Tuesday 31 January 2012
In my last blog update I discussed some of the things I had learned during my attempt to get fitter and healthier in recent months, and how they had carried through into my one main New Year's resolution for 2012, which was to take a flexible approach to my table tennis training. I also mentioned that I was hopeful that my new weight training regime might just make it possible for my body to withstand the stresses of playing an aggressive combination bat style, mixing long range defence with attacking play.It's now a month since I wrote that blog update, I've participated in some fairly long and intense training/playing sessions since then, and the results are in. Here's the skinny(!) on how the addition of weight training and subsequent loss of body fat and increase in muscle has affected my table tennis.
Physical
Since that last blog post, I've continued to watch my diet, lift weights two to three times a week, and do my daily aerobics. Consequently I've dropped another 5-6 pounds of body fat, and added another pound or two of muscle, which I'm very happy with. There's still plenty of work to do, but I'm keeping on track.As I mentioned, I've had a few pretty heavy sessions of table tennis training and play of two hours or more, and each time my body has pulled up quite well the next day. When you add the fact that before each of these sessions, I'd also done around one to one and a half hours of aerobic work in the morning, you can see my aerobic fitness is pretty good.
Aerobic fitness is all well and good, but the main concern has always been whether the aggressive defence style of play that I prefer will leave my body aching the next day. I'm pleased to report that this month I haven't had any problems with the old aches and pains that I used to suffer from. The day after a heavy training session I'm a little stiff and I can feel that I've had a hard workout the day before, but it's nothing that a good warm up can't fix. It's an amazing difference compared to how my body felt back in October 2011.
So it looks like after many years of suffering with lower body aches and pains after table tennis and trying several different approaches in vain, what I really needed to do was strengthen my body with some good all round weight training (i.e. plenty of compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, etc). So I think I'll be able to stick with my preferred style of combination bat attack and long range defence this year.
On the Table
We haven't started our main competition season over here yet, but I've been playing a few games in training, and I can certainly feel the difference that being fitter and stronger makes. My touch game is still a little rusty at the moment, but I've got another three weeks before my first competition, which should be plenty of time to iron out the kinks in my serve return and short game.I'm also just a fraction out in my overall rallying due to not having my bat angle and stroke techniques quite dialed in, but this is rapidly improving as I'm now playing 3-4 times a week and getting more table time, so I don't think this will be an issue for more than another week or two.
On the flip side, my improved aerobic fitness and extra body strength has allowed me to play at a higher level for much longer. I no longer need to worry about conserving my energy during a session, since I can play hard for a couple of hours straight without a problem. And while I'm never going to be the fastest player around, I'm definitely a notch quicker around the court, and while chopping or counterlooping I'm now comfortably reaching balls that were going past me in previous years.
More importantly, my ability to transition from defence to attack has improved out of sight - I'm finding it to be almost routine to move from chopping to picking off high balls with a forehand counterloop. In the past I was almost always too slow to make this happen, and I had to depend on a backhand pick hit, which made attacking a slow, high loop from my opponent almost impossible. Now if my opponent tries to throw in a high spinny loop against my heavy chop, I can finally move in quickly and pound the ball with my forehand counterloop, and what a difference it makes in terms of placing pressure on my opponent!
The extra leg strength that I now have allows me to keep my legs wider throughout the rally, get around the court faster, and play long defensive rallies without struggling to get down to low balls. It's so much easier to push up quickly from either leg and return to my basic ready position when chopping a low ball. Definitely a plus.
Looking to the Future
So does all this improvement mean that I will now be dominating my local scene, especially if I drop a few more pounds and get even stronger and faster? Not necessarily, but it does bode well in general.While being stronger and fitter is definitely going to help, I'm still going to have to work on my techniques and tactics - I know for a fact that I need to put in a lot of hours of chopping technique work and chopping footwork drills. It's not enough to just be stronger and faster, you also have to be able to use that extra strength and fitness to get to the right position to play the ball, decide the correct stroke to play, and then use the correct technique to make the shot. I've still got plenty of room for improvement there.
Also, bear in mind that my opponents will no doubt be attempting to improve their own games as well. Table tennis is not a solo sport, so you have to deal with what your opponent brings to the table as well!
