Wednesday 11th July 2007
I'm back from my trip to the 2007 Australian Open, so in this blog update I'll summarize what I learned from the competition. I'll start outlining my plans for next year in future blog updates.
Overview
Considering the less than ideal preparation I had for the tournament, I was actually quite satisfied with my standard of play at the Open. On the whole, I beat the players I should, and didn't lose to too many players that I shouldn't. That doesn't mean that I don't think that there is no room for improvement though!
I finished somewhere around the 18-20 mark for the tournament, which was a fairly accurate placing considering my level of play during the week. So for next year, if I'd like to step up and get close to a top 10 finish, I need to improve enough to pass another 10 or so players. Ideally I'd also need a win or two against some of the existing top 10 players.
With close 3-2 losses against players such as Danny Semmler, Adam Green, and Simon Wallace , and 3-1 losses to players such as Alex Swanson, George Tang, and Xiao Wang, I don't think it's totally impossible for me to improve enough to collect a few wins against players of this caliber. I also lost 3-2 to Simon Gerada and Scott Houston, but in all honesty I only got to the 5th game because Simon and Scott were cruising - I wasn't really in any danger of winning that 5th game!
So I think with a good preparation and a tournament where I'm playing near my peak, I could get myself up around the 10-15 mark. Then it just comes down to whether you win a couple of the close games during the week. So that's my basic goal for next year - to take another shot at clawing my way up to a top 10 position in the Order of Merit.
Making Plans
What do I need to do to get there? Several things really, but here's a brief list of the areas of my game that stood out as needed some more work for next year.
- Service - my service is adequate but not really a weapon. I also need to tighten up my serves a little to avoid getting an unexpected loop return from my opponents. This is going to require a number of hours at the table practicing serves.
- Return of serve - was actually better this year I think. I'll keep working on reading the serves better, and getting in my defensive ready position quickly and smoothly after returning serve. Too often I was slow in getting back and paid the price when my opponent's third ball scorched past me. The problem is I can often get away with that locally, since there are only a handful of opponents who can punish me for returning loose and standing too close to the table. I'll have to start disciplining myself to get back into my defensive position consistently.
- Defence - my defence was adequate, but nothing to write home about. I'm still chopping a little bit too high too often. I actually found I did better when I tried to get aggressive with my forehand chops and get some real heavy spin on them. This gave my opponent something to think about, and made my floats more effective. I also need more work on widening my defensive area, so that I can cover more ground in a balanced fashion. So I can foresee plenty of work on the robot working on spin variation and footwork.
- Fitness - this was definitely a weak spot for me. The playing hall was freezing, but I didn't have the fitness I needed to be able to do a full warm up for each match, and then go out and play. Carrying many extra kilos also cuts down your court coverage as well, which doesn't help. This is definitely a must do for next year - I need to be in good shape to handle the training load and the full week of the tournament.
- Attack - I found myself relying a lot on my backhand attack, since my forehand was too inconsistent during the week. I also noticed that if I was forced to hit more than two attacks in a row, I tended to miss the third attack a lot, quite often hitting it on the top of my racket. On the other hand, my backhand counterattack after chopping was working pretty well. I'm not 100% sure whether I should be trying to hit my attacks harder to shorten the rallies when attacking, or whether I should go for consistency. I'll have to mull this over a little bit more.
- Equipment - I'm quite happy with my equipment now, and I'm using a Timo Boll Spirit Blade with Dr.Neubauer Domination 1.5mm on the FH side, and Stiga Destroyer OX on the BH side. I have also started using some prosthetic inserts for my flat feet that I have had for many years, but never used for table tennis before. These seemed to help reduce the amount of aches and pains in my legs a fair bit.
- Video - besides videotaping many of the top players, I also got a lot of Paul Pinkewich (a top Australian defender for many years) on tape this year, and I'll be looking at his play closely to see if there are any tactics and strategies I can steal from him.
I'll be starting to make plans for this year's training in the next week or so, and I'll update my blog as I start to finalize my goals and schedules for next year. Stay tuned!
