After a period of successful table tennis tournaments and high-level play, you sometimes expect to be able to play at that level any time. This expectation can eventually become your downfall. With this added expectation comes the pressure of performing at the level you’re accustomed to. Poor decision-making, a lack of relaxation, and even your playing well below your newly attained level come from the added personal pressure. Once you start playing poorly, you will get frustrated that you are not playing your usual game. This leads to more bad losses and results and the downward spiral continues.
The only way to get out of the cycle is to take a step back and analyze how and why you are playing so poorly. Is it your training method? If you have experienced a steady gain in your level over time and your results up to this point have been good, then it probably isn’t how you’re training. Most of the time the cause for a sudden period of poor results can be summarized in one word: expectations.
Before your winning streak began you were table tennis training and working hard to improve your weaknesses. You went to a tournament hoping that your training would pay off, but you weren’t really sure if it would. In other words, your expectations for yourself and your game were relatively low, and so you were relaxed and focused on just playing the best table tennis that you could. There was no pressure and no fear, which is the exact reason you played so well. As soon as you began to have expectations, you started feeling the added pressure, and playing table tennis with too much pressure will almost always lead to poor results. So, instead of playing with the expectation of winning, play to improve your game, and you will consistently play at your best.