If you were in this situation in a game, how would you calm yourself down to play?

[Shiro]

When playing, i often have problems with my mentality under situations that i am under a lot of pressure. I feel like i often rely on my serves for my opponent to make a mistake when i am up like 10-8, or even down, 8-10, to catch up with them. After they receive and don't make a mistake, i just make a mistake myself and become sort of stressed and try to calm my self down to think of where i could serve better or attack. As of right now, i do not have a coach. In terms of technique, i would say they are at a fair level where i can do just about any stroke most of the time. My loops are nice, backhand is a little nice, but still really good, and my service return is in the middle of good, and excellent.

 

[Der_Echte]

Closing out a match or a game at 10-8 is a mental attitude and also a function of higher playing class. Those who are better at that do better. There is no substitute for realistic quick calculation of your chances and courage, no is there a tip for being higher playing class. You develop these things as you grow in TT.

What you can control in that situation is your quick analysis of risk, your confidence, your courage, and your choices. Better players get more LUCK for a good reason, the more skilled players are gunna get the breaks and are gunna close out vs lesser players. Hard, but true.

In your example, it is coming down to faith in your abilities and shrew choices. You can control those two things and make a positive and almost immediate improvement to a good degree.

 

[ttmonster]

Okay, see if this works for you . When you are 10-8 up, for the first serve don't do your long high risk serves where you want to win the point outright. Instead, try a conservative serve, low and light underspin/dead ball and try to set up the third or the fifth ball attack . You can still do your higher risk serves on the next serve, or try the reverse combination , whichever is more comfortable for you to try.
See if this works for you, it did work for me in the past ...

 

[Luis Nasche]

I got this one from another forum and it do wonders:

"Play the point, not the situation"

Take a deep breath and clean your mind. Overthinking usually hurts, just play the point.

 

[Cornel]

When reading this, the first thing that came to my mind were the words of Viorel Filimon - Elizabeta Samara's coach during the timeout Eliza took in the final of the European Championships : "Don't change the way you're gonna get the point. Don't hit with desperation". I think this sums up pretty much everything. If you can follow the game plan that brought you 10 points and your opponent only 8, you're going to win.

 

[Baal]

Sing a song to yourself. Or think about sex.

 

[ttmonster]

You are of course wise in suggesting this. But mathematically speaking, it took him 18 points to have a lead of 2 , now he needs one point in 2 serves ... just kidding , its probably not as easy as the coach suggested. What he said is more from a psychological support perspective, and Elizabeth Samara is at a different level, her playing her own game which has honed though 1000s of hours of practise is not exactly as us trying to play 4-5 hours a week and trying to win difficult matches in the clutch.
There are always those players who naturally play out of their skin when things get close and then there are those, most of us included, that fold in a similar scenario. Flight or fight response is different in different people.

As der_Echte suggested , one has to find out the right mix against different opponent through experience ...

When reading this, the first thing that came to my mind were the words of Viorel Filimon - Elizabeta Samara's coach during the timeout Eliza took in the final of the European Championships : "Don't change the way you're gonna get the point. Don't hit with desperation". I think this sums up pretty much everything. If you can follow the game plan that brought you 10 points and your opponent only 8, you're going to win.

 

[Cornel]

You are of course wise in suggesting this. But mathematically speaking, it took him 18 points to have a lead of 2 , now he needs one point in 2 serves ... just kidding , its probably not as easy as the coach suggested. What he said is more from a psychological support perspective, and Elizabeth Samara is at a different level, her playing her own game which has honed though 1000s of hours of practise is not exactly as us trying to play 4-5 hours a week and trying to win difficult matches in the clutch.
There are always those players who naturally play out of their skin when things get close and then there are those, most of us included, that fold in a similar scenario. Flight or fight response is different in different people.

As der_Echte suggested , one has to find out the right mix against different opponent through experience ...

I think the score part was a little bit misunderstood and maybe that's my fault of having my thoughts expressed not in the clearest of ways .The main point of it was that when being in such a situation people very often change the way they are playing, they are starting to somehow "defend their lead", playing safer, refusing to take risks - waiting for the mistake of the opponent or, at the opposite side, trying to make crazy shots that would normally lose them the game if used from the beginning till the very end. This can be understandable - you have the 10-8 lead and you are the one that has something to lose. What we forget in such situations is that we didn't get that 2 points lead by playing in this "safe way" - we did get that lead by attacking first and by taking some risks - and that is the way to continue till the end and the option that gives you the biggest chance of winning.

If I remember correctly the context in which this timeout was taken, Eliza took a pretty big lead that took her close to ending the game, and then Li Jie took some consecutive points. So that's the essence of not changing the way of getting the point. Eliza won the first points playing her game. Then she didn't play the same way because of the pressure of closing the game and lost some consecutive points. To be more clear, one has to get(or to fight for) his 11th point the same way he got his first 10.

Maybe it took one 18 points to get a 2 point lead, but that still doesn't mean you have better chances of closing the game in your favor by playing extra safe or by trying to execute all-in shots. Even if you are in such a situation you got to find a way to teach yourself that the best thing you can do is to continue what you've done so far.

 

[Shiro]

Thanks for the tips so far guys. From what i see, it seems like the general idea is that not everyone is good at these situations as it requires a lot of training to deal with them. Also, to continue playing how i have been the whole time to get to where I'm at in the game and to forget about the score.

 

[ttmonster]

Develop some set plays, make sure you think about possible the third ball when you serve, thats a good first step. Don't overcomplicate it by thinking its a high level skill , nor over simplify it or get caught in the moment ... thats what I wanted to say ...
Its almost like , don't care too much , its just a game ... but make sure you do your best, if the other guy is better in those situations so be it ...
Remember Federer saying about the wimbledon final loss, I was taught to play safe in those moments, he never though that Djokovic could swing so hard at those serves and get away with it , point is Fed did not realize perhaps he ended up serving a little too conservatively against such a good returner of serve ...
So , yes , there are lot of factors to input to make the right decision , yes, it needs experience, yes, you will fail occasionally, but neither use that an excuse nor chicken out in those moments. Take your time to think , take a call and back it up ... it really depends on the situation...

Thanks for the tips so far guys. From what i see, it seems like the general idea is that not everyone is good at these situations as it requires a lot of training to deal with them. Also, to continue playing how i have been the whole time to get to where I'm at in the game and to forget about the score.

 

[songdavid98]

Is it really a mental problem? I addressed this question in an older thread...

As for actually calming yourself, I've heard that the best way to calm yourself is to not think about ping pong.

Sing a song to yourself. Or think about sex.

Nice one, Baal.

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I doubt that will help your gameplay though. To win points crucial points, you have to start predicting what your opponent would do.
For example, have you noticed any patterns? This indeed takes experience. Furthermore, it depends on your opponent too.

There's no rule about taking risks or playing safe. If you can make your opponent make a predictable shot, or a series of predictable shots, you should be able to outplay your opponent, if you have the skills necessary.

 

[Baal]

Is it really a mental problem? I addressed this question in an older thread...

As for actually calming yourself, I've heard that the best way to calm yourself is to not think about ping pong.



Nice one, Baal.

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I doubt that will help your gameplay though. To win points crucial points, you have to start predicting what your opponent would do.
For example, have you noticed any patterns? This indeed takes experience. Furthermore, it depends on your opponent too.

There's no rule about taking risks or playing safe. If you can make your opponent make a predictable shot, or a series of predictable shots, you should be able to outplay your opponent, if you have the skills necessary.

I don't mean to criticize but I actually wasn't joking. You need to calm your nerves more than you need to overthink the next point or mentally replay the previous one. The advice I gave or some variant on it was meant very seriously. It will definitely improve your game play, since it is table tennis, not chess.

Think back to the earlier thread you started on whether you should serve long or short in a tight deuce game. You described a situation where you served long and then almost as an afterthought noted that the return was quite high and went deeper than you initially expected and then you missed the third shot. You then devoted an entire thread to rehashing if things maybe would have gone better if you had served short instead. It had a poll. Some people said serve short, some said serve long. It entirely missed the point. The serve you actually played in the situation worked perfectly but probably you were too tight mentally to play the next ball.

I would like to suggest with no disrespect intended at all that maybe you over thought it.

This is basic zen table tennis.

There is a lot about this in the classic book The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey. Actually the advice to sing a little song comes straight from him. My suggestion to think about sex is original. Accomplishes the same thing. You need to relax your body, get your breathing under control.

The "what-serve-to-use-at-deuce" thread also provided no information about the opponent (how he had returned previous serves), ignoring all the key aspects of the outer game of table tennis, discussed in detail in the book Winning Ugly by Brad Gilbert (about tennis but much of it applies to our sport too).

These books emphasize that to win crucial points, you can't be too nervous to hit the damn ball. Your feet turn into lead. Your eyes slow down. Your hand-eye coordination goes to crap. You mistime. We've all experienced that, I suspect.