Saturday 17th February
I've been asked a couple of times this week to explain what I was talking about in my previous blog post when I mentioned running my mental programs before serving or returning serve. Since I haven't been up to much this week, I'll take some time to discuss the concept of using mental programs to improve your table tennis.The use of mental programs is something I've learnt from Lanny Bassham's book, "With Winning in Mind". The general idea behind using mental programs is twofold, these being:
- a mental program is a series of thoughts that will encourage your Subconscious to perform the desired action
- the mental program keeps your Conscious mind occupied, so that it has no time to choke or lose concentration.
Greg's Serving Mental Program
Pre-program
Decide on the serve to be used.
The Point of Initiation
Step up to table, put ball in hand, logo upwards.
This is the starting point of the program. It does not matter what the starting point is, as long as it is consistent.
The Point of Attitude
Picture what it feels like to serve my chosen serve perfectly.
Imagine what successful execution feels to activate my Subconscious.
The Point of Direction
Picture what it looks like to serve my chosen perfectly.
Visualize what successful execution looks like, again involving my Subconscious.
The Point of Control
Concentrate on smooth toss and backswing.
Concentrate on the most critical part of my service action.
The Point of Focus
Concentrate on making correct contact of the ball.
The last thing I picture before I end the mental program.
Here is the mental program I use when receiving serve:
Greg's Return of Serve Mental Program
Pre-program
Put my right index finger on the intersection of the centreline and the endline.
The Point of Inititiation
Get into ready position based on the position of server.
The Point of Attitude
Picture what it feels like to know exactly what serve is coming at me, and playing my serve return perfectly.
The Point of Direction
Picture what it looks like to know exactly what serve is coming at me, and playing my serve return perfectly.
The Point of Control
Concentrate on being balanced and mobile while watching the server make contact with the ball.
The Point of Focus
Concentrate on the contact of the ball, and decide where the ball is going, and with what spin. Move into position and play my return accordingly.
How well does this work? Well, when I do remember to run the mental programs, I find that my concentration at the beginning of each point is much better, which is great. My serving is better and I get a better read of my opponent's serve as well, since I'm always paying attention whene he serves.
I'm still working on keeping focused during the rally - during my match with Mick Lee on last Friday my attention was wandering during the rallies, as I worried about making the semifinals. Currently I'm trying to use my training sessions to build up my concentration during points. I'm attempting to concentrate during every point when training, and when I lose focus during a point, remind myself to stay alert during the whole rally. Plus a bit of visualization of concentrating for the whole point probably wouldn't hurt.
Interested in purchasing "With Winning in Mind?" 
Monday 12th February 2007
Grand Prix Round 1 WriteupFriday night was the first round of the local Grand Prix competition, and as promised I'm just going to do a quick update of how things went in my first tournament for the year.
The basic format is this - 18 competitors split up into 6 groups of 3 for the first round (with 6 seeds). The top 2 finishers in each group go through into the next round, and are put into 4 groups of three, with the winner of each group going into a semifinal berth, and the semifinals and final are played as normal.
First Round
My night started with one of our promising juniors, Patrick Lim, and one of our best U/21 players, Ben Banerjee. I'm a little strong for Patrick and Ben at the moment, so I came through both matches untroubled with 3-0 wins. Patrick and Ben played a good match against each other, being fairly evenly matched, and this time Patrick won through 3-1 in a close encounter.
Second Round
On to the second round, where I am grouped with Tomek Blaszczyk and Mick Lee. Tomek has a strong forehand loop, but struggles a little bit in reading the spin variation on my chops, and although the games are reasonably close I have a comfortable 3-0 win. Tomek then plays Mick and struggles with Mick's style - Mick plays Chinese penhold, with smooth rubber on one side and pimples (sometimes short, sometimes medium, and sometimes long) on the other, and twiddles his bat during the points. Tomek has some chances in the second game, but Mick gets there 12-10 and powers through the third for a 3-0 win.
Then it's Mick and I playing for a spot in the semi-final. On paper I'm the heavy favorite, but you still have to go out there and play the game! In the first two games I'm going well - concentrating OK and playing well enough to always be a few points ahead. Unfortunately, I'm still very conscious of the fact that the semifinals are where I'll be able to play some strong loopers and get some good practice, so if I don't make the semifinals I consider the night a bit of a failure since I won't get any good chopping practice for the Nationals. Then Mick jumps out to a 4-1 or so lead in the third - and instead of focusing point by point I'm thinking that I need to catch up so it doesn't go to a fourth, and then maybe a fifth game.
Needless to say, this is not the mindset that I need. I'm staying with Mick, but I'm thinking way too much about the possibility of Mick getting this third game, and maybe the fourth, and then the fifth could be tricky. I should be concentrating on my return of serve mental program, just watching Mick's serve closely, and running my own serve mental program, but I'm not doing that at all. (Oops!) And I'm forgetting to move my feet properly, which is affecting my loop and making things more difficult.
(Continued on next page)
