How to play deciding game

[mamedium]

recently lost all my 5th games at a big tournament

felt like the last game pressure takes my chance to win away - the feeling of victory slipping away is quite painful

any tips?

 

[Tyce]

First off, how do they slip away? Are you behind straight from the start and never able to catch up? Or do you go pretty much even and miss it from 8-8?
Because the first one is usually a lack of sharpness, the second one is more likely to be nerves.
Find the cause, and you can find the cure

 

[Dr Evil]

When I'm nervous I focus on footwork. That's often what goes bad when I tighten up. Concentrating on my feet (and also maintaining core tension and a shoulders over toes stance) frees up my hands to do what they know how to do.

For game 5 tactics, if I don't have a plan by this point (or if my plans have blown up in my face and he just came back from 0-2) I use the all-purpose table tennis default tactic which is deep and spinny to the elbow until I get something easy. I use whatever serves were working. If none of them were working then it's dead ball serves to wherever make him most uncomfortable. And I receive conservatively. No unforced errors; make him win his points.

 

[Ghostzen]

Remember to breathe and try and stay present. It's very easy in big events to close off and go very very internal. Once you're bouncing around in your own head and over thinking, simple motor functions become very tricky. Some players have their own things that keep them present. moving, routines or evens keeping an eye on your corner for a connection.

 

[lightspin]

During the first 4 games you need to be taking data: what works, what doesn't work, what did you do to have the advantage during a rally even though it didn't pan out in the end. Then you need to do what seemed helpful.

You also need to think what your opponent did to you and how to adjust to give you an advantage.

Table tennis is ridiculously complicated on a technical level and even more complicated on a strategic level. Watch the previous world championships where Liang JingKun was down 2-0 and then adjusted and won. During game 5 you yourself need to adjust and hopefully gain an advantage.

 

[Poi]

Personally, if it's the pressure that gets me, I remind myself that it's just a game and that failure is not the end of the world, and try to focus on playing well rather than winning (if that makes sense).
I.e. when I'm scared to loose I tense up and start to hesitate, but if I focus on my footwork, balance, stroke and tactics I start to relax more. If I loose a ball I try to pep-talk myself and remind myself what I did well, like "I might have missed that shot but it was the right call to go for it".

And like the some other posts in this thread already mentioned, the data from the previous sets are crucial. What has been working for you and what hasn't? How is your opponent winning points?

Usually, I try to save some tactic that I haven't used in previous sets, e.g. some weird serve or a new serve-attack combo. Your opponent are most likely going to be a bit tense as well, and bringing something new into the game is hopefully going to make them more stressed