Growing Stronger Through Adversity

By Howard Lamb (From March/April 2000 issue of USA Table Tennis Magazine)

Howard, 14, was recently ranked #4 in Under 16 Boys at 2151 before dropping at the North American Teams, as he narrates below. We expect he will be back up very quickly.

This article talks about losing while most articles teach you about winning. Let’s face it, 50% of the players lose in a table tennis match, but the key is not how to lose (that would be fairly easy to do), but how to deal with inevitable losses and learning from them.

Over the last two and a half years, I have enjoyed rapid and unbroken progress. From a beginner in 7/97 to a 2150-level player in 11/99, I have never lost rating points in USATT competition. I then went 5-14 at the 1999 North American Teams in Baltimore, Maryland, losing 100 points in two days. Many people wondered how the losses would affect me. Faced with adversity, some juniors had been known to lose interest and quit.

In retrospect, having a bad tournament is probably the best thing that ever happened to me. Had I not been knocked down in Baltimore, I never would have questioned the way I was playing. Now I constantly examine everything that I do, looking for means to refine my tactics and techniques. As a result, I have developed seven helpful hints that are guaranteed to improve your mental and physical game through adversity.

• Respect your opponent – It is natural to respect higher-ranked players and take lower-ranked ones for granted. Instead, you should treat all opponents with equal respect and play them as if they are the best. This will minimize surprises and upsets.
• Play practice matches – Drills, drills and more drills are necessary. But don’t forget to play practice matches against different styles such as penholders, loopers and choppers and against different rubbers like short pips, long pips and antispins. Expect the unexpected.
• Develop yourself, don’t worry about ratings – Tournament players tend to be overly concerned and proud of their ratings. This can distract them from enjoying and improving their game. Maybe we should emphasize skills over ratings and trust that as ability rises ratings will follow.
• Learn from a master – Go back to basics by learning from someone who has been there before. Recently, I took part in an intensive training program with Fan Yi Yong to retool techniques and upgrade approaches to the game.
• Handling losses – If you get beat, you cannot lose your guts. You need to put the loss out of your mind and play with poise next time. Otherwise, you are more likely to lose again, and then losing becomes a habit.
• Take chances – Every time you play, you are putting yourself on the line. Be ready and willing to take some chances. If you don’t win, you don’t win, but at least you have the experience of going for it and of learning something useful through your efforts.
• Put the game in perspective – I don’t believe the saying: "Table Tennis is life, the rest are just details." Don’t get too elated over a win or too depressed over a loss. Since neither success nor failure is final, we want to look for the lesson in it.

John Wooden once said, "Why do so many people dread adversity, when it is only through adversity that we grow stronger?" Hopefully we will all get stronger when adversity strikes back!