Because I don't always play table tennis the same way.

[Yourbrick]

Hi everyone, I’ve been playing club table tennis for about a year and a half now. I train 5–6 days a week, around 2–3 hours a day. When I look back, I can clearly see improvement—right now I’m much better than I was three months ago. Progress is slow, but that’s just how table tennis is. Six months ago I was losing to 1000-rated players, and now I’m beating players rated 1300–1400.
I play tournaments around 3–5 times a month.

My question is:

Why is it that sometimes I feel “on fire”—super focused, fast, returning everything, and no matter who I’m playing (even if I lose), I really give them a hard time—but other times I feel slow, flat, with no spark, almost blocked?

It feels like I’m two completely different players.

Is there any way to avoid this?

Thanks for the help.

 

[andymagata]

I have a theory, and I have experienced it myself. It does not fit your description perfectly, but might be part of it.

You have an oppo. He/She might be on fire or not. He/She might play on 30% sometimes, the next time they focus and play on 70%.

If this is not part of it, I believe you need to find your game. You might be all over the place - meaning, that sometimes you feel like chopping, sometimes driving, sometimes looping, the same type of ball. When you find your game and concistently play the same strokes over and over again in similar situations, these fluctuations in your own performance might start to vane.

 

[Matteones]

Fluctuations in play level cannot be battled, only accepted, they accompany every athlete and every sport practitioner.

If winning in competition is what you want, you have to find ways to win even when you don't feel great, mainly focusing solely on what to do on the next point.
If getting better is your focus, winning isn't always important as you are working on your technique, tactics and strategies.
Remember a very important point: if you are genuinely having fun (whatever your concept of fun is) for most of the time you are training and competing, you will get better at a faster rate.
With time you will learn what works for you to get in the best conditions possible: it's usually a combination of good training, good nutrition, rested body, confidence: the usual suspects.

 

[Yourbrick]

I have a theory, and I have experienced it myself. It does not fit your description perfectly, but might be part of it.

You have an oppo. He/She might be on fire or not. He/She might play on 30% sometimes, the next time they focus and play on 70%.

If this is not part of it, I believe you need to find your game. You might be all over the place - meaning, that sometimes you feel like chopping, sometimes driving, sometimes looping, the same type of ball. When you find your game and concistently play the same strokes over and over again in similar situations, these fluctuations in your own performance might start to vane.

Yeah, I don’t think the first part of your message really applies to me, since it’s something I see in my own performance rather than in other people’s. But the second part does fit, and I think it’s great advice that I definitely need to take on board. Thanks a lot!

 

[Yourbrick]

Fluctuations in play level cannot be battled, only accepted, they accompany every athlete and every sport practitioner.

If winning in competition is what you want, you have to find ways to win even when you don't feel great, mainly focusing solely on what to do on the next point.
If getting better is your focus, winning isn't always important as you are working on your technique, tactics and strategies.
Remember a very important point: if you are genuinely having fun (whatever your concept of fun is) for most of the time you are training and competing, you will get better at a faster rate.
With time you will learn what works for you to get in the best conditions possible: it's usually a combination of good training, good nutrition, rested body, confidence: the usual suspects.

Yeah, you’re right about everything you say, and I’ll take note of it. Great advice for me — thanks a lot 😉

 

[andymagata]

Yeah, I don’t think the first part of your message really applies to me, since it’s something I see in my own performance rather than in other people’s. But the second part does fit, and I think it’s great advice that I definitely need to take on board. Thanks a lot!

When I go to training, I always have a stroke in mind that I want to train. It has to be in match situation, since that is the main, if not the only, activity in the club. A fitting ball to practice these shots rarely occur though, but it doesn’t stop me from trying them anyway. I miss a lot.