Every sportsman must not only be physically fit to win the game or advance in a position, but also needs to be mentally strong to withstand anything that comes his way. In this regard, Jack Lesyk, PhD, at the Ohio Center for Sports Psychology, mentions that the following are the nine mental skills of successful athletes:
A positive attitude
A high level of self-motivation
High, realistic goals
Good people skills
Positive self-talk
Positive mental imagery
Control over anxiety
Control over emotions
Maintaining concentration
If you are a beginner learning table tennis and want to excel in the sport, it is important for you to develop these nine skills to perform at a higher level.
If you are in Noida and looking for a training academy for table tennis, you can get in touch with us.
1. A Positive Mindset
Coaches value a great attitude in players above all else. More than technical skills, tactical knowledge, or physical fitness, a positive attitude is crucial. It’s a tough journey to the top, and players lacking positivity often don't make it.
Players who maintain a positive outlook tend to work hard, consistently show up for training, listen to advice, stay humble, persevere through challenges, and keep pushing despite the difficulties of both sports and life.
Our attitude shapes much of who we are. People might describe us as optimists or pessimists, hard workers or slackers, winners or losers. But if you're serious about getting better at something, you need to first examine and improve your attitude.
To foster and keep a positive attitude in table tennis, strive for excellence and continuous improvement. Enjoy competing and testing your abilities, learn from both your successes and failures, respect fellow players, coaches, and officials, and maintain a healthy balance between your sport and other aspects of your life.
Here are some tips to create and maintain a positive attitude in your table tennis journey:
Surround yourself with positive people who are dedicated to improvement and believe in achieving their goals. Avoid those who are negative, lazy, or lack ambition.
Find a coach who emphasises the importance of a positive mindset and learn from their guidance.
Ensure that your friends and family outside of table tennis also support and believe in your goals.
Consume uplifting table tennis content that helps you improve, such as articles, videos of top players, and motivational speeches.
Focus on continuous learning and improvement, regardless of wins or losses. Take lessons from every experience and stay humble in success while resilient in defeat.
2. A High Level of Self-motivation
Athletes who are highly self-motivated, also known as having intrinsic motivation, engage in sports because they genuinely love it! Having a passion for something is crucial if you want to stick with it long enough to become skilled.
Learning a complex set of skills can take a long time. However, having a deep passion for the activity can make the process much more enjoyable and faster.
Table tennis players who are highly self-motivated understand the rewards that come with the sport, persist through challenges and tough times, and genuinely love everything about it (training, competing, watching), fully immersing themselves in it.
Before starting out learning table tennis, it is best to ask yourself - “Why do you play? What’s your motivation to play table tennis?”
You might play table tennis for various reasons, but it's crucial to understand why you're playing, and it should be a reason that resonates with you, not someone else. In your journey, there will be moments when you feel like giving up, but it's during these times that recalling your personal motivation will give you the strength to persevere.
Here are some tips to build motivation in your table tennis journey:
It's important to know that motivation can fluctuate for various reasons. Sometimes, you might feel like you've had enough of table tennis and need a short break (around two weeks usually works) to recharge and regain that urge to play. Other times, you might have drifted away from the sport due to being busy or not training as much as you'd like.
To reignite your motivation, consider watching table tennis online or participating in a tournament. Remember, if your goal is continuous learning and improvement, your motivation remains strong. However, if your goal is solely focused on beating a specific player or winning a particular event, both success and failure can impact your self-motivation.
3. High, Realistic Goals
In sports psychology, setting goals boosts commitment, hard work, and focus on specific tasks. Goals are split into process, performance, and outcome categories.
Process goals focus on executing techniques or tactics correctly, under the athlete's control.
Performance goals measure how well an athlete performs compared to their past performances.
Outcome goals target winning events or surpassing opponents, beyond the athlete's control.
For effective goal setting in table tennis:
Set short, medium, and long-term goals.
Use measurable criteria to track progress.
Create detailed plans to achieve goals.
Stay highly committed to achieving them.
Adapt the SMARTER principles for best results:
Specific - Make goals specific (clear and detailed).
Measurable - Ensure they're measurable (define success or failure).
Accepted - Get them accepted by all involved.
Realistic - Keep them realistic (challenging yet achievable).
Time-based - Set a clear end date.
Exciting - Make them exciting and motivating.
Recorded - Record them to stay on track.
4. Good People Skills
Having good people skills means communicating effectively and understanding yourself. An ambitious athlete must assert their goals and views while also listening to others and accepting feedback.
Extreme assertiveness can seem aggressive, while too much responsiveness can lead to passivity, hindering personal growth. Finding a balance between assertiveness and responsiveness is crucial.
In table tennis, dealing with others involves working with players, coaches, managers, and support staff, as well as friends and family. Effective communication, listening, and learning are key. Positive situations need encouragement and teamwork, while negative ones require conflict resolution and self-control.
Although table tennis is individual, collaboration is essential for success.
5. Positive Self-talk
Positive self-talk in sports psychology is about managing your inner dialogue by turning it into encouraging words. However, it's challenging to master because we often default to negative self-talk, doubting our abilities and comparing ourselves to others. In table tennis, positive self-talk involves talking to yourself like a supportive coach or friend, recognizing your thought patterns, staying focused and motivated, and adjusting your mindset during games.
Here are steps to develop positive self-talk in table tennis:
Choose a phrase: Pick a phrase like "Let’s go!", "I feel strong!", or "Come on!" and use it consistently.
Practice in training: Get comfortable saying your chosen phrase during drills and friendly matches.
Visualise the phrase: Associate your phrase with a positive feeling or performance, reinforcing it in your mind.
Diversify your phrases: Create specific phrases for different game situations, like "I’m strong under pressure!" for tense moments.
Repeat and reinforce: Keep using your phrases in practice and matches to strengthen the connection between words and positive feelings.
This approach harnesses the power of positive self-talk to boost your confidence and performance in table tennis.
6. Positive Mental Imagery
Mental imagery, often termed as the most powerful tool for athletes, should not be overlooked in mental skills training. Research shows it significantly boosts performance when combined with regular practice.
Consider these before you start:
Will you visualise from your perspective or from an outside view? Athletes often lean towards one; identify which suits you.
Take charge of your mental imagery to avoid errors or negative outcomes. Many athletes battle this, envisioning poor performance.
Explore using all senses in your visualisation. Recall sounds, sensations, or smells to enhance your imagery.
Decide on the speed of your visualisation—normal for overall play or slowed down for technical focus. Both have merits in various scenarios.
To begin mental imagery for table tennis:
Allocate time: Dedicate a quiet hour to visualise your game, away from practice or tournaments.
Watch videos: Use footage of your past games or record upcoming sessions for visualisation aid.
Start simple: Begin with familiar scenes like entering your practice area and warming up.
Progress gradually: Move on to imagining specific techniques and movements, focusing on success.
Visualise success: Once comfortable, visualise successful matches step by step for improved performance.
Mental imagery boosts performance and is used by top players for success.
7. Control Over Anxiety
Anxiety is a common experience in both life and sports. As athletes, we must learn to manage our anxiety to avoid its negative impact on performance.
Some common situations that can trigger anxiety in athletes include moving up a level, playing in front of a crowd, being in unfamiliar environments, being filmed by a coach, and feeling pressure to win.
To effectively deal with anxiety in table tennis:
Acknowledge anxiety as a normal part of sports.
View mild anxiety as a positive signal of readiness.
Learn techniques to reduce anxiety levels.
Understand your performance under pressure.
Tips for managing anxiety in table tennis include:
Stay calm and address your fears logically.
Recognize that some anxiety can be beneficial for focus.
Relax your body and mind through breathing exercises.
Use pre-competition time to strategise rather than focus on anxiety about losing.
8. Control Over Emotions
Emotions play a significant role in sports. Players, coaches, and spectators display varying emotions throughout a game, often influenced by the current score. As a player, managing emotions is crucial for improvement. Jim Taylor's article in Psychology Today categorises athletes into four emotional styles: the seether, the rager, the brooder, and the zen master.
The seether accumulates frustration and anger until it explodes, making it hard to recover. The rager releases emotions immediately, staying focused but prone to outbursts. The brooder feels despair, sulking or giving up when things go wrong. The zen master remains emotionally unaffected, maintaining positivity and performance.
In table tennis, successful players understand and utilise their emotions for growth. To become a zen master:
Embrace positivity and learn from all emotions.
Increase self-awareness of emotional reactions during matches.
Stay focused on the next point, letting go of past outcomes to maintain control and performance.
9. Maintaining Concentration
To perform well, you must maintain focus. During long competitions, you'll need to switch your focus on and off effectively. Concentration in table tennis includes selecting relevant cues, ignoring distractions, regaining focus quickly, and staying present.
Selecting Relevant Cues: Pay attention to your opponent's arm, wrist, bat angle, and contact point during serves to read the spin. Look for playing space and watch your opponent's body position and arm movement to judge the ball's direction.
Ignoring Distractions: Focus on your opponent rather than the crowd, floor, or umpire. Distractions can affect performance negatively.
Regaining Concentration: If you lose focus, recognize it, regroup, and refocus on the task at hand.
Staying in the Present: Whether you've won or lost a point, focus on winning the next one. Your job is to win the current point, breaking down the game into manageable tasks.
Conclusion
Hence, it is important to understand human psychology and implement all things positive and motivation to ensure that you are focused towards achieving your goal and not lose midway because of certain setbacks.
And that is exactly how we are building individuals in our academy. We want to make sure that every individual that comes to V3 Table Tennis Academy is turned into positive beings and they identify what their goal is. We will do everything from our side to best help them achieve it.
If you are looking for table tennis coaching academies in Noida, then feel free to get in touch with us today.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. How does table tennis help mental health?
Table Tennis has various benefits, and one of them is to improve mental health. An intense game of table tennis stimulates mental alertness and concentration and develops mental acuity, improving reflexes.
2. Is table tennis relaxing?
Table Tennis Can Relieve Stress and Anxiety. When you're stressed out about your homework or a big exam, use table tennis to quiet your mind and take your frustrations out on the ball. Get in touch with us today if you are in Noida to learn Table Tennis.
3. What are the psychological demands of Table Tennis?
Players must maintain intense concentration and focus, must possess mental resilience to overcome setbacks, require strategic thinking and the ability to analyse the game, manage emotions, have self-confidence, and the ability to adapt to different situations and players abilities.