OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi everybody,

Bit of intro on myself, I'm 37, and started table tennis 4 years ago, so pretty new on the sport, however I've been obsessed training daily, probably one of my mystakes is that because I tried so hard to catch up with my friends (10+ years of experience) using not only coach, but also tutorials / robot, I have a bit of a salad of techniques + bad habits that are hard to fix.

First 2 years I've trained in Argentina, with my first coach who was great, also Argentina is cheap to train, then I moved to L.A and been switching coaches for like 2 years (I know is bad, but didn't found one that worked as spected until last months). Also L.A is very expensive to train (from $50 usd to $100 usd per hourly lesson) and was hard to find a constant training partner, as well as a daily open club due to long distances here.

I started playing tournaments last year, my initial rating was 1530 and from there I went up to 1890, first 7 events I was beating 2000+ players, and my confidence was amazing.

Then I started losing, and the nerves grow like crazy, at the point that on a tournament, I lost all the games in 6 events, and I was about to explode because of the anguish / anxiety, it was so strong that for the next 8 months I didn't played any rated events.

Now a month ago, I decided to give a shot again, my weak point was always backhand, and strong on the forehand, so for the last 2 years I was mainly focused on developing backhand, which lately was starting to feel good, I was opening on games with friends and also in Round Robins, but in rated events... only chop, and when I tried to open, I tried so hard to control my arm that the stroke didn't worked.

So on this rated tournament I join, after 8 months that I had this bad experience, feeling was the same, my head was numb, I was only chopping, the footwork was a mess, seems like everything I learned / practiced was for nothing, I feel like I have 2 very different players on my body, when I'm not under pressure, I'm very aggresive, but on rated events, I'm frozen, I tried controlling the breathe, doing pauses and other stuff I heard, but simply doesn't work.

After this, I was going to not play the San Diego Open, I didn't wanted more stress, but my wife told me, let's go, so I thought maybe more experience will help me to learn how to play under pressure.
Went to San Diego, Saturday I played 3 events, overall better than last week, but still a mess. On Sunday I had 3 events more, arrived short on time, didn't found nobody to warm up, and my group was super stron, 2400 to 2200 players, my anxiety was on the sky, and that was it, I decided to take a break, I defaulted on those 2 events and went to the car to almost cry.

My idea now is to take a break from TT even if I'll miss, I've been feeling more disconfort / stress than enjoying the game. I get very obsessed with anything I learn (on my work is fine lol, that lead me to AAA clients) but table tennis is different, is not like my work that if I'm 24/7 learning, I'm already on a learning curve thats successfull, in TT even training daily, I have days where I feel a complete beginner, and I hate it.

Here are some videos to explain a bit better my situation:

Trainings from the past 2 years (I know I switched too many coaches, and my technique is not the best)



How I usually play in the club (Friendly or Round Robin matches)





How I play on rated events (completely blocked, miss serves, hand frozen, only chop, bad footwork)

one thing to mention here, is that I made the mistake of boosting my d09c for the first time before taking to the trash, and I couldn't control it, bounce was super high, but still, is not excuse.



Sorry for the long read. Any advice will be helpful.

Cheers!

Your technique looks fine, it fact it’s better then most of the ooak posters. Maybe you would benefit from doing some sessions with a sports psychologist.

Your game and technique are solid. Just relax and do your stuff (competition or not) without over-thinking anything and your winning results will take care of themselves.

Exactly this!

At the higher level of competition, the mental game becomes more and more important. Some coaches can teach this, sometimes you need a dedicated sports psychologist. Don't give up. There are some very effective techniques to help improve the mental aspect of your game.... some players need it more than others, but everyone can benefit from this, especially at the higher levels.

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Hello there
I think you pretty much understand, that the issue you're having is in no way actually connected to you training regime or your technique or equipment, or anything else related to TT really. I totally agree with the idea to try and find a sport (or not really) psychologist (I would not recommend something that I don't have experience with..)
From what I read in your first post it seems that you're a very determined and result-oriented person. In some cases this can help, in others - the opposite. And it's not helpful for you in TT not because it's a bad thing, but because you're setting your standards and expectations and goals too high compared to where you are. What I mean is - in training it seems everything's fine and you train a lot with good results (for 4 years of play, starting so late to me it seems that you've made a superb progress), but in actual matches the pressure comes in.
But that's only because you're mentality right now is that you play to win. I know that this, theoretically, is the idea of the game, but if you feel too much pressure - you need to adjust your view. So you see right now that the things you do in training and the things you do in matches are.. let's say.. different. But that's because in training you're focused on executing your shots and combinations, and in matches you're probably thinking on how to score.. I would suggest you start playing matches with a very different approach - forget the actual result and train in matches. Set a goal for a match like this - in this match I want to serve long/medium long underspin serves to the opponent's BH and if he chops/pushes back to my FH - I will initiate my 3rd ball attack from the FH side. And that's pretty much it as a goal on serve. And 1 goal on receive - for example if it's a short serve with under/no-spin to my FH - I want to leave it short. And that's it - two goals for match play, everything else - forget it. Focus only on those two. Cause you'll see - it's not so easy to do even two simple things in a match.
If you start doing such things - there's a chance that the mentality will shift as you'll be able to lose a match, but be happy about how you executed your goals. And in the future(this is not a fast process) - you'll change the goals (when you see that now these are too easy) and with time you'll see that in match play you're actually playing much better and the quality is much better compared to before.
But the important part that you must not forget - the match result is not important - it's important how well you executed your training goals in the match.
This would be a first step of many to introduce some technical (and actually mental and logical) structure to your game in matches.

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I like to tell my friends who have kids, one of the best ways to build character, is by playing sports competitively. You will learn to win and learn to lose. Also, learn to deal with pressure.

It is absolutely normal to feel pressure during competition, I am sure even Wang Chuqin felt pressure when playing agains Truls at the Paris Olympics.

I definitely do not have any good advice on how not to choke in competition, I choke way too much myself. But play more competition and relax, have fun, enjoy the game, enjoy the competition, enjoy the PRESSURE! hopefully it will come around that you play better during competition. But I know very very few players, actually one only, who plays better in competition than in practice, so don't expect to compete as well as you practice.

Thanks for sharing the details of your story! I think of no problem on your skill. My first impression is that you play so "hard". It seems missing the "relaxation" in every strike. The video below is from Vladimir Samsonov. You can feel both loose and tension during every strike. Maybe you keep the high tension all the way. When you are mentally under high stress, you begin to loose the touch, which you usually have during training.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KtWBNL9yEQ

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Go in with the attitude that even if you lose every match bar none you still come out well ahead.

There are lots of people who do not have the financial or physical means to even compete in the first place so you should feel privileged. This is my attitude anyway when i play comp. I have lost to a lot of players recently well below me in the ratings and i just laugh if i lose as i know i am still a winner by having the privilege to be able to play and compete.

Regarding your backhand technique - in the first few videos it looked high level for sure.

However, when i clicked on the last video when you were playing a match you were backing off in terms of racquet head speed and also playing pushes several times on balls that were played long.

Try to shorten your backhand swing. A bit more like a jab at boxing rather than a long swing. Your up and over backhand technique on loops is good it just seems your confidence /belief in executing the shot is not there. Try to stay close to the table and always lift opponents long ball there with the up and over technique. Maybe try to get the posture of your back more forward. I usually find that on the backhand loop i try to almost take the ball off the bounce to maximise my spin and control.

Lastly try 1.9 09 C. It has a much lower throw than the max version but still has great spin.

Hi guys, I just want to say a massive THANKS to everybody for their support and great advice, meant a lot on that moment that I was struggling.

Update on my end, my idea was to take 1 or 2 weeks break, but of course, I coudln't hold more than 3 days lol, some of the comments stuck in my mind, and really changed my game, for example, I started to play more loose, in the past, when I tried that, I lost the form, but now I'm able to play loose and keep the form, and for my surprise, I'm giving a ton more spin and shoot quality than when I try to hit hard like stupid, also I'm saving energy, love it!

I also worked on the pushes with my coach, he eliminated some unnecesary backswing that I was doing, as well as fixed my angle, now my chops go with better tragectory and quality, is a new weapon.

Also started doing some more in-game / random drills, so getting some reaction automated, but I think the biggest change was playing loose, that even took all the rigid that I had trying to control my strokes, even calmed my mind!

P.S: going to Las Vegas for the US open on december, hopefully I'll be able to play better this time.

Thanks again! this forum is amazing.



Cheers!