Losing a big advantage

Omar Parra Asked 12 years ago

Hi guys, first of all thank you for all the valuable information and efforts to keep your website updated. I learn a lot watching and reading your comments. Well, lets go to the question, I have a problem during my game, that started to happen to me more frequently during my last matches. I start very well, very consistent, doing my game and leading for example, 9-3 or 10-4 but then, when it suppose that it would be easy to finished the game, maybe I start to losing concentration or feeling a lot of pressure and losing all the following points and finishing losing the game and of course, the match.

I wonder if there is any advice or tips that you could give me to change this. Maybe I lost my confidence, feel nervous and my opponent realizes that and takes advantage, feels stronger and turn the game to his favor easily. Any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks.

Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago

Hi Omar,

Firstly you have recognised the problem.  It is probably due to you becoming nervous.  When this happens we start to think about the finish instead of what is happening at the moment.  In a sport like Table Tennis you still have to win a point to win the match.  If you do nothing from then you can't win.

As soon as you start to feel like that, take a deep breath and focus totally on breathing in and out.  Then focus on your tactic for the next point.  So, what serve will you do or what type of return will you try.  This will get you back to the present moment rather than thinking about the future... winning the match.

Give this simple idea a try and let me know if it helps.

Thanks also for the kind words about the site.