The 2008 Australian Open was a good tournament for me. I played quite well in general, didn't lose anything I shouldn't, and had a few good wins to boot. Plus I had a number of players and coaches mention that I was playing better this year, which was a nice ego boost too! My improved fitness and late decision to brush up my defensive skills paid off very well this year.
So what's up for next year? More of the same, but hopefully with even more success now that I've learned a few lessons along the way. I'll be working hard on my defensive game, including trying out Tackiness Chop 1.0mm again (I think I need a bit more spin variation on my forehand chop), and improving my serve and serve return. I still need to drop more weight to get down to my ideal match weight, so I'll be doing plenty of aerobic training too. I'm also thinking of traveling over to Victoria more often to compete in a few tournaments and play more matches against the top players in order to sharpen myself up. I think I need to compete against that level of play more often if I want to really step up to the next level. But this will all have to wait until December, because I'll be spending 3 months or so traveling around Europe from September to early December, sightseeing and hopefully visiting a few table tennis clubs as well. So my main goal for the rest of 2008 is to not get lost in Europe and try to stay in shape while sampling all that excellent European food!
Tuesday 8th July 2008
Time continues to fly past, and now there's less than two weeks to go before I head to Melbourne to compete in the Australian Open. Things are getting serious now!
Competition
Since coming back from Cairns and the Australian Closed, I've been competing in my local pennants regularly and we've had one more tournament - the final round of our Grand Prix competition.
I've been up and down in playing level in pennants, possibly due to a little bit of over focusing on my own tactics during my matches. As I mentioned in my last blog update, I knew I had to work harder on my defense, but I had been concentrating so hard on using my defense more that I was losing some of my rhythm and flow, and consequently I was missing other opportunities during the point.
This dip in my game was also making me a bit worried, with the Australian Open rushing up fast! It was also making me more uptight and grumpy during my matches, which wasn't doing my game any good either. I needed a quick fix or two, and fast.
Taking a step back from things, I thought about my game as a whole again. I felt my attack was working fine, but my defense and my transition to long range defense was still a little bit lacking, even though I had been working steadily on my technique of late. I decided I was still a little bit too close to the table when chopping the ball, which was putting my chop technique under too much pressure. It would also explain why I was often over hitting the table when I was trying to spin the ball that extra amount.
So in the final round of our local Grand Prix on Friday 4th July, I decided to try and do three things:
- Relax and treat the matches as something to enjoy, rather than life or death battles;
- Play the rallies as they come, rather than trying to plan things too far ahead; and
- Whether attacking or defending, do it positively instead of passively and make sure I move into my optimal position quickly.
So did this mean I won? No - I lost in the semifinals 1-3 (6-11, 12-10, 9-11, 9-11) to the eventual winner, Giovanni Cnapich. But my overall play was much more in tune with how I want to be playing at the Australian Open, so I'm fairly happy - and relieved.
Training
I've had a couple of minor hiccups on the training front, but nothing disastrous. The battery in my heart rate monitor went flat, requiring me to send it away for repairs, which took two weeks. During that time I found it quite difficult to really get into my aerobic training - it's just not the same for me without it. So instead of 3 hours plus of training per day, I was doing 1-2 hours. And I caught a cold just after coming back from Cairns, which slowed me down for a while as well. So now with only two weeks to go, I'm more concerned with not getting injured, since I might not have enough time to heal up before the competition. I'm going to have to be content with my current level of fitness - I'm down to 83kg (183 pounds) which is an overall loss of 26 pounds since the start of the year - not bad going. I'm now just looking to get through to the start of the Open in good shape and then I'll try to improve things further next year.
Conclusion
OK - this is probably my last blog update before the Australian Open starts on July 20 2008. I hope you've enjoyed my tales of success and setbacks during the year. I'll try to post an update or two on how things are going during the competition, depending on whether I can find some wi-fi access somewhere in Melbourne. It hasn't been a perfect preparation for the Open, but I've done pretty well overall and I think I've learned a bit more about my body and my game which will put me in good stead for next year. But for now it's time to get psyched for the Open!
