Time-out! How psychological momentum builds up and breaks down in table tennis

Ruud J.R. den Hartigh (1) , Christophe Gernigon (2)

1 University of Groningen [Groningen]
2 EPSYLON - Dynamique des capacités humaines et des conduites de santé

The current study examined the development of psychological momentum (PM) in table tennis and theeffect of a time-out. Eighty table tennis players were exposed to an audiovisual scenario, in which theyeither came back from 1–7to7–7 in an all-decisive game (positive momentum), or in which the opponentcame back from 7–1to7–7 (negative momentum). Furthermore, at the score of 7–7 a time-out was called.One group of participants received no specific instructions during the time-out, whereas the other groupreceived task (mastery-approach–MAp) instructions. Overall, PM perceptions increased for participants inthe positive momentum condition, but decreased rapidly for participants in the negative momentumcondition. In addition, the time-out led to a loss of PM in the positive momentum condition, but to arecovery of PM in the negative momentum condition. The instructions during the time-out did not make asignificant difference. Together, these results suggest that scoring patterns in a table tennis gamesignificantly affect the PM of players. Furthermore, a player or coach could benefit from calling a time-out in a negative momentum situation, as this provides an opportunity to psychologically recove

Mots clés: sportpsychology; streaks; psychological dynamics; racquet sports; Achievement goals

Domaines: Psychologie et comportements

Ruud J.R. den Hartigh, Christophe Gernigon. Time-out! How psychological momentum builds up and breaks down in table tennis. Journal of Sports Sciences, 2017, 36 (23), pp.2732-2737. ⟨10.1080/02640414.2018.1477419⟩. ⟨hal-02518212⟩