Monday 18th June 2007
I've been AWOL from my blog posting over the last couple of months, mainly because I've had little positive news to report. Suffice to say that some personal and professional issues jumped me at once, and my preparation for the Australian Open took a back seat for quite a while.That doesn't mean I didn't learn anything from the experience though! Here's a quick summary of the lessons I've learnt from the ups and downs since my last update.
- Table tennis is supposed to be fun, even when you take it seriously. If you ever get on the court and find yourself boiling with anger without any real provocation (which is what happened to me), sit down and have a good think about exactly what is happening in your life and what might be causing it. Then take steps to eliminate what is causing the problem. It is very hard to relax and enjoy your ping-pong when your mind is focussed on other matters. Since I've dealt with the cause of my own stress, playing table tennis has become fun again and I'm much more relaxed on the court, which is helping me to play better.
- Keep a proper perspective on your own worries, and be grateful that you don't have the problems of some of those around you. My problems were real, and important to me, but in the whole scheme of things they weren't worth losing sleep over.
- You get results when you do the hard work in preparation. If you stop training hard, you can coast for a little while on the hard work you have done previously, but sooner or later the lack of training will catch up with you. My results in the last few tournaments (I've made the semis, but no finals, and I haven't been playing all that well) are testament to this.
- It doesn't matter how old you are, there is still room for improvement. Techniques can be refined, tactics can be tried and tested, and your fitness could be better than it is. I look at the way I am playing now and I can see that I have certain areas where some hard work would be of great benefit to my overall game, since I have neglected these areas lately.
- As you do get older, you have to be more aware of what amount of stress your body can actually take and recover from. Warming up and stretching (both before and after playing) become more important. Since you probably have less ability to train hard, you must make the best use of this time as you can - you can't afford to squander your limited energy and recovery ability by fooling around. I've been guilty this year of not really sitting down and planning what I should be doing in training - I've just been coasting along doing the same routines as the year before. I should have been thinking about my game and what wasn't working out there in matches, and working my butt off to fix things.
- Listen to others, especially those who really know their stuff. I was told last year by Paul Pinkewich (a top Australian defender since the 1970's) to try the Dr. Neubauer Domination rubber in 1.5mm to improve my chopping. I was quite happy with the rubber I was using at the time, so I didn't bother to try it out. After being in a bit of a slump, I decided to give the Domination a try - and you guessed it, it was great stuff and I straight away started to play better again! Now I just wish I had tried it when Paul suggested it - it was the off-season and the perfect time to give it a go. Definitely a dumb move on my part in hindsight.
- Don't give up. Nothing lasts forever - especially if you are making a positive effort to improve things. I've not had my best results over the last couple of months, and my own personal circumstances weren't making things easier, but now things have settled down and I'm back on track and feeling like I'm making progress again, and I'm back getting hungry to start training hard.
- Don't expect miracles. I'm going to the Australian Open next week, and I'm not expecting to make the top 10 this year. Looking back, I simply haven't done all the preparation that I should have completed to be able to feel confident that I will have a shot at making it that high. That said, I'm playing better than last year, I'm coming out of my slump, and I'm looking forward to taking a shot at all the best players. So I'm going to relax, enjoy the tournament, and then start making plans to hit the ground running for 2008!
