Step 3 - Deal With the Problem
By this stage you should have a clear idea of what the problem is, and what exactly are the effects you are going to face. Now it's time to start looking for solutions to your situation. Again, take your time and have a good long think about possible answers. Ask your coach or fellow players for advice, if possible - a fresh perspective can sometimes spot something that you have missed. List every idea that seems promising - no matter how off-beat or silly. Sometimes the best solution is not the most obvious one.Can You Solve It?
Some problems can be solved and then forgotten about, whilst others may not be dealt with so easily or permanently. If you have a problem that seems to have a promising looking solution, make sure that you check that the solution does not cause problems of its own. An example of this would be a player who has a weakness on his backhand side, which he trains so hard to fix that he neglects the rest of his game.
A good solution will often completely resolve a particular problem - although you may want to check from time to time that the problem has not come back.
But what if you have a problem that cannot be made to go away, or at the very least will take several months to fix? In that case you had better look for ways to adjust to and work around the problem instead. Once you have accepted that the problem is here to stay for the time being, you mind will be free to look for ways to cope with the situation. Again, be wary of finding adjustments that have problems of their own - such as an aging player whose reflexes are slowing down who might play further from the table to give him more time to react - but this will also mean that he has to cover more of the court, which might be a problem as well.
Solutions to my problem:
This particular problem had no solution, as I had to do the treatment and suffer the effects. Once I had accepted this, I was able to search for ways to work around the problem instead. The workarounds that I came up with were as follows:
- Although a natural defender, I had been playing for the preceding six months as a speed glueing attacker due to the excess weight I was carrying (a separate problem!). I decided to continue to do so until my treatment had finished, since this would allow me to keep the points relatively short and make them less taxing on my system.
- I admitted that training was likely to be difficult during treatment, and informed my practice partner that I may need to miss some sessions on short notice. This allowed me to only play when I felt physically capable. I also cut down the length of the training sessions and focused more on technique than the physical aspects. Finally, I made sure that I used my training time as efficiently as possible, to get as much useful training done as I could in the limited time I had available.
- Once my treatment was over, I slowly increased the length of my training sessions, whilst monitoring my overall physical state to make sure that I didn't overtrain. I maintained my focus on efficiency of training and working on technique, since I didn't have the reserves to do much physical training.
- I adapted my style to match my physical limitations. To begin with, I maintained my speed glued attacking style, since it kept the points short. Once I felt my physical fitness could hold up to several matches in a row, I returned to my defensive style, and carefully monitored my physical state after each match. If I got too tired, I always had the option to return to attacking in the next match.
- I conserved my energy when playing wherever possible, avoiding lengthy warm up routines or too much wandering around the arena.
- I adjusted my diet, using extra supplementation to provide optimum nutrition without extra calories.
- I increased the amount of mental visualization I performed, to help compensate for the drop in the amount of actual table time I could handle.
