I am blaming myself in matches, how do I stop?

[mlax]

Just blame your blade or rubbers for everything, tell yourself that you still haven't found the right equipment and you need to keep buying stuff. Has worked wonders for me, less so for my bank account.

 

[Suga D]

Just blame your blade or rubbers for everything, tell yourself that you still haven't found the right equipment and you need to keep buying stuff. Has worked wonders for me, less so for my bank account.

[Emoji23]

 

[ttmonster]

funny !

Just blame your blade or rubbers for everything, tell yourself that you still haven't found the right equipment and you need to keep buying stuff. Has worked wonders for me, less so for my bank account.

 

[Der_Echte]

Just blame your blade or rubbers for everything, tell yourself that you still haven't found the right equipment and you need to keep buying stuff. Has worked wonders for me, less so for my bank account.

I like blaming the net... in salty language, often in another language or two.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Well, if I will not to stop doing this, I will maybe need to shoot the video. Yeah, I fail almost all my strokes because I do not read spin well, I train 4 times a week with the same coach and I am accustomed to his backspins and when I play with my friends that dont know how to make a big backspins I just fail almost every topspin I do... I usually win againts there friends, because they are not that good, but I am very angry even when I win, because i fail like 6 topspin every set againts these players. But yeasterday I lost 3-2 to my friend that played ONLY pushes and I fail it all because I was so angry... That is why I decided to post a conversation so you can help. My footwork is pretty good, so I alway move the feet to the ball, but then I fail the topspin because concetrate to my stroke more then what the opponent did.

The posts by Suds and DavidSong are both excellent.

The comedy stuff may actually have a constructive side to it as well. [emoji2]

But there are drills for this that you could do with some of the players who are giving you trouble.

Game simulation drills where you play points and both players are trying to win but you are not counting points. If you do enough of that you may figure out what you are doing in match play.

And what you have said really makes me want to see how your coach is working with you.

1) When you are attacking backspin, do you know where his push will go before he pushes. Like, FH or BH.
2) Or is your coach pushing randomly to try and catch you off balance or get you thinking he is going one place but ends up going where you weren’t expecting.

Perhaps this video is pertinent here as well:

The video is worth watching a few times. The idea behind training the random element and how it helps you transfer what you work on in training to real match skill improvements is worth trying to wrap your mind around.

So Suds and David were talking about ways of addressing the attitude which is important. This would be about learning how to address what is going on that causes you to be lower level in match play than in training circumstances. It might be useful to address both. Because there is probably a reason for the shots you miss that are causing your frustration.


Sent from The Subterranean Workshop by Telepathy

 

[Michal Dao]

This might have been said by others but in some of your posts I've seen, this "I'm so angry" comment seems to keep coming up & up.

You can have the best coach in the world who can teach you all the right techniques but if you don't have it there mentally or psychologically, which i would argue it sounds like you don't, then you'll never get to where you want to be.

Ask yourself why you're so angry. Are you angry just at that? Go deeper? Are you an angry person in general? Maybe you're just ultra competitive and in this case it's holding you back. (I noted in a post earlier you referred to the person you're playing as your enemy. I would argue that your approach is wrong there. It's a game. They're your opponent. Not your enemy) I don't know I'm not a psychologist. But seems to make sense to me that if you're willing to spend money on coaching to help your strokes, why wouldn't you be willing to spend money to speak to a sports psychologist to help your mental game in all activities you participate in?

If you don't want to do that, I suppose at the very least you could read some self help books. Maybe something on positive thinking or maybe "The Inner Game Of Tennis" which translates very well into table tennis. There is a premise in that book where he talks about trying to stop assigning "that's a good shot" or "that's a bad shot" to every shot you hit. Rather, you simply observe what happens. That shot I hit went in. That shot I hit went out. You're not applying judgment to it. It might be worth a read that could help you.

We've all been frustrated before. But some overall thoughts or mantras I play in my head, not during a match but rather overall to keep a healthy prospective on things are.....

• In any sport, "Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose." It's simple but the sooner you can grasp and accept this, the better you'll be. See the best player in the world Ma Long losing to Timo Boll just the other day.
• "Table tennis is not a measure of self worth". Let that one really sink in. We're suppose to be playing this because it's fun right? Then let it be fun. Here's the truth of the matter. I sometimes run into players who snuggle with this thinking everybody is looking at them. Nobody remotely cares about your games, your wins and losses as much as you do. They're all too concerned with their own progression. So all this pressure to strive to get better? It's all put on by just you. Stop doing that. Just try to remember it's just a game and not a measure of self worth. If someone is a better table tennis player, great. But that's where it ends. Doesn't make them a better person.
• Lastly, "There's always someone better". No matter how good or bad at table tennis you are, it's a spectrum and there will be a lot of people in the world who you can beat. And a lot of people in the world who you can't. So stop fussing so much about where you are and enjoy the ride.

PS - in reading through this thread, just saw that you're 14 and the comment "I don't want to play this just for fun. I want to be the best in my country, etc". Sigh. Well, I suppose if you really want to be the best in a country, then you should be a part of a professional table tennis academy where they offer coaching for technique and coaching for sports psychology. But I would chalk your problems up to immaturity. It's hard to explain now but trust me some day when you get older or are ready, you'll simply understand the difference.

I did not mean a whole Czech Republic, but only a region where I live and there are not too much people playing table tennis, so it is not hard to be one of the best or the best.

 

[Michal Dao]

The posts by Suds and DavidSong are both excellent.

The comedy stuff may actually have a constructive side to it as well. [emoji2]

But there are drills for this that you could do with some of the players who are giving you trouble.

Game simulation drills where you play points and both players are trying to win but you are not counting points. If you do enough of that you may figure out what you are doing in match play.

And what you have said really makes me want to see how your coach is working with you.

1) When you are attacking backspin, do you know where his push will go before he pushes. Like, FH or BH.
2) Or is your coach pushing randomly to try and catch you off balance or get you thinking he is going one place but ends up going where you weren’t expecting.

Perhaps this video is pertinent here as well:

The video is worth watching a few times. The idea behind training the random element and how it helps you transfer what you work on in training to real match skill improvements is worth trying to wrap your mind around.

So Suds and David were talking about ways of addressing the attitude which is important. This would be about learning how to address what is going on that causes you to be lower level in match play than in training circumstances. It might be useful to address both. Because there is probably a reason for the shots you miss that are causing your frustration.


Sent from The Subterranean Workshop by Telepathy

When I do a multiball training, coach usually say where the ball is going, like "It will go to your backhand where you will play backhand topspin, then it will go middle where you play FH topspin and then it will go to FH where you play again FH topspin. And that is pretty easy for me, I have like 95% chance to make really good and fast topspin, but in a match I have like 50 - 70% chance and that is bad. But sometimes I have multiball where the coach just randomly pushes the ball and I need to drive them all.

 

[Michal Dao]

I do self criticism when I play all the time.

However, you have to be constructive about it; don't just insult yourself each time. I see that you're still young, so I understand how easy it is to get salty and cursing yourself out, but it's not like that really helps. So I guess the first step for you is to break the habit by replacing it with another one: do some critical thinking instead.

Missing one easy ball? Miss the same shot twice in a row? There is definitely a reason why that happened, and so I created a habit of finding out where the problem lies and fixing the issue in the middle of a match.

hit the edge of my paddle twice in a row? I ask myself: where is the top of the bounce? am i starting my paddle to low? am I misjudging the timing? Did I misread the ball? (If you can't visualized what the shot looked like, chances are, you misread it)
I try to find the solution and I usually figure it out within 1-2 points.

Good luck dude, and don't give up.

I usually do that at 10-10 where I realize that I cant be angry and need to concentrate and make a good tactics
Thanks, I will not give up.

 

[Michal Dao]

This might have been said by others but in some of your posts I've seen, this "I'm so angry" comment seems to keep coming up & up.

You can have the best coach in the world who can teach you all the right techniques but if you don't have it there mentally or psychologically, which i would argue it sounds like you don't, then you'll never get to where you want to be.

Ask yourself why you're so angry. Are you angry just at that? Go deeper? Are you an angry person in general? Maybe you're just ultra competitive and in this case it's holding you back. (I noted in a post earlier you referred to the person you're playing as your enemy. I would argue that your approach is wrong there. It's a game. They're your opponent. Not your enemy) I don't know I'm not a psychologist. But seems to make sense to me that if you're willing to spend money on coaching to help your strokes, why wouldn't you be willing to spend money to speak to a sports psychologist to help your mental game in all activities you participate in?

If you don't want to do that, I suppose at the very least you could read some self help books. Maybe something on positive thinking or maybe "The Inner Game Of Tennis" which translates very well into table tennis. There is a premise in that book where he talks about trying to stop assigning "that's a good shot" or "that's a bad shot" to every shot you hit. Rather, you simply observe what happens. That shot I hit went in. That shot I hit went out. You're not applying judgment to it. It might be worth a read that could help you.

We've all been frustrated before. But some overall thoughts or mantras I play in my head, not during a match but rather overall to keep a healthy prospective on things are.....

• In any sport, "Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose." It's simple but the sooner you can grasp and accept this, the better you'll be. See the best player in the world Ma Long losing to Timo Boll just the other day.
• "Table tennis is not a measure of self worth". Let that one really sink in. We're suppose to be playing this because it's fun right? Then let it be fun. Here's the truth of the matter. I sometimes run into players who snuggle with this thinking everybody is looking at them. Nobody remotely cares about your games, your wins and losses as much as you do. They're all too concerned with their own progression. So all this pressure to strive to get better? It's all put on by just you. Stop doing that. Just try to remember it's just a game and not a measure of self worth. If someone is a better table tennis player, great. But that's where it ends. Doesn't make them a better person.
• Lastly, "There's always someone better". No matter how good or bad at table tennis you are, it's a spectrum and there will be a lot of people in the world who you can beat. And a lot of people in the world who you can't. So stop fussing so much about where you are and enjoy the ride.

PS - in reading through this thread, just saw that you're 14 and the comment "I don't want to play this just for fun. I want to be the best in my country, etc". Sigh. Well, I suppose if you really want to be the best in a country, then you should be a part of a professional table tennis academy where they offer coaching for technique and coaching for sports psychology. But I would chalk your problems up to immaturity. It's hard to explain now but trust me some day when you get older or are ready, you'll simply understand the difference.

Well, I live in Czech Republic, so my english is not perfect and I am used to a word "enemy" it is the same as "opponent" for me

 

[Ilia Minkin]

@Ilia Minkin On big tournaments I have a positive visualization, but on a small ones I constantly blame myself for fails.

How do you mean? Positive visualization works on big tournaments but does not on small ones? Or you don't try it in small tourneys?

 

[ajtatosmano2]

How do you mean? Positive visualization works on big tournaments but does not on small ones? Or you don't try it in small tourneys?

I perform better in tournaments than in league matches. I learned to control myself enough that I can keep my fighting spirit or I can be calm and analytical, but the results are still worse than in training matches. However, my consistency improved with better self-control.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

When I do a multiball training, coach usually say where the ball is going, like "It will go to your backhand where you will play backhand topspin, then it will go middle where you play FH topspin and then it will go to FH where you play again FH topspin. And that is pretty easy for me, I have like 95% chance to make really good and fast topspin, but in a match I have like 50 - 70% chance and that is bad. But sometimes I have multiball where the coach just randomly pushes the ball and I need to drive them all.

It sounds like you need to get your coach to do some game simulation drills. The random multiball sounds useful too. But seeing the tells where the player and his body language is also important to work on.

I would start with you serving and him pushing the return but him trying to push in a way so he fools you and catches you off balance or by surprise. But you still have to return his push.

Then you can have him serve and you push, and then he pushes to try to mess you up and you have to attack his push.

Then you can try him serving and you have try to attack his serve. If you cannot attack you push short.

==

Watch the video on random training.

==

If you know where the ball is going beforehand while training with your coach, you cannot compare that to playing someone who sees you expect the ball to your BH and puts it to your wide FH and then he sees you are looking for the wide FH and he puts it to your middle or BH.

Making a good shot on a ball you were expecting has nothing to do with making a good shot in the scenario where the person you are playing is actively trying to keep you from being able to make the shots you would like to make.

==

Last detail, if you really do want to become a decently high level player, then you would be greatly helped by filming yourself.

You don’t have to show people. But watching footage of yourself will help you improve more than you probably realize. You are much more likely to see what you are doing that needs to be improved if you do actually see yourself.

For most people, the first time they see themself playing, it is an eye opening experience. But doing it regularly and actively will really help you improve. And you will definitely get a new perspective on those shots you think you should make in matches that you don’t make.

It definitely sounds like one of the things that is going on is that there are shots you make in practice when you know where the ball is going and what is on the ball, and that is causing you to think you should make other shots in matches where you didn’t know where the ball was going or what spin was on the ball AND THEY ARE NOT the same shots.

You have to train for that randomness. If you don’t, you can’t expect to make the shots.



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[KM1976]

Guys,
Amazing, amazing inputs. I used to struggle with the same issue and there was a point where I damaged my racket by throwing it at the ground.
However, I figured out that
Training - It is all about me, what I want to learn what I want to achieve and how it should be. Proper form, proper technique, strokes and point construction etc. so essentially its ME.
Matches - It all about the opponent, I have already done countless hours of practice, now I in a match facing an opponent where I need to figure out what he doesn't likes. If I am good enough to figure out at least one thing which he doesn't likes, could be a serve, could be a ball placement or a combination of both etc. then I feel that I have a definite direction in the match.
So in short, matches are all about reading and adjusting to your opponent's tactics and game plan. If you are doing a negative self talk then it means that you are still too much focussed on yourself and your strokes and not your opponent. To put it mildly you haven't worked hard enough on your strokes that you can do them in an auto-pilot mode.

Instead of talking trash to yourself, start taking small, one line lessons. Like for example, to move into the center, block on the bounce, first loop on the backhand etc and immediately follow it in the next point.

Further, take table tennis as a curriculum as studies. We all might get frustrated while solving a complex puzzle but we always try to learn the technique so that we can apply it later for the same kind of problem. So take table tennis as any other form of discipline where you are learning something.
Remember, learning and frustration cannot go hand in hand. The moment you get frustrated beyond a point, your learning will stop.

If you think on these lines, you will feel that you are a student and you don't have to prove a point to anyone on how much effort you have put behind the scenes practicing hard.

Cheers,
KM1976