(By Larry Hodges)

We all have good and bad matches – but this is NOT some random thing. Poor play usually comes from poor mental skills. But here’s the amazing fact – EVERYBODY has great mental skills some of the time. The key is to make that most or all of the time. How do you do it?

Think about a match where you played your best ever. It doesn’t matter if it was a tournament, league, or practice match, and it doesn’t even matter if you won or lost. What matters is you played well. Your mind was probably clear, you played points almost mindlessly, and everything seemed so easy, as if the ball was moving in slow motion – right? The mentality you had in that match is probably the mentality you always want – so remember how you felt in that match, and just repeat it, every time you play. (For me, it’s always been my win over 2500+ Rey Domingo in 1990, where the ball literally seemed to be moving in slow motion and I felt like I could do anything – and in that match, and a few others, I could.)