The new 2019/2020 table tennis season has arrived! A significant number of the world’s top associations and competitions have previously begun and I’m certain, in the event that you haven’t as of now, you’ll contend again soon.
Another season can mean another climate and possibly a few changes to your serious table tennis from the prior year. Maybe you’ve moved to play for an alternate club, or your group has been advanced/consigned so you’ll play in an alternate division.
You’ll probably be confronted with new settings, new adversaries and perhaps a few new partners. However, there’s compelling reason need to stress!
Whether you’ve burned the entire summer rehearsing or have scarcely gotten your bat, the following are five hints to assist you with flourishing in the new table tennis season.
This post was initially written in September 2013 and has been covered in the ETT chronicles… yet I’ve resurrected it!
1. Set yourself some difficult (yet sensible) objectives
Objective setting is the same old thing, and I get it isn’t exactly that energizing either, however it is successful.
Anything that norm of association or competitions you will play in this season, you ought to lay out certain objectives for yourself. These will in all probability be execution and result objectives -, for example, accomplishing a specific rate in your division’s midpoints or arriving at a specific phase of a contest.
To accomplish a normal of 90% or higher in the top division of the Focal London Association.
I didn’t accomplish both of those objectives. In any case, I was definitely not 1,000,000 miles away by the same token. Now and then you’ll should be adaptable with your objectives and correct following a long time/months.
For instance, I completed the primary few days of English Association on 2/8 successes (25%) however this was with very little practice over the mid-year and playing as #2 in the group rather than #3. In this manner, I chose to keep my objective at half in spite of the disheartening beginning. It was my objective of half that roused me to practice and continue to play every week.
Putting forth objectives like this is very simple. Take a gander at what you accomplished last season. Consider the amount you rehearsed over the late spring (or the amount you’ll play this season). And afterward put forth your objectives appropriately.
Back in 2012/13, I completed on 46% in English Association Division 1 South, so I chose to go for the gold 2013/14. On the off chance that I’d been rehearsing more (I got hitched and moved house in the late spring of 2013) and expecting a greater yearly improvement, I might have set it at 60% or even 70%.
2. Work on your table tennis self-conviction
We invest a great deal of energy chipping away at our table tennis abilities; attempting to work on the power and precision of our shots, chipping away at our development and speed and so forth.
We will generally invest significantly less energy dealing with the psychological side of the game – regardless of the way that we as a whole concur this is staggeringly significant.
Self-conviction is one of the normal attributes found in practically all high level competitors. At the point when they go into a cutthroat climate, they simply have this feeling that they will win. They can’t exactly envision some other result!
Here is an intriguing article from The Message covering a portion of the rudiments of self-conviction and its consequences for execution.
You won’t dominate each game you play.
The best competitors on the planet know this.You ought to go into each match you play accepting earnestly that you will win! The explanation that the higher-positioned player wins so frequently in table tennis is that before the game has even begun the lower positioned player has taking a gander at the positioning rundown (or association midpoints) and concluded he has minimal possibility winning.
3. Eliminate any superfluous strain you’re putting on yourself
At the point when I previously moved to Grantham Foundation (at 18 years old), and began rehearsing consistently, I’d come down on myself at competitions.
Everyone knows you’re at Grantham now. Everyone realizes you’ve been playing consistently. They’re anticipating that you should be greatly improved. Try not to embarrass yourself. You really want to play at a lot more significant level than you did before you left.
This was particularly evident when I would face players that I’d beaten intently prior to moving. I’d think…
Presently I need to beat them! In the event that I was beating them before I began playing consistently and presently I lose to them, then I’ll seem to be a finished disappointment. It’ll resemble this additional preparation was for no good reason.
This is only one illustration of the sort of pointless strain we can put on ourselves as table tennis players.
Assuming you’ve been abroad to rehearse in the late spring (and others realize you have) then, at that point, in the event that they beat you, you’ll presumably need to manage them making statements like, “You ought to have remained at home the entire summer having bar-b-ques in the nursery like me, mate!”
Indeed, such thinking is the method of the “washout”. Continuously stressing over what others will think about you and what you need to lose (your standing being the large one).
Champs couldn’t care less about trifling things like that. They center around the match, and playing their best, and giving their best for win.
4. Overlook likely interruptions
Particularly while playing nearby association matches, there can be various interruptions that can remove our concentration from the game.
A commonplace match night in a neighborhood association could include; an elusive floor, not sufficient space, players/umpires that don’t have the foggiest idea about every one of the guidelines, foul serves, bothering conduct from rivals, an absence of a decent cup of tea and rolls (typically given by the host group).
Try not to allow these things to irritate you!
There will have been times when you’ve looked as another player whines that he is losing a result of the elusive floor or the unfortunate lighting, and you’ve likely looked on and thought, “What a plonker!” (or some statements along those lines). Try not to turn into the plonker.
Right off the bat, no one enjoys a bad sport. In the event that you lost the game, whining about a heap of optional elements won’t cause you to feel significantly improved. Center around the up-sides you can take from the game and the illustrations you can figure out how to improve to what’s to come.
Also, that sort of disposition is about pardons. A few players have so minimal self-confidence in themselves, and are so stressed over losing face, that they draw out the reasons before they’ve even hit a ball!
“I don’t have any idea how you folks play on this horrible floor?”
Intellectually extreme players are centered around their rival (searching for shortcomings in their game) and are just worried about their own exhibition (making their own shots and playing great).