The Sixth Gear

By Brian Pace

Brian Pace, a former National Collegiate Singles Champion, has been ranked among the top ten in the U.S. numerous times, and has been rated over 2600. 

It took me about 7 years to realize what I was searching for and where to find it.  It really took some pretty tough hits for me to realize what I had to do and why.  For the last five years I have always been on the bubble of making the U.S. Team, but I have fallen short every time.  Whether it was losing a big lead, missing a serve at a crucial moment, or just flat-out mental and emotional exhaustion, I found a way to fall short of making the Team.  While I would fix one problem, one more would occur and that happens often when you are your own coach.  I realized that I had no 6th gear to rise to the occasion. I hadn’t found that substance that put me at my best when I was among the best

Take the four historically best players over the last four years in the U.S., and it is obvious that they all have it.  They can turn on their 6th gear like hitting a light switch.  We all see it happen, but how can you learn to nurture this emotional gift so that it is just a neuron away?  This is a story of how I found my 6th gear in a totally unrelated sport, and how it affected my outlook to find it in the sport of table tennis. 

My involvement in Mountain Bike is 80% of the reason why I decided to pursue table tennis abroad.  In 1999, I started mountain biking as a cross-training boost to my table tennis game.  It was the first time I have ever done any kind of workout besides table tennis.  Just to set the record straight, I had never lifted weights in my life until the 2001 Fall Season.  In 2000 I won the Southeastern Regional Championship in Mountain Bike.  It consisted of eight races all over Florida, and I was also voted most dominant rider because of the way I rode the bike.  I didn’t even know that there was a way you can ride a mountain bike.  (I was labeled “Teflon Arm” because my right arm is about 1/3 bigger than my left because of table tennis, and on the starting line it really stands out.)  I was often asked how I did it?  I would always reply, “did what”?  Apparently I possess a type of 6th gear that allowed me to rise to the occasion.  I really didn’t understand it until people started to explain that my riding behavior was quite unique.  From the starting line of a race to the actual trail is about 400 meters.  In the eight races in the series, I always entered the trail and finished the first lap in 1st place.  If I had a lead on anyone, they never passed me during a race.  I didn’t realize it but I was punishing my field.  If one rider finished 2nd behind me one week, he would finish 9th the following weekend.  And if one rider finished 10th one week, he would manage a 3rd behind me the following weekend.  So I was emerging as a consistent, dominant rider.  I really stopped trying to search my feeling because there was nothing special that I was aware of.  I knew I was doing nothing but riding like a chicken with its head cut off, then my fellow competitors started talking.  Fellow competitors see qualities in you that they want, that’s why they mention it to you.  Always give your fellow competitors a heartfelt listen; they are speaking from their hearts. (Doesn’t matter if it’s true.)  They gave me the real scoop.  I didn’t waste any energy nor did I make mistakes in races.  I had great riding technique and balance.  I could read the trails very well, and I was shifting gears at the best possible moment to maximize speed.  I sprinted the fastest on the fire roads from trail to trail. The only mental quality I heard was, WILLPOWER.   I just beat riders up that were trying to keep up with me.  It is very difficult to race for 90 minutes at top speed with 70 guys, and to dominate every week.  My competitors had helped me understand who I was in this mountain bike world.  While winning the championship should have left me feeling very well rewarded and with something of an ego, it really left me quite sad because I knew I had spent an incredible amount of time on something I didn’t love. I suffered a broken pinky, cracked ribs, dislocated shoulder, concussion, and a countless number of cuts and abrasions for something I didn’t love at all.  But I was determined to learn the lesson from this experience, because at that point I felt like I had lost. 

Brian Pace in cycling mode.

I really started to think about what I had done.  I was actually riding for a Team that had won the Team Championship the year before, so they were good.  We trained harder and longer than any of the 550 teams in the Series.  I had mastered all the techniques that made me an accomplished rider.  But the most important factor was having the ideal environment.  I trained with the best riders, under the most pressure, and there was an expectation for me to win.  That is what I was missing in table tennis in Florida.  If I wanted to put myself in a position to unlock my potential in table tennis, then I had to play table tennis abroad.  Europe was the obvious choice if I wanted to pursue this. 

So, if I was going to go to Europe (which is what I labeled the ideal environment) in pursuit of the 6th gear, I had to take a look and decide if I should really do it?  At 29, I took a very critical look at myself.  I looked at my physical body, and I had not acquired any wear and tear.  Matter of fact, I have never been injured from my 15-year table tennis career.  I also love to play and it would take an incredible amount of competition to get me to the point of burnout.  The unseen factor that Jimmy Butler told me about years ago was missing living in America.  However, I am just too hungry to let anything get in my way now.  The last factor, and the biggest one, was could I learn the skills that would make me a great player?  Gao Jun gave me this answer, and I didn’t even ask her.  We did an exhibition together and she pointed out all the qualities that make a great player.  She told me most great players only need 2 of the 3 physical skills to be world class.  The skills were speed, power and touch.  She told me I have all three and that is rare.  She told me that she has seen me lose matches 3-0 to a player 2700 and I have touched every ball.  I had not been played off the table, but simply out-skilled.  Gaining skill is a matter of being in the right type of environment. The top Chinese players are taught the same skills for their style, but it is the players with the best physical ability that will stand out.  The only question I asked her was does she think I could do it now?  Her answer was she could not name a better person than me.  She stated that almost all of the top players in the U.S. will never have my physical gifts, but through training I could gain better touch and feel for the ball.  This all came from a person that won a Silver medal in the Olympics, and she really did not have to give me this kind of praise. 

I have always asked myself why I have continued to play table tennis, and the main reason is I want to be all I can be before I walk away from that life.  I really don’t want to have any regrets about it.  If I walked away from it right now, I would feel like I had cheated myself.  I have achieved a very high level for an American-born player, and it would hurt my character if I never went to see how I would respond in a more intense arena. I don’t think I would be able to live with myself. While the best players in the U.S. are not American-born, some players have retired and flat-out quit because of frustration of not being able to compete at that level.  I won’t let that get in the way of my achievement as a player.  

So now I have my plan of attack on making the 2004 Olympic Team and I will not deviate from this course.  I will spend the 2001/2002 Season in Romania under Viorel Filimon rebuilding my game.  He specializes in the fundamentals, and I’m sure I will take some strong hits and setbacks but I’m prepared for the trying time.  I will spend May of 2002 training in China, and the summer in training to make the 2002/2003 Season my debut as the first American player to play the entire ITTF World Tour.  I have set some very bold goals for myself.  I now understand that it is not whether or not I will make the Team in 2004, it is if I will do everything that is necessary to be the best player I can be going into the period so that I can call on my 6th gear quality when I need it. 

So when the players become critics and say I’m too old at 29, the foreign players are too good, my hand-eye coordination is going bad, the younger players are more ambitious, I can’t learn those skills that another human being has, in a flash I think … I think back to mountain bike and the broken pinky, concussion, dislocated shoulder, cracked ribs, and 9 stitches in my leg that made me open my eyes.  I realize that when the time is right and I have acquired these skills I will be able to look at any player and let them know that I am willing to die before I let them win, but also to be able to play like it.  That’s having that 6th gear to rise to that occasion.  Then, in a flash, I’m back to reality, and to this seemingly uneducated person who’s just waiting to see how I respond, I simply smile and say something polite and walk away.  Under my breath I harmonize, it’s just a matter of time until the 6th gear is mine.