OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Maybe you could give globe liqin a try, tried this rubber for the first time that and I'm very impressed. Sticky, generates a lot of spin and the sponge is a bit less dead/hard than dhs 666.

Olivier,

here is my 2 cents. Speaking from experience of my own (One year ago I have just had 18 months and approximately 14 tournaments in which I played about fifteen 5-set matches and LOST THEM ALL) I should say this

a) Problem is always mental (Larry Hodges said that recently in one of his blog posts and I wholeheartedly agree)
b) You have to work on your mental state in the fifth set by making your brain to forget the "super importance" of this particular set; otherwise you get tense
c) before every point do a quick shake-up relaxation exercise (2 seconds) to loosen your knees, elbows, shoulders - see any video of Vladi Samsonov to see him doing that before virtually every point
d) since almost always you are playing a more passive style than your opponent, then you have to be more patient and you have to set your expectation accordingly; never get frustrated if the point goes on forever let your opponent do that; keep your cool

In my case the problem just gradually fixed itself. I stopped thinking about the issue and then at some point realized that I have won two 5-set matches in one tournament (in the last one I was leading 10-3 in the fifth set when my opponent hit the side and claimed it as edge; since there was no umpire I conceded the point and didn't let it bother me even though after that it went up to 10-8. I then did a BH flip receive which didn't go well, and at 10-9 I shook myself off, relaxed my shoulder-elbow-wrist, prepared myself mentally and as my opponent did the same serve I went for BH flip again which quickly ended the point). Moral is: keep your cool and you will be rewarded. Even if you lose you will end up feeling better about the loss in any case.

Good luck to you, and perhaps we will meet in Washington in November!