An phenomenological explore of the tournament experience as an liminality---a case study of national teenager table tennis contest

[[abstract]] After players participated in an important table tennis tournament, they usually return to the routine life with new physical perceptions. These perceptions are likely to be dissimilar to what they are used to and may not only caused by competition itself, but also possibly caused by other meanings from such events. This thesis is focusing on the researcher’s experience and feelings emerged from post-tournament. Using liminality theory by anthropologist Victor Turner and categorial articulation phenomenology, it attempts to sketch out the nature of tournament process and experience, and further to reevaluate the cause of discrepancies between the feelings of pre- and post-tournament. This study found that players enter tournament context, are not just athletic ability rivalry, but also for the flow of being equal yet different, being blended yet detached, being changed yet stabilized, and being blurry yet clear. Therefore, the significance of players participating in tournament is not just for the results of ranking, winning or losing, but with hidden tension and multiple meanings. In addition, the process of participation in tournament gives the players more than just outcome of winning or losing but also provide a self-reflective distance. Due to this distance players can rethink their capacity and location, but also access to opportunities beyond the self. After clarifying the liminality experience and looking at the thinking and logics behind it, the researcher realized that a possibility of another level of reflection does exist.