how-to-get-nerves-under-control-in-games
Baptiste Lamont asked 1 year ago
I have been playing for about 3-4 months and when I am practising I play good but when I am game situation I play like a beginner how can I control nervesÂ
Tom Academy Coach answered 1 year ago
Hey Baptiste! Yes this is something a lot of players find and it comes with more experience of course, but the more you train your basics shots and have good foundations to your game the easier it is to feel under control in games and less nervous because you know you have solid consistent shots.
It’s also important in training to practice these pressure situations, so do practice games from 9-9 or certain scenarios like that to recreate the pressure and nerves you get in real matches. Lastly being sure to have a confident serve and return because sometimes in matches this can make a big difference if you never get into the rallies. The pressure training will really help I think and just playing lots of games to build experience and get comfortable playing your normal game 🙂
Baptiste Lamont answered 1 year ago
Hi thanks for that I ll have to try I have created a YouTube channel as well as Instagram and TikTok I know yous are very busy but you have a second could you have a look baptistelamont6950Â
name is Bappy best ones were when I was asked to play in div 2Â
thanks and any feedback would be appreciatedÂ
No worries. I couldn’t find your account on Instagram or TikTok but the best way is to post a short clip here in coach corner and I can get back to you with some feedback.
Baptiste Lamont answered 1 year ago
Tom Academy Coach answered 1 year ago
Ok so I think a couple of things from watching the video that will help you are these:
Trying to stay loose and relaxed in your shots, you can see that sometimes your upper body and arm is tensing and tightening especially during the contact. this makes it hard to generate spin and have maximum control, so try to keep relaxed and smooth strokes on both sides. One thing i noticed with your pushing is to be sure to stay low and step into the table more, this will help keep the control when pushing. Especially when the ball is shorter in the table.
Working on a good topspin against a backspin push, this will help you get into the open rallies more often and a lot of people struggle to block the ball if you can get good spin against a push ball. Also by being very solid in the pushing rallies will help because then you don’t feel rushed into going for an attack too soon and making mistakes.
I saw as well quite often that your right foot ends up in front of your left foot, this makes it difficult to play forehands in a comfortable position and also difficult to move over to the forehand corner which you can see in this video gave you some trouble. If you can try to always keep your feet parallel but with the right slightly behind the left this will help you a lot! I will make movement easier and help your forehand feel less tense.
Lastly I would say there is a lot of good stuff in there too for only playing for 3-4 months, very impressive and I think with work on these areas you’ll see a good improvement!
Baptiste Lamontbrillant thank you so much i will try that at practise tomorrow, got praticse on monday and friday for 2 hours each and game will be next wednesday so hopefully will win all my games next week but will be videoing it .
thanks again Tom
No problem at all. That’s great, good luck and let us know how it goes!
https://youtu.be/Q-dyRR4RsKU
could you analyse this for me as i trhink i have done better and tried to remember what you taught me lol
Hey Baptiste! This definitely looks like an improvement already! You are a bit more relaxed and trying to play with spin I can see. I would say trying to hold your ground at the table and not drop back to far is now important for you, quite a few times you ended up dropping back and trying to stay in the point but of course it’s more difficult.
Your best shots were when you managed to stay close and play your forehand topspin with a lot of spin and force the opponent into mistakes, some of those were great and just maximizing this shot is important.
One thing I thing I noticed which I think will help you in a lot of areas is your body position and making sure you stay low and with your weight forward. Often you came a bit upright and ended up with your weight leaning backwards and standing up a bit tall. This often happened when you were returning serves and makes you drop back and play a bit negative. I think if you really focus on staying low and leaning forward on all your shots this will really help you stay up and keep balanced and even move better as well.
The returns when you did manage to do this were much lower and better quality but the same is important in all the shots during the rally so that’s a great area ti fovus on which will help you! 🙂
