The moment is here. The moment to prove that all of your hard work has paid off. I will give some tips on the things to do in the tournament which may help.
1. Arrive an hour early
It is important to arrive early so that you can become accustomed to all the aspects of the playing site. These aspects include the lighting and the floor. Also, it is necessary to warm up your strokes. Your 1st match should be treated like your last match, and therefore, you have to be ready.
2. Bring the right stuff in your bag
Starting off with the most basic of things, it is important to bring your paddle, shoes, food, backup paddle, floor towel, and hand towel, etc. Also, when wearing a shirt, make sure it is not white or orange.
3. 6 point breaks
These breaks can be taken every 6 points to towel off and to regroup. However, these breaks are extremely under utilized by most players. These breaks are the time to rethink your strategy. Anyone that watches matches of the top people in the world sees that they always take their 6 point towel breaks.
4. The timeout
This is used by most players. However, it is not always used at the right time. Some players have a belief that they have to save their timeout for possibly the 4th or 5th game. This is not logical as each game is worth the same. If you are need to take your timeout in the first game, it is perfectly logical.
5. Taking a mental break
After every so often, it really helps to go outside and just take a mental break. It helps to relieve your mind off of table tennis for a couple of minutes and just relax.
6. Check the players racket.
It is important to check your opponents racket before every match. Also, test the friction of the racket with a ball. If there is less fraction, the ball will have less spin and if there is more spin, the ball will have more spin.
With these 6 tips, it will help create a better tournament for yourself and you perform as well as you would have wanted to. However, if you do not perform to your standards, it is important to not act like a sore loser, and if you win, you should not be unprofessional.
Written by Shreyans Bafna (age 15)