Overcoming a "choke"

Ok, so i just lost a match badly. Actually i knew the opponents really well because i met him several times. 

I was confidence before the game because i just get 2 wins on our last 2 meeting.

When the 1st set starts i was dominating and win the set 11 - 5.

The problem came on the 2nd set. I got 2 serves to start with, and i missed both of them. The first one flew out of the table, the second one can't get over the net.

I started feeling nervous, and when he serves, he got the next 2 point. That set was horrible for me. I missed almost 3rd ball attack opportunities, and made a lot of error.

I ended up loosing the game 3 - 2.

How do i overcome this nervousness, especially in the middle of the game like this, that is my main problem i guess, when i made few mistakes, it will put me down realy fast and i am losing confidence.

Any tips on this?

Hi Nicho,

THe main thing is to firstly recognise when you are getting nervous and then find some things that you can use to calm yourself.

A deep breath while focusing on your breath only can help to calm your mind.  From there you need to focus on your tactics for the next point.  By doing this you are staying in the present moment rather than worrying about what just happened or what is about to happen.

This is an important area of the game.  We are in the process of filming a series on this that will be available shortly.