The 3+1 steps

One of the most difficult thing in table tennis (or probably in any sport) is to get to your best level consistently. The classical problem is playing well during training and then not managing to get to that same level at competitions. One might summarize this as “how to get in the zone”.

Finding a way to be better at this has been one of my focus for years. It has been both a frustrating and fascinating process. It’s very difficult, yet amazingly interesting to find ways to get your brain to do the right thing.

About one year ago, I made multiple breakthroughs in this quest. They have helped me greatly. There is still lots of work of course, but they have already allowed be to achieve a consistency this season that I could only dream of before.

I’m calling this my “3+1 steps” method, as it’s composed of 3 important steps and a bonus one. Each step builds on the previous one and none can be skipped.

They are:

1. Relax
2. Focus
3. Intensity

Bonus: Serves & tactics

Step 1: Relax

The first most important thing in table tennis is to be relaxed. It’s about loosening up both body and mind. If you are tense or nervous, it’s impossible to play well table tennis.

There is no point to attempt doing any else if you are not relaxed, it won’t work.

How to do this? It’s hard and takes time of course. There are few key elements that help me to do it.

Relax physically

It’s hard to force us to be mentally relaxed, but it’s easier to relax our body. Some tricks involve:

• Breathing well, deeply.
• Loosening muscles, especially harm, legs, shoulder.
• Walking around relaxed, in a kind of “cool” way.
• Not holding the bat too strong.

When the body is relaxed, it has a positive effect on the brain, which will also likely loosen up.

Focus on relaxing during warm-up

Before a match you have 2 minutes to warm-up. This is not the time to try to fix your forehand loop. The best you can do is loosening up and getting good feelings.

A tip here also is to warm up physically before the warm-up on the table, for example by running a bit or jumping. That way the body warm-up is not a concern anymore during the 2 minutes before the match and you can focus on relaxing.

Accept that loosing is part of the game

The above tips are great, but they won’t help at all if you are afraid to loose. Fear of defeat is one sure way to freeze during a match, play badly and.. loose!

I have suffered countless times of this problem, but lately I’ve got a bit better at it thanks to following.

First I tried to focus more on the way I played versus the result. Did I play my game, did I take my chance but I lost? Then I have to be happy, regardless of how important the game was. Did I win but it was tight and I was lucky on some key points? I will take that win, but no need to be especially happy about it, since next time luck will be the other way around and I will loose.

This mindset change is key in order to be able to relax mentally. It doesn’t hurt that you will enjoy yourself much more that way.

Second, focusing on the bigger picture and not just on winning or loosing the next point is key. You may play the next point perfectly (technically and tactically) and still loose it. That’s fine, it’s impossible to win all the points. What matters is winning overall more than your opponents.

Look at the odds: If taking your chances and not being afraid will make you win more points than playing it safe, then do so, regardless of the importance of the match. Actually, you should do it especially if the match is important, since it gives you most chances of winning it.

For me, it’s my playing my offensive game and taking risks. When I go for my shots, take the first attack, then overall I win more points than when I don’t. Sounds obvious. But remembering this at 6–6 in the fifth set will put your chances at winning this set at say 60% instead of 50%. That makes a huge difference at the end.

One trick that helped me do that was thinking before difficult matches that I don’t care if I win or loose, most important was to be proud of myself after.

This season I had a few matches where I was in a very difficult situation, being really dominated, down 0–2. I managed in a few cases to turn the situation around by deciding the result doesn’t matter, but that I was going to leave this match the head up and not ashamed. And sometimes it worked.

In summary:

Relaxing is the first key thing. If you can do only one thing, do this. You might not play great, but you will play fine.

Loosing is OK, the journey is more important than the destination.

Step 2: Focus

Being relaxed will mean you are not going to drop that push in the net because of a tense arm, but you may still be late and not ready on the following ball.

We train a lot and our body knows how to make all these shots automatically. But only with full concentration and focus will our body be able to indeed execute them.

This has been a big problem of mine. I would do a good shot and then just look at what happens with the ball, not being ready at all to play the next one. I would manage to concentrate on for example returning the serve and then “disconnect” and loose track of the ball for the next point.

To play well, we need to focus 100% on each point, each instant of the point. This is hard, as there are so many things that can make us loose our concentration.

Staring at the ball

The most effective trick for me is to make sure I look (stare!) at the ball. When I do this, I tend to be earlier on the balls and the shots come out right. It’s very effective but surprisingly difficult to keep doing it always (at least for me). I need to keep reminding me this all the time. It’s actually the main meaning of step 2 for me: Focus really means look at the ball.

We may think that professional players could play the eyes closed, but in fact they are staring very intensely at the ball.

Enough sleep

As much as you want it, it’s impossible to concentrate if you are tired. Sleeping enough is absolutely key to my table tennis level. If I have a short night, my level drops a lot the next day. It’s always the case.

Since I hate playing crap, it motivates me very much to go earlier to bed and make sure I get enough sleep.

Don’t waste mental energy

It’s not good to over-react on winning or loosing a point. Negative reactions are obviously not going to help, but even too much celebration or getting too pumped up can have a negative effect. Both consume mental energy that may then be missing when it’s time to focus on next point.

Never forget it

It’s so easy to loose concentration and forget to focus. You are leading 2–0, things are going well. But then you start taking it a bit too easily, loose a bit focus and your opponents comes back. I need to regularly remind me to focus and not let me drift away.

Remembering the steps can be very useful during a match itself too, like between sets.

Step 3: Intensity

The third step is to put some real energy in your game. It’s what gives you the extra spin on that loop so it falls back in the table. It’s what makes you move a bit faster so you are well positioned to execute the shot.

It’s also fighting on each ball and each point. Trying hard even on some desperate balls will give you an extra point there and there, and can make the whole difference at the end.

And it’s fun!

Encourage yourself

While reacting too much on winning a point may be counter-productive, I found that encouraging myself with small “allez” between points is helping me to put this extra intensity in the next one. This should be done regardless of the previous point result.

Observe how some top players are making little noises between points when they are really into the zone. I think this helps them keeping the intensity at the maximum.

Eat well

Being hungry or having low sugar in your blood will make it really hard to give it 100%. Eating before training and during a longer competition is very important. A tip that has saved me quite a few times is to always have some energy bar or equivalent with me, in case I misjudged how much energy I had and need some extra boost.

Bonus step: Serves & tactics

The first 3 steps didn’t have much to do with technique or tactics. They probably could be applied to many sports. Truth is, there is not much point even thinking at tactics before having passed these steps. You will play better and enjoy the sport more by just playing relaxed, focused and with intensity without thinking about tactics at all. Worrying too much about tactics will in fact make it harder to relax and make you play worse overall.

But tactics still matter, and once you have done the 3 steps, the right tactic might be the difference between a win and a loss.

The trick is in not overdoing it. At least during the match itself, focusing too much on tactics could be counter-productive, as it will distract you and makes it harder to relax. Keep it simple.

Between matches it’s different. There it’s time to look at all the details and understand how to play all kind of players.

Choose serves well

The serve is the only area which you control fully, and we all know how serves have a big impact on the final result. This is the main domain that I think tactically about during matches, as it’s the easiest one to control.

There have been cases where I was relaxed, focused, intense, yet didn’t manage to win because I made the wrong choices on my serves. I served how the opponent liked it and didn’t get any advantage of it. This is a waste as it’s the easiest thing to adapt.

Applying the method

So this is my method. It works for me, but it took me a lot of time to be able to apply it well, with lots of trial and error. Here are some key things I learned that are very important for the method to work.

Each step and their order matters

Each step depends on the previous one and no step can be skipped. In fact, skipping a step will make things worse: Focusing a lot without being relaxed may make you even more tense and make you miss the easiest things.

First relax, then focus and finally put intensity in your game. In that order, that is the key.

When things don’t go well, you got angry and are not feeling right, go back to the fundamentals and start with step 1. There might be no time anymore to reach your best level, but maybe you can get relaxed again, focus a bit better and this might sometimes be enough to save a match. I’ve had such cases where just doing a full “brain reset” focusing on the complete basics allowed me to come back in a match.

Some steps remain harder than others

It’s possible that after some time, certain steps will become more automatic for you and require less efforts. For example by me, it has now become easier to relax. But it’s still very hard to remain focused for during the whole match.

The method is probably most useful during complicated times. It is for a very important match that you are the most likely to forget to relax. Then it’s crucial to remember and go back to the fundamentals.

Practice the method

Training isn’t only to practice your techniques. Mental strength requires a lot of practice and needs to be trained in the same way as your forehand. If you haven’t been practicing focusing during training, it won’t suddenly come at competition time.

From a mental perspective, take each training in the same way as a competition. Follow the steps and do it 100%. Sometimes you will fail in a step, that’s unavoidable. It’s better if it happens during training. Each time I failed, I understood something about one of the step better.

Relax.

Focus.

Intensity.

The 3 most important words in my table tennis.