When you watch the Olympic table tennis competition and indulge in the superb skills of our athletes (when the national table tennis players are in their prime and have a good heart), they will definitely notice a small action that they sometimes appear.
The picture shows the mixed doubles scene of the final of the 2021 Nanyang World Table Tennis Championships, and the players in the picture are Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin, who won the championship yesterday / YouTube
It was once jokingly called the "Chinese Ping Pong Secret Technique"[1], and netizens also commented on "Dragon's Breath", "Soul Injection" and "Magic Begins"......
This is the "blowing method" - national table tennis players often have the action of "blowing a breath" before serving. Don't underestimate the importance of this action, the 2021 Tokyo Olympics banned athletes from blowing on the field for special reasons, Liu Guoliang said frankly: "The preparation for this competition is extremely difficult, there are too many problems...... Including some rules during the epidemic period, you can't blow it...... [2]”
Athletes are indeed not very comfortable during the competition, and after being reminded countless times that they can't blow the ball, Malone can only blow his hands in the end; Xu Xin urgently stopped the hand that wanted to bring the ball to his mouth, and this scene was also named "Stop because of blowing", and there was a hint of distress in the amusement [3].
So why is it so important to blow this breath, could it really be that you take the opportunity to inject immortal energy or magic?
Everyone jokingly called the Dragons like "blowing nails"; Xu Xin "wants to blow and stop" in the mixed doubles event of the last Olympics / [3]
Blowing the sweat of the "surface",
It's a superficial reason
The first generation of "Big Devil" Deng Yaping gave an explanation in 2021: "Because people sweat when they are nervous, and when they catch the ball, it will be damp, and it is easy to directly cause the opponent to make mistakes, because the point on the ball will not bounce, and there will be abnormal rotation when catching the ball, and it will slide down as soon as the ball is received...... [4]”
In short, it is the sweat on the ball that affects the friction of the table tennis ball, which in turn leads to the loss of control of the ball, and the water on the ball can be avoided by drying the water on the ball.
In the process of receiving the ball in table tennis, in addition to the elastic force generated by the impact of the basic ball and the racket, the more important thing is the use of friction: when receiving the ball, when the person uses the racket to exert a force at a specific angle on the ball - at this time, the direction of the racket and the ball is not perpendicular, so the friction generated by the relative motion between the racket and the ball is added, which makes the ball spin [5][6].
The flight trajectory, bounce angle and speed of such a spinning ball are different from those of a non-spinning ball, which greatly increases the complexity of the game and the threat of returning. For a master's move, a variety of spinning balls is an essential option. Of course, for us spectators, it also adds to the spectacle of the game [5].
There are many kinds of spinning balls, which can be divided into topspin balls, downspin balls and sidespin balls according to different angles, etc.; The picture shows Sun Yingsha's backhand pulling down the spin ball / Youtube
Studies have shown that the presence of water on the contact surface greatly reduces the friction of rubber [7]. So for athletes, such a change in friction makes the ball uncontrollable, and it may be a matter of raising your hand out of bounds.
It is no wonder that Deng Yaping thinks that blowing a ball is actually a "good thing conducive to fair competition", and even a very few people who want to cheat will use the ball to stain their sweaty clothes and send it out[4], which also uses the principle of sweat to change the friction.
This shows how important friction is for table tennis players.
In fact, it is not only about blowing on the ball, many players are also blowing on the racket, but also to remove the dust from the racket, restore the stickiness of the racket, and then restore the friction [8].
Players are afraid of dust, water and moisture on the paddles and tables when playing; High-level players play very accurately, so they have high requirements for court equipment / [8]
The principle of drying the sweat on the ball is true, but in practice, how much water can be blown off after a short breath?
Unfortunately, this number is insignificant.
Assuming that a person holds a table tennis ball with a diameter of 4 cm [9], the air exhaled by the human mouth can cover half of the spherical surface, and the average exhalation speed of the person is about 12 m/s [10], and at a room temperature of 25°C, the value of the air pressure difference between saturation and humidity [11][12] is about 0.00457 g [13][14].
Seriously, this amount of reduction may not be as much as the saliva carried by a person in a breath. Since you can't actually blow much water off every time you blow it, why do you still blow it?
The use is not on the ball, but in the heart
Deng Yaping once admitted frankly in her book "Heart Power" that in the deciding game of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, she was 2:0 ahead of her opponent. But in the next two games, the opponent tied it to 2:2. [15] The reason why she was able to beat her opponent 21-5 in the tiebreaker was only because she made a small move before turning the tables against the wind[15].
That's her old habit, and just when she's on the verge of collapse, "I get my hands down the table three times before almost every tee. It's not fast, it's hard, slowly, once, twice, three times. It's as simple as that [15]. ”
This is also the method that Deng Yaping's coach has been teaching her to do, and she learned many years later that this is a pressure resistance mode called "thinking blocking". [15] A small action that seemed unrelated to the game became a magic weapon for her to block negative thinking.
She had lost two games in a row because of the "Wallenda mentality" — a term derived from United States high-altitude performer Carl · Wallenda. [16] He was so worried about failure that he forgot to focus on the tightrope walking itself, and as a result, he fell to his death during that performance. It can be seen that the mentality of caring too much about the result has become an obstacle to success.
For Deng Yaping, if she hadn't pressed the table three times, she might have been trapped in the distracting thoughts of "I must not make any more mistakes" and "I must defend the title" [15].
In 1996, Deng Yaping played against Chen Jing, Deng Yaping used her hands to press the table and blow the ball to adjust her mentality / YouTube
It is reasonable to speculate that the action of blowing the ball also plays a role in "thinking blocking" for many athletes on the field.
In a 1987 article published by Susan ·Ziegler, the importance of "Negative Thought Stopping" (NTS) in athletes' training and competition was discussed [17].
On the playing field, the negative effects of negative thinking go far beyond the "Wallenda mentality" – in fact, the biggest opponent an athlete faces is often "negative thinking".
Because they are swallowed up by negative thoughts in their heads, these athletes may really become the failure that they predicted step by step. For example, because they believe that they "make mistakes under pressure", they really can't play at a real level [17].
In the process of blocking negative thinking, in addition to the practice of thinking methods, it is also important to tell yourself "don't think so" through some body language. For example, slapping one's thigh, pinching oneself, and so on [18]. Deng Yaping's pressing table behavior is obviously counted.
In addition to the aforementioned Deng Yaping, the chubby Fan Zhendong also has the habit of wiping his hands with the table. However, because of the special regulations in 2021, he could only turn and rub his half-stretched hand on his pants [19].
It's 2024, congratulations to Brother Dong for being able to touch the table again, and Wang Chuqin on the other side is also touching the table; The "Shatou" group also touched the table together / [20][21]
At the same time, studies have shown that the combination of physiology and psychology is more effective in blocking thoughts, and that the action is more effective if it can be temporarily detached from the task at hand [18].
It can be seen that perhaps it is precisely because the actions of "pressing the table" and "blowing on the ball" are trivial actions that can help athletes with high mental tension to block the negative thinking caused by anxiety in their minds [15].
Small movements, big effects
The self-regulating behavior of a table tennis player, such as doing something before a specific "skill", falls under a larger category and is called "pre-performance routines (PPRs)" [22].
Routines range from warming up before the opening, trying to figure out a few movements, imagining the flow on the field, to waving to the referee and the audience...... All of them count [23].
For table tennis players, blowing, pressing the table, wiping sweat, and doing some simple jumps and stretches also count.
In fact, many elite athletes have already developed a set of routine actions before competing in the real action [22].
The benefits of these movements are numerous: improved concentration; Turn on the sports mode and play the content that you have practiced well; Improve mood and reduce anxiety; improve the sense of control of the situation, etc.[19][24]......
For example, in the warm-up match in 2021, Ma Long was forbidden to blow the ball, so he chose another habitual action: playing the ball to the ground several times with his racket to adjust his state [25].
Because the serve was interrupted and yellow cards were issued, the Dragons had to rely on other ways to adjust their form / YouTube
In fact, a 2024 meta-analysis of routine actions showed that routine actions showed positive effects on improving athletic performance across different types, and that such benefits were effective in both single and combined movements [26].
The most "tempting" aspect is that routine actions have a moderate to significant effect in both a low-pressure (relaxed) and high-pressure (stress-anxious) environment [26].
In fact, routine actions are also divided into "conscious" and "unconscious". The former requires conscious thinking and preparation [27]; The latter is practiced for a long time without the need for conscious control[28] - for example, for many table tennis players, blowing the ball and slapping are often habitual movements that have been cultivated since childhood, and they are done subconsciously without bothering the brain.
For unconscious movements, they not only do not occupy limited attention spans, but also maintain the skill, fluidity and stability of the athlete's movements; Most importantly, in situations of stress or possible variability, these automatic brain programs can stabilize the athlete's mindset and increase self-confidence, allowing them to flexibly adjust their bodies to new situations at any time [29][30].
In the picture, the red clothes are Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin, the former holding his right hand and stomping his left foot, and the latter holding his left hand and stomping his right foot / [31]
In addition to blowing the ball and pressing the table, many people in the national table tennis team also have a small habit of stomping their feet when serving. Although their attention is on the hands at this time, this foot movement also inadvertently helps them to better adjust their center of gravity [31].
And this is why Liu Guoliang said in an interview that year that because he could not "blow air", he wanted to enhance "the honing of athletes' ability to resist pressure and interference" in his daily training [2].
The picture shows Liu Guoliang being interviewed in 2021 / [2]
Here is a quote from Sun Yingsha after winning the 2021 ITTF competition: "Because we have given a lot in the mixed doubles, this gold medal is our best start. So, from the gold medal at that time to the Olympic gold medal today, the Shatou combination lived up to expectations and deserved it.
Congratulations to them!!