Carol Dweck of Stanford University, Author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, has identified 2 distinctly different mindsets of most coaches – the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.
Fixed
The first is the “Fixed Mindset,” in which an athlete sees ability as set. Either you have talent or you don’t. Either you are smart or you aren’t. This mindset is a dead-end because whether you succeed or not is determined by something totally outside you control
In matches, should you use specific patterns or should you just hit anywhere? Well, you always want to keep your opponent off-balance while realizing that there are specific shots and locations that commonly cause errors from your opponent. Today, I’m going to outline a six basic patterns.
(Note: There are actually hundreds of these patterns. I’m just listing six as a starting point)
Investigating, Implementing, Performing
Developing a Tournament Goal
One year at the US National Team Trials, I was leading 3-2 against ***Mark Hazinski and leading 9-3 in the 6th game. After a series of aggressive mistakes by me, he closed the gap 9-8. I simply pushed and blocked the next 2 points to win the match 11-8 in the 6th. Walking off the court, my coach said, “I would rather have you lose the match than to win it like that.” I replied, “The goal was to win.”
Distractions are all around us.
Some are preventable, others are not.
When competing in table tennis, you must do everything possible to avoid the avoidable.
You also must do everything possible to everything possible to block out the unavoidable.
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