Tuesday 28 July 2015

Training in China: Guo Yan's Young Shine TTC, Beijing #1

So I left Zhengding and the safety of my team from Lily Yip Table Tennis Center and ventured alone into the unknown and unexpected. I took the bullet train to Beijing and was picked up at the airport and brought to a nice modern looking campus.

My small room is right on the sideline of the table tennis playing areas. From my door to table 1 is about 20 metres. It's hugely convenient considering I changed my shirt 5 times on the first day. The club has been open just 2-3 months and I arrived to find a small group of dedicated young Chinese kids. I won 3-0 against the top 2 kids and in doing so did myself a huge favour.


I had an amazing opportunity to train with head coach Zhou Fangfang,  former Chinese National Team and Guangdong Super league team. She has been an exceptional training partner and I have spent part of both of my 2 days here so far training with her, as well as a former Shandong team women's player. I lost 3-1 in my first full match against Coach Zhou. Not bad.


I also had a good multiball session on my first afternoon, it's much hotter here inside the gym so I had to consume 7 bottles of water but there is AC by the front. The food is pretty basic, I'm quickly learning that vitamin supplements are a good idea. I have also had a couple of new English speaking friends Rachel and Andy helping me along the way and also Sergio (a Sergio Ramos fan no less!).

Yesterday evening I took a bus to the city area in South West Beijing (center is in South). I pounced on the opportunity to go to Pizza Hut because training center food gets old real fast. It was bordering on lifesaving. The air quality here is better than I was expecting which has been a plus also.

Guo Yan is in competition currently but returns tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that. I like the vibe here, I like the convenience. The team here have made a big effort to make sure everything is OK for me (being the first foreign player here) and that has made things great.

I'm uploading a lot of material to Instagram so if you aren't following mhtabletennis already make sure you do. The WiFi is a little patchy so hopefully I can get some more YouTube material up!

Stay posted! :)


7 comments:

  1. HI , Can you give us address of this place and if you have any contact number?

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  2. 7 Xinzhuang South Road, Fengtai, Beijing.
    +86 13869148062
    elf_ning@163.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. 7 Xinzhuang South Road, Fengtai, Beijing.
    +86 13869148062
    elf_ning@163.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi.. I have tried to contact the above number and as well as email but still no response..after 6 times of trying..

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  5. Hi Victor, I haven't been able to get in touch with Guo Yan for some time either. I was told recently by a friend in Beijing that they didn't think the club was still operating unfortunately.

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  6. Hello Matt,which place would you suggest is better? Zhengding or Young Shine?

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