to say that most of the information comes from this book written by Jason Selk called 10- MINUTE TOUGHNESS. It is a mental-training program for winning before the game begins. I totally recommend you read this book as this would surely helped you.

As the members of this forum suggested, take a deep breath. But not any deep breath. Do a centering breath. This purpose of this is to control your heart rate which is a primary control of a person's arousal state. It is important to control heart rate because using the mind effectively becomes increasingly more difficult as the heart rate rises. Once the rate gets to 120 beats per minute, the mind will not be nearly as sharp (unless proper conditioning and mental training has occurred), and at about 150 beats per minutes, the mind will essentially shut down and go into survival mode. (In this state, even the best athletes will lose the ability to maintain mental acuity.) Additionally, an elevated heart to control heart rate and arousal states. Athletes need to learn to control heart rate and arousal so that the energy supplies are more present in the action moments of training and performance.

The formula for the centering breath is 6-2-7 : breathe in for six seconds, hold for two, and breathe out for seven seconds. By doing this, air gets into the diaphragm and the heart rate will slow. I highly recommend you try this out! I also agree with scylla24 on his post. My best bet is that you try both of these tips and I hope it will help! Remember to read the book for more tips though, I am sure it would be useful.