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That's the thing, "just thinking about it, has worked into my head and he has won" is not true for everyone. In fact, just thinking about it and acknowledging it is not going anywhere means "I just have to deal with it" is a path for some. Unfortunately, some people believe "see no evil, evil...

With respect to your last paragraph, I reemphasize that finding your optimal approach to table tennis focus in the face of external slights is a journey. I have lost matches because I complained about an opponent's serve, there was no umpire and lost my ability to focus (or maybe not, serve...

No, but if that is what you seriously got from my post, so be it. Going through a mildly tough time, can't really get into stuff that isn't fun.

Learning theory is a broad topic, so let me give you a very incomplete skeleton of an answer. So I, like you and many others, worked with a variety of coaches over the years. The two most influential coaches were one at the amateur level who taught me a lot about how to hit the ball without...

I am mostly asking these questions to encourage looking at things with a wider perspective - I don't want to push this to a point where it comes across as point scoring. Harimoto's screaming still has its detractors despite his stated intent that it is about himself not about his opponents...

The main point about talking to the opponent and remaining 100% focused is a key point I agree with. And that is why it is often recommended that you learn to ignore such things because your focus should be on the match. Where I disagree is that there are in my experience players who play...

This isn't necessarily true. Why do many players who hardly celebrate when playing their matches start celebrating when their opponents celebrate? Are they immature because they are choing in response to their opponent? Do they now forgo the right to complain about the opponent's loudness...

I think that is one perspective for sure.

Telling them to stop is is not necessarily a negative reaction and for some people is part of the process of getting to acceptance. Who knows, maybe OP is now ready to not react "negatively" because he has finally reacted after keeping his annoyance pent up all this time.

Bode cares more about his son playing for Portugal than anything related to his career but I am sure he could and would have have contested this had it made a difference to him. He doesn't play tour events for the most part so he doesn't care. But yes, if he cared, the same arguments should be...

If your best play is a mindset that requires you to take things seriously, even if a club setting that is not serious, that is your best mindset. Whether it is balanced with other things is another story, but sometimes, it is by raising the stakes in practice that you get better at dealing with...

Points have been allocated in the past for team events before WTT ever existed but this is one of those things where I will just let people determine for themselves whether the existence of ranking points has any bearing on whether a country should be able to field a full team or not and whether...

My coach taught me that the most important thing is to believe what keeps you in the right zone of competitiveness. It was usually positive and stoic but it wasn't always positive and stoic. It required some sustainability and application to wide circumstances so therefore most coaches would...

Killerspin equipment is not used by many (possibly any) advanced/tournament players and I don't believe they have any advanced equipment any more (stuff approved for use in tournaments with experienced players). So we won't be able to give you that much insight into what the nuanced differences...

A world class player past his prime (in the late 70s and 80s) once told me he would have done something to get Harimoto's attention if he had screamed playing him. I have seen lots of subtle and not-so-subtle games manship in TT. My main point is that as much as I get the stoic approach to...

It is probably because the OP was trying really hard to win a close game/match and something that would have been mildly annoying in most contexts and ignored by him in most contexts became an opportunity to voice his hidden feelings which he couldn't suppress as well in those specific...

Yes. That said, coping with opponent's mouth doesn't mean you cannot fight the opponent with verbal retaliation if that is your preferred way of coping with the mental warfare. That is why the stoic approach is not the only approach that is correct in these situations. The main argument for...

What good is supposed to come of mocking someone's mistake in an intensely competitive situation when you are both at close quarters with each other? I know when things are cool, it is easy to just laugh off, but it can be hard to know what someone's competitive mindset requires in tight...

Would be interesting to hear the logic but as I said many times, that penalty should never have been his, it should have been Nigeria's for failure to send enough players to field a team.

Mental game is complicated. The line between strength by building mental fortitude with isolated and internal concentration and weakness by allowing praise (whose presence may strengthen but whose absence may weaken, the converse for criticism) is thin. We are inherently social animals, even in...