Tips on how to be more relaxed during matches
darion888 asked 2 years ago
Hello guys,
I’ve come to the point where my technique looks quite good, I can produce tricky spins, which trouble the opponents and hit very hard. What really helped me apart from almost every-day trainings was your videos as well as your masterclasses. But I’ve got a problem because I oftentimes can’t pause and focus on the present moment, I rush then instead of calming down and trying to play harder and harder which results in losing some matches. I observed that whenever I try to calm down and not rushing I tend to have better performance, everything becomes so fluid. The question is what can I do to always have this kind of mindset where I’m calm, relaxed with some game-plan and focused on the present moment while playing table tennis and important league matches?
Dan Academy Coach answered 2 years ago
Hey Darion, we’re very happy to hear the Academy and the Masterclasses have helped you!
This is one of the hardest things in table tennis to be able to control your mindset and keep calm and relaxed in matches. As you say it can really help you play better and things get more fluid. I would say trying to slow down in between points, always taken your time and try to be focused on the tactics for that match or what is working well for you. It’s not easy to always get into this mindset and feel relaxed but concentrating on spin and placement rather than hitting hard and fast also helps a lot.
You can work on this in training as well trying to stay relaxed and smooth during the rallies and going for spin and control, this will help you do it more often in games. I also think that really understanding your strengths and weaknesses helps a lot because you start to understand the patterns that work well and this will make you feel less uncomfortable and rushed in games. So really work on having a good game plan of what works for you and this can help too!
