Become an Official Sponsor of the USATT

 

By Larry Hodges, USATT Certified National Coach

If you are reading this, then perhaps you are getting ready for several days of competition and spectating. It’s a table tennis player’s dream come true – you get to play and spectate! 

But it’ll be even more fun if you play your best.

How can you best go about making sure you’ll be at your best throughout the tournament? Everybody’s different, so there are few set rules. But there are some pretty good guidelines you can go by.

Diet

Diet should be your first consideration. There are no magic foods, but there are foods that can hurt you. Fat and proteins take longer to digest, so you don’t want to overdo them, especially if you have to play soon. To play your best, load up on carbohydrates: fruits, cereals and bread. They digest easily and are the easiest fuels for the body to use.

Try not to eat anything heavy for a couple of hours before a match. Drink regularly with small but numerous snacks throughout the competition. Special sports drinks are good, but so is fruit juice or plain water. Soft drinks are too sugary, and after a very short "rush," you’ll actually feel more tired.

Rest

Try to get plenty of rest. Surprisingly, how much rest you get before the tournament is usually more important than how much you get during it, but if you are short on sleep at the start of the tournament, it’s going to catch up with you. You don’t want to travel 1000 miles for a tournament only to show up for a match with bags under your eyes.

Morning Matches

If you have a morning match, get up good and early. An early morning jog will get the muscles warmed up. Give yourself an hour to digest after breakfast (remember: carbohydrates!), and then go to the playing site to warm up.

Warm-up

Some people are picky about who they warm up with. If so, you should arrange your warm-up partner the night before. But come early, or you might find all the tables in use. If so, you might have to go four to a table, with each pair using a different diagonal. This makes it rather hard to concentrate, and doesn’t always lead to the best warm-up.

Match Preparation

Shortly before you have a match, it’s best to go off by yourself and get your mind together – basically meditate. Clear your mind. A few minutes of this will pay off a lot.

If you’re feeling a bit sluggish, do some shadow-stroking to get the muscles working.

Relax

Finally, relax! You’re here to have fun, so don’t spoil it by pressuring yourself too much. The more pressure you put on yourself to win, the less likely you’ll play well, and the less likely you’ll win – so it’s counterproductive. Relax, enjoy, win. You can’t always get the last, but the first two should be a given.