Avoiding the Choke - Things to do During Your Match

• Take slow, deep breaths to smooth out your breathing and your nerves/game. When you get nervous you tend to breathe quickly and shallowly, so by keeping your breath slow and deep you will help fight off the tension.

• When starting the match, ease into things gently. Start off just trying to do the basics really well for the first half of the first game. Once you have hit a few balls well and are into the match, start increasing the power in your game.

• Keep moving - stay on the balls of your feet - stay loose and DON'T stand still.

• Concentrate on your tactics and what you are doing right, how you are going to stay loose etc. Don't focus on your nerves or getting tight. Stick to thinking about what you are doing well, so that you are keeping positive thoughts in your brain.

• Repeat to yourself - "loose" - while moving around lightly on your toes.

• Study your opponent, it's quite likely that he is getting nervous too - which makes you even.

• During training, find your natural playing rhythm that you play best at - and then make sure that you stick to this rhythm during a match - don't let your opponent force you to play faster or slower.

• Routines - having little routines, habits and rituals can sometimes allow you to focus on the routine rather than any nerves - this is why people bounce the ball on the floor or racket several times - the routine is easy to perform, and you can clear your mind and loosen your body while it leads you naturally into your serve or return of serve.

• Good days/bad days - everyone has them - and if you don't train a lot you will have a wider variation between your best day and worst day - you need to accept this.

• Worry less about winning the particular match you are about to play, and more about your standard of play. You are trying to lift your standard over the next few years, this is more important than whether you win a certain match today. So if you are 9 all in the last game - you have played to a certain standard in that match, and the last 2 points won't really change the standard you have played at - so just play them as well as you can but don't stress about them.

• Treat all matches as equally important - every win counts, but not too much by itself. In 5 years from now, you won't remember all the matches you won or lost, but you will be a lot better than you are now, which is the main thing.

• If you are tightening up with nerves, remember that you know that you have to be loose and relaxed to play good Table Tennis - so if you are tight you are not going to play well and will probably lose anyway - so if you are going to lose - why not relax and stop worrying about it, and maybe you will play a bit better.

• Also, when you feel you are tightening up, try to make your movements larger and wrist snap a bit more than usual - as you tighten you tend to move less and jerkily, so try to move a bit more and keep it smooth. Keep the wrist as loose and relaxed as possible. Your wrist is possibly the most important part of your body when playing table tennis, so keep it nice and relaxed at all times.

• Finally, everyone gets nervous - a little bit of excitement is normal for everybody and makes you play better, and stay more alert. Don't expect to get rid of every bit of nerves - it will never happen. You actually need some nerves to keep alert, focused and concentrated. Remember, when there is no pressure at all, it is very easy to get lazy and make mistakes - so a little bit of nerves will keep you concentrating hard and stop you from getting slack.

Conclusion

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