Being relaxed when playing table tennis

Hi Alois,

I often hear that we need to stay relaxed when playing table tennis.

Could you please clarify what this means in terms of table tennis exactly? (For example, does it mean that should I be completely aloof at the table? holding the bat so relaxed and in such a supple way that it moves around in my hand and almost fly away when I make a shot?)

I feel that sometimes when I play relaxed, my game is getting worse than when I tense up a bit, focus hard and keep my bat steady in my hand, so maybe I have a wrong understanding of what being relaxed exactly means, or maybe I might be getting a bit too relaxed when I try to think about being very relaxed to improve my game?

Thanks,
Arnaud

Hi Arnaud,

Relaxed means that you can swing through freely but you still need to be able to maintain the technique which does require some muscle.

If you are too relaxed the strokes will become sloppy and inconsistent.

In most close situations in matches being too relaxed isn’t an issue, that is why we talk about focusing on being relaxed.