What do you think about after you lose a match?
 
 
Are you angry?
 
Do you make-up hundreds of excuses?
 
Do you feel like a loser?
 
Do you learn from your losses?
 
Do you grow stronger through the trials?
 
The former world champion (Jean-Philippe Gatien) gives us some helpful insight on losing…
 
“I think I have learned a lot in the course of my career, especially by losing matches.  I remember quite a lot of defeats and in my opinion, you become mentally strong and play games differently later each time you try to learn something from a defeat, try to turn it into something positive. 
 
For example the finals of the Olympics, were I lost 3/0… it was a final like no other… it was the finals of the Olympic Games, the first ones of my career, my fist big final, with an enormous amount of pressure and more than a lot as stake…  I had prepared for this competition for a long time, but… well… I lost 3/0, but I played an Olympic final…  I could feel what this meant, in the middle of the arena, the entire world watching, being expected to win by millions of people watching me on TV back home in France.  This experience of the pressure in my first big final helped me win the second one. 
 
In New-Delhi, I remember a match that was a key match for me, on a head level.  It was against Grubba.  I was leading with 5 match points in the final game and lost.  Of course, I was very disappointed, I couldn’t sleep for several nights, and since then, this has been a strong moment that I have remembered in my head, but it has taught me a lot, and since then, I have never lost in a similar way again.  I have always learned from losing.  This has helped me a lot in my progress.”