Outside of wanting to be sure I'm peaking in regards to my strokes, I am preparing myself mentally for anything that may come on or off the table. As usual in how we learn the most, we learn from losses. Let me tell you about one of the all time great psych jobs and uses of gamesmanship pulled on yours truly last summer in the 2013 Cornhusker State games.
I was playing an old veteran from our table tennis club we'll call Larry. It was a knock-out match to advance to the quarter finals. I had to win this match for a chance to medal. In the tournament you play a best 3 out of 5 game series.
Larry won the first game. I even the score up at 1-1 in game two. Then I add another in game three to go up 2-1. I'm threatening to put it away with all the momentum in the world. Things are going my way.
Here's where it all changed.
Early in game four I take a small lead. It's my serve and Larry mentions to me we have the order wrong. (For those not familiar with table tennis scoring, there's a specific pattern to who should be serving depending on how many points have been played.) "No Larry it's 4-2" I reply. "This is correct." How could he think this is wrong? After all we are only 6 total points in. It's not that complicated. "Cut him some slack Steve. He's an older guy and you know this happens from time to time with him at club." I thought. Big mistake. Larry has been playing table tennis probably before I was born and has more experience and savvy in his pinky than I do in my whole body. We continue. Following the next series of points Larry continues insisting that we had something wrong. Confused as to what Larry was talking about, I begin to get aggravated by what seems to be his constant badgering about the score & order. I lose my focus. Larry comes back from the deficit in game four to even it up 2-2.
The final game ensues and I'm boiling about how I dropped that game realizing he broke my rhythm. It's a close final game and I actually get to an "Ad in" match point despite my anger. Larry is serving. I'm thinking in my head "I'm one point away and I'm going to show him. I know his serve and what's coming." Larry serves and I want to smoke a winner at directly at him with an exclamation point. The ball goes well long. Back to Deuce. Larry takes the next two points. Game, set, match.
Still thinking about what the fuss was all about, immediately after we shook hands I asked Larry what he was talking about.
"We got the order wrong in that third game."
(I was livid. The Hulk would have thought I lost my cool.)
Game three? Game three!!! As in the game that was done and over with when we were playing? He was raising his ruckus in game four! Never once did he say anything about the score in game three. I stormed out of there hot as a pistol.
It took me a quite a while to forgive Larry for working me over like that. Having said all of that, as angry as I was, I learned an incredible lesson that day that will serve me well the rest of my table tennis career. If you are playing someone in a tournament, club league match or anything with stakes, be prepared mentally for some gamesmanship possibly coming your way. I've heard it all in tournaments. From gamesmanship to out right cheating where a fellow club member beat a player, the loser offered to turn in the score sheet and switched the results. That might be a little extreme but the point is to be ready for any & everything.
Had I been prepared for Larry's tactic, I would have realized that he is simply trying to break my momentum and get me angry. From there I could have taken counter measures. The key thing is recognizing it's happening. That's step one.
Whether you think gamesmanship is right or wrong is really moot. It's not going away and could happen to you at some point. Will you let it get the best of you? Or will you overcome everything your opponent could possibly throw at you and win.
What do you guys think? Any of you have a good tournament story? Feel free to share.
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