More relaxed during matches

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 of course your videos. 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?

Hi Dariusz,

I am glad that you are improving your skills.

The mental side is another skill that you can work on and get better at.  You have identified the important things here about staying in the present moment.

I think one thing that really helps this is to focus on the ball because that is what is central to the moment that you are working on holding.  Finding some techniques to be able to calm yourself will then help you to be able to keep the ball in focus.

You can think about some breathing techniques, taking a deep breath between points and then stabilising some sort of pre point routine that will help you to feel more calm and also occupy the mind in between points which is when the mind is most likely to wander and start thinking about the future or the past.

Take a look at our tutorials in the Advanced Sports Psychology section which will also add some information for you.