Mental or Physical

Hello Pingskills,

I am 15 years old and have been playing table tennis for about a year now and have been improving quite a lot. Last week, I was lucky enough to go on a school trip to Barcelona. At the hotel, there was a table tennis table and I played a lot with my friends. Unfortunately, the bats and balls were very bad and so I could not attack the ball so I just played very defensively and kept hitting the ball back. However, I played in a real match last night and couldn't attack or play my normal game! I was just playing like I did in Barcelona and I really struggled to attack. I feel that I am good enough to beat all 3 of my opponents quite easily but I only beat 1 of them. Sometimes, I would manage to play normally and would almost always win the point. However, most of the time, especially on my backhand, I would play very badly. I am worried that I will be stuck like this. How can I get back to normal?

Thank you

Hi Matthew,

You are lucky to be able to go to Barcelona on a school trip.

I think it won't take too long to get out of those type of habits.  It is not that your ability to do the attacking strokes has become any worse, it is just your confidence in doing the stroke.

Do this in training.  Practice some 3rd ball attack drills.  Also in training focus on making a topspin every time you get a long ball.  You will soon get your confidence in attacking back.