A day before tournament

azhar bhabha Asked 12 years ago

hey alois i have been employed by anglo eastern ship management as third officer, and i leave on 25th february. i hope to find good players on ship. 

but the reason i mention this is to underlay the importance of my last tournament that i am to play on sunday 3rd feb. it is a home tournament in my club and i am extremely nervous about my performance. i have an excellent chance of winning and am very nervous about a certain player in round robin in my group (only one from each group goes ahead to semis). this player is very very aggressive in attitude and equally aggressive in game. he cheers himself during points and screams while doing so looking me in the eye. i have beaten him many times but he has gone to a new coach and his game has shot up drastically. the problem im facing as modern defender is that he virtually always does forehand sidespin topspin and never pure forehand topspin. n when i am way back chopping, he suddenly makes a slow, low, spinny forehand sidespin topspin to my forehand corner which is very difficult to block OR counter spin.please advise what i can do about this. 

also, what would u suggest i should train on a day before a tournament to keep me in the zone on D day ??

thanks a million :)

Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago

Hi Azhar,

Well done on your employment.

It sounds like this tournament feels important to you.

Try to focus on what you need to do each point.  At the moment you are getting way ahead of yourself thinking about this one player and what he has been doing and what he has been practicing and what he might do.

Tomorrow, just focus each point one at a time.  If you keep doing that then games and matches will take care of themselves.  You also have other matches to think about for tomorrow.

Focus on what you are doing.  Don't worry about what is happening at the other end of the table.  You can't control that.  Each point watch the ball very, very carefully and react to what it is doing.

Practicing the day before a tournament is a matter of preference.  The way you are talking though, I think you probably need a hit today to settle yourself down a bit.

Good luck tomorrow.  Just focus on what you are doing every single point.