Mental Game - Relaxed Table Tennis

V-Griper wrote: That type of mental state is what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi refers to as the flow state.

I am pretty sure that if I could even pronounce "Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi" I would instantly enter some sort of flow state.

larrytt wrote: NextLevel wrote: I read Larry Hodges blog tip for Thanksgiving on relaxed play ("Mentality in Match and Practice").  I found it interesting, but thought that the zone was still something people enter on occasion and that Larry was wrong when he said one could practice entering it. Why do you think you can't practice entering it? Of course you can; you use the same mental techniques in practice that allow you to get into the zone as you would in a tournament. The more you practice doing it, the easier it is to do so in tournaments.

Over the years I've learned to play relaxed, but where I struggle is when I'm playing injured, because then I make mistakes that I wouldn't ordinarily make, and that makes me more tense. I'm not sure how to stay relaxed through trauma.

Current example: a few months ago I had bleeding in my right eye, which has led to impairment in that eye (it's like looking through the smoke from a large campfire).  This makes it hard for me to track balls on my right side and also for me to judge the distance to balls (because the right eye can't help much with depth perception).  One typical example is that I sometimes now completely miss on "normal" balls (top spin, no funny spins, not fast or tricky), especially on balls a few feet above the table.  This gives me the same feeling as if I suddenly couldn't remember how to write my own name or add numbers together -- very frustrated.

At my home club, it's not too bad because we have great lighting and I know the other players (so I can find ways to compensate).  However, at the Teams I really struggled to see the ball (just for reference, I much preferred the 2012 lighting at Baltimore to the 2013 lighting in DC, but, to be fair, I did mostly play next to columns, where the lighting was worst).  I even cut the center of my rubber on a table (misjudging both the ball and the table), which I haven't done in many years.  All that struggle to see made me very tense, which only made my strokes worse. 

Being tense not only messed up my strokes, but it interferes with strategic thinking.  Afterwards, I realized how much I limited my own play (only certain shots, only using a few of my serves, etc.) because I was so focused on what I couldn't do.

It's very hard to accept that I really am less of a player today than I was a year ago, and to stay relaxed about it.  I'm not sure how to maintain the right mental frame under those circumstances. Any suggestions?

That type of mental state is what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi refers to as the flow state. This is what I actually try to attain when I play while others are playing to win. To consistently and purposefully enter a flow state when I play matches is the primary goal for me, because that's the best chance I am going to have of winning

One thing I learned a long time ago, and I always pass on, is to accept that your opponent is going to hit balls past you if that is what he is trying to do, worrying about it makes a player tense, accepting that its part of the game helps to relax. You might have your tactics right, they can never be 100%, but how well you execute them is key, and being relaxed and calm helps enormously.  

My coach always tells me to relax.  I never really understood what he meant - I felt I was trying my best during practice and playing at tournaments the same way that I practiced, only that the focus on winning made me slightly more prone to mistakes.

Edited by NextLevel - 12/06/2013 at 1:09am