OOAK Table Tennis Forum

BRS,

What are your thoughts on NL's idea about playing matches without keeping score and just doing two serves each?

If you played the 1900 level players without keeping score, they would still punish you for weak balls, no? But then you could get in the habit of playing relaxed and free against higher level players. If you played the 1400 level players without keeping score, they might be more likely to attack your passive returns so you couldn't get away with garbage shots in the first place, since nothing is on the line.

I'm just curious. I always choke at 9-9 in the fifth, too.

Congratulations on your improvement by the way!

[quote="Ringer84"]

BRS,

What are your thoughts on NL's idea about playing matches without keeping score and just doing two serves each?

If you played the 1900 level players without keeping score, they would still punish you for weak balls, no? But then you could get in the habit of playing relaxed and free against higher level players. If you played the 1400 level players without keeping score, they might be more likely to attack your passive returns so you couldn't get away with garbage shots in the first place, since nothing is on the line.[/quote]

I think it's a great idea for improvement, but won't cure the Tinman. I do a similar thing with my 1900 partner. We use ~150 balls and serve at each other, with no scoring. Whoever has a ball in hand serves next. If the receiver messes up we give him that serve more times until he gets it right twice, then the variation, then back to random serving. We get 100s of points in and it's probably the most useful training I do.

But the Tinman comes out under pressure. What would be ideal is to have competition where there's a rating and points and all that, but much more frequent. If I need to play in 100 tournaments to lose the tension it's going to take five more years at Florida pace. I'm planning a trip to the DC area in April, and I see there are leagues four days a week. I could play a year's worth of competition in three weeks.

I think it's like flipping a switch and a concentrated burst of competition would do it. I had this same problem on my FH. Not that I always am relaxed on fh loops, I'm not, but I don't push many long fhs any more. And when i do it feels wrong, like immediately I feel horrible about it, even if I win the point. But on the bh I feel horrible when I miss a topspin, and okay when I push.

Maybe the next module of Brett's app should be TTedge A Clockwork Orange, where it holds your eyelids up and forces you to watch horrible high slow tense pushes get blasted by ML over and over until pushing long balls makes you vomit.

That's the only way I can explain how physical the sensations are that have to be reversed. It's not about learning the technique. It's breathing and pulse and stomach acid and muscles shaking. It's feeling physically sick. Reading my post back, maybe I take this TT thing all too seriously. Just being honest.

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Yoko Ono

That's because you're focused only on certain aspects of your game and not on your overall game. At USATT 1800, you still have enough holes in your game that you can still benefit by playing lower level people.

Can you beat them playing strictly fishing/lobbing?

Can you beat them strictly using your forehand?

Can you beat them without using offensive shots?

Can you beat them without hitting cross court shots and mainly hitting down the line?

Can you beat them on the third or fifth ball i.e. rallies never extending beyond the third/fifth balls?

Can you keep them under 6 points every single game?

There's tons of things you could work on that will improve your overall game that you don't need higher level players for. Stop focusing on just beating them and focus on improving techniques that you are not that strong at.

There are people several hundred points below me that I still enjoy playing with because they do certain things well enough that I get to work on things that I feel need improvement. They get to improve their technique and so do I. Win-Win.

I guess I agree with the idea that you need more competition with something on the line to build resistance to Tinman syndrome. I suspect making one out of 2 club nights a 'league night' is not going to fly with other members - but league is a decent competition proxy: you do have points at stake there.

How about playing handicapped matches - you give your opponents points based on rating difference. Brings focus back just like that - you can also play for beer/chicken to make it more meaningful

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That's true. Lobbing is the best example and that's how I play a lot of these guys since I don't know how to lob and need to learn.

But you've missed the context. This is all in reference to a crazy-tight bh stroke that comes out under tournament pressure. That isn't replicated playing easy matches at the club.

_________________
Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

Tinman, imagine yourself playing matches and hitting your backhand perfectly. Listen to video LTT58 to get the idea and make yourself a version that suits your needs. LTT58 is a very important piece of the puzzle.

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You have league nights, correct? Are they structured where you play people of all levels and club ratings are at stake?

Try playing the lower rated players using ONLY the technique you're trying to improve. Maybe that will give you the pressure you need.

Or maybe it's your nervousness problem that you're taking too seriously.

After high school, I turned down a full music scholarship because my stage fright was so bad. I would constantly choke whenever I had to play a solo in a competition. I felt like I was letting down not only myself, but my music teacher and my friends. I came to hate playing music, and sadly I ended up quitting entirely.

When I played my one and only table tennis tournament in 2015, I was so nervous that I could not even WRITE DOWN THE SCORE after winning a game versus a 1900 chopper. My hands were shaking that bad. Seriously, who gets that nervous playing ping pong?

I'm only telling you this because I want you to know that I can relate to the problems you are experiencing. I constantly say things like "There's no way anyone could possibly get more nervous than I do!" or "You just don't know what it's like to be really, truly nervous!" I'm sure when NL tells you to practice more with weaker players or when Ringer84 tells you to play matches without keeping score, you're probably thinking: "That's not going to do jack s***, because when the big moment comes I know I'm going to choke. I always do."

But one day, I saw something that changed my perspective on the entire issue. I was watching a Major League Baseball game on TV and I noticed there was some sort of delay and all of the players were gathered around the pitching mound. What had happened was that the pitcher had dropped his contact lens and everyone was searching for it. Since they couldn't find it, they brought him out a new one. What astonished me was that the Major League pitcher was so nervous and jacked up with adrenaline that he could not even put in his own contact lens. So everyone had to sit there and wait for like 5 minutes while this poor guy struggled to put in his contact lens. What the hell? How could a guy that is one of the best in the world at his craft and is constantly on TV in front of millions of people possibly get so nervous? And how he could he perform at such a high level despite this fact?

What I realized is exactly what Brett said before in one of his videos. The only dangerous thing about nervousness is when you start to become scared of being nervous. It's when you to start thinking that your nervousness is a big deal that things start to spiral out of control. One time I was watching a big Game 7 between Ma Long and Zhang Jike in the finals of a major tournament. It was clear that Jike's hands were shaking as he was about to serve. A reporter even mentioned it to him after the match. But what was amazing to me was that even though Jike's hands were shaking, he still took his time before tossing the ball and went through his entire routine. If I were in his shoes, I would have walked up to the table and served as fast as possible. What I realized is that the difference between me and Zhang Jike is not that he never gets out-of-control nervous and that I do, but rather that he accepts his nervousness and is neither afraid nor ashamed of it. If someone saw my hands shaking, I would be embarassed and want to run away.

Wow, I've gone on a huge tangent now and this probably hasn't been useful to anyone. But I guess what I'm saying is that while you might be able to alleviate some of your nervousness through specific techniques (deep breathing, visualization, etc.), you are probably never in your entire life going to be able to completely defeat this problem. Right now you are an 1825 level guy with a nervousness problem and your next goal should be to be a 1900 level player with a nervousness problem. The day you stop caring so much about this problem and stop trying so hard to defeat it is when you'll start to make some strides towards actually doing so.

It's a great post Ringer. I don't think it is completely relevant to BRS, but it's great info.

Acceptance of nervousness is key. William Henzell was the most nervous TT player I've ever seen. He was sick for days before matches and suffered from real symptoms such as freezing hands, heart palpitations and twitching eyes. He was so stressed at one tournament that I sent him to hospital and he missed the team's match against England! William also suffered from a cold/flu at every event that ever mattered to anyone as stressed knocked out his immune system prior to events.

So how was William Henzell such an over-achiever? The answer is, he was never surprised by his own nervousness. In fact, he honestly believed that if all this didn't happen, then he couldn't play at his best. Can you believe that? He equated lack of nervousness to bad results.

I recently interviewed William for Australia's best senior, juniors and para athletes and this was one of the topics. I wanted everyone to know that it's possible to be a super player whilst being naturally nervous.

Expect nervousness and even learn to welcome it.

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Despite not really enjoying playing with nervousness, I enjoy all that it brings. Its the anticipation, the intensity of the match, the result of your match winning or losing for the team, its having a crowd or even just a few watching, its taking a scalp or your scalp being taken, its achieving a goal might mean a lot to you but nothing to anyone else, its theatre, its the occasion, its sport and that why I love it.

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Going to hospital and missing the event is truly taking it to the NextLevel. I'm dedicated, but I'll never touch that.

Changing the subject a bit - something I'd like to talk about on the next hangout is allocation of practice time.

In one match at my last tournament I really needed to hit Amys - bh punch vs slow heavy topspin. But I haven't practiced that shot in months and unsurprisingly didn't really think about it until afterwards.

Different random low-frequency stuff like that comes up all the time. With essentially two hours a week where I am choosing the drills, is it better to focus all my time on skills that matter in every match, or give some over to this random stuff? How much to carve out? And how often to do one thing to have any benefit?

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Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

If you understand that sport is theatre then you are miles ahead of most. IMO, playing the role of a performer or entertainer is the pinnacle of mindsets.

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What a great sequence of posts. Thanks guys.

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Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

Erving Goffman would say all of life is theatre, not only sport.

_________________
Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

Smashing rackets can make for great theatre. As can screaming at the top of your lungs.

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