Four aims were pursued by this self-developed qualitative, sequential match observation method: 1. To extract typical game situations. 2. To find out which competences distinguish between good and very good international players (WTTC of 1985, 1987, 1989). 3. To find psychological reasons for inappropriate situational assessments. 4. To get new information about the inner structure of rallies including the origins of mistakes and points. Diverse work was done in advance, like defining typical game situations of rallies based on psychological research and developing a new appropriate observation method. Based on four preliminary studies, five basic conditions or values could be defined with regard to the effect of a shot (numbers in brackets: numerical code providing calculations of all single (4312 shots in total) and combined events): "mistake" (0), "disadvantage" (2), "stalemate" (5), "advantage" (7) and "direct point" (1). Every rally can hence be seen as a chain of interdependent values (psychological perception and assessment) like e.g. 5 (service) - 2 - 7 - 2 - 1. This leads to the idea of 15 pairs of combinations /situations between two ball contacts, e.g. 5 - 2; 7 - 5 and four main situations that include these 15 pairs: situations of 1. decision, 2. change, 3. preliminary decision and 4. stalemate (3. and 4. with flexible length). Observers were trained to assess the values. To compare the effectiveness of different players` actions, a calculation model was developed. Results (selection): 1. The quality of the return distinguishes best between good and very good players. 2. Very good players reach significantly higher efficiency in dealing with a stalemate value of their opponents than good players. 3. Even international top players seem to be influenced by psychological misinterpretations of game situations.
© Copyright 2017 Proceedings Book of The 15th ITTF Sports Science Congress Düsseldorf, 27th - 28th May 2017. Veröffentlicht von International Table Tennis Federation. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. / Übersetzt mit https://www.DeepL.com/Translator