(Coach Di Liu)
In table tennis, we often discuss techniques: Forehand, backhand, serve, receive and footwork. But there is another game happening at the same time: mental game. Sometimes, the most difficult opponent is not standing on the other side of the table. It is the voice inside our mind.
I have experienced this countless times, especially at the most important moments of a match. Like 10:9, just one point away from winning the game. My heart starts beating faster. I know I am close and I begin thinking about the result instead of the next ball. What if I win? What should I do if I make a mistake I shouldn’t have made? What if he comes back? Then suddenly 10:10. The situation has completely changed. At 10:10, there is no longer a single match point. I need to win by two points. The pressure becomes different, and sometimes it feels like the entire match has been reset. However, the ball, the table, my opponent hasn’t changed. I realized that only my thoughts have changed. That is one of the biggest lessons table tennis has taught me over 20 years. When I was younger, I thought being mentally strong meant never feeling nervous. As I gained more experience, I realized that this is not true. Being mentally strong does not mean I don’t feel pressure. The echoes in my mind keep ringing, “don’t think about winning the game”, “don’t think about the score”, “just play this ball”. Everyone knows it is extremely difficult to overcome. When the score is 9:9 or 10:10, my mind wants to jump ahead. I start imagining the celebration, the handshake, the next game or the possibility of losing. But table tennis doesn’t allow you to play the next five points at once. We can only play one ball at a time. This is also why I believe experience is so valuable in table tennis. Experience doesn’t kill the pressure, it just shortens its lifespan.
I learn that missing one ball doesn’t means I will lose the match, losing one game doesn’t mean I will lose the match, even losing a big lead doesn’t mean the match is over. Instead, I start to treat every point as a small problem that needs to be tackled. “Where is the opponent standing?”, “How much spin I should make?”, “What serve should I use?”, “How much spin should I make?”, “Where should I place the ball?”, and “What is my next shot?”. Thinking of the more specific the question, the less room there is for unnecessary fear. This is perhaps the most interesting part of competitive table tennis: the score is visible, but the psychological battle is invisible. Two players can have exactly the same technique, the same equipment, and the same physical ability. Yet one player may perform completely differently when the score reaches 10:10. Sometimes the winner is not the player who plays the most spectacular shot. It is the player who can stay calm enough to play the shot he already knows how to play.
That’s why I no longer see pressure as something I need to eliminate and I see it as part of the game. When my heart beats faster, I know the point matters. When I feel nervous, I know I am stepping into an important moment. Instead of fighting those feelings, I try to accept them. Take a breath, look at the ball, trust my daily grind, and play! Because in the end, table tennis is not only a battle between two players. It is also a battle between the player you are under pressure and the player you know you can be. And sometimes, the biggest victory is not winning the final point. It is staying yourself when everything around you is telling you to panic.
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