As you may know at the beginning of this year, the 2025 World Cup Champion from Brazil, Hugo Calderano, signed with JOOLA. After that happened there was a lot of work that went into sampling equipment, and at the end of it JOOLA released two blades and two rubbers in the premium select categories with Hugo's name on them.
The setup that Hugo settled on was the Hugo Calderano ARY-c blade, an innerlayer carbon blade with a limba top layer, and a combination of Trinity Charged 57.5 degree hybrid rubber on the forehand and Trinity Dynamic 52.5 degree hybrid rubber on the backhand.
The rubber came to market first and I was able to make a video review with my initial impressions of them first, you can see that below:
Then after another couple of months the blades were released, and I was finally able to get my hands on both the ARY-c and the ARY-x (no carbon, only ARY fiber) blades. This meant that today I had the chance to combine the full setup together and go and make a new video with the ARY-c blade and the Hugo rubbers together!
Hope you enjoy the reviews, I will be testing out the Hugo Calderano ARY-x blade also with the same rubber setup in the very near future, as well as adding a lot more new content to my youtube channel, including a look at the long-awaited new JOOLA table tennis shoes. So be sure to subscribe over there!
A couple of weeks ago I randomly decided to look back at my blog, and I realized as the internet has changed, and AI scours for answers to people's questions - my blog was actually picking up a lot more traffic. Buried amongst all of the content I spent years writing - were answers to people's questions.
That made me think, as I look to build momentum on YouTube - why not come back to my blog, share more content, and give context around the videos I am making.
In my most recent video (at the bottom of the post), I spent 5 hours putting together, I took a trip down memory lane and gave my honest perspective on the things that hindered me from reaching my dream to be a professional table tennis player.
It's important to note my definition of a professional table tennis player is one who makes their main living from playing table tennis. During my career I would happily call myself a professional table tennis coach, but rejected the notion that I was ever a professional table tennis player.
Althought I played in 3 World Table Tennis Championships, among other international events, it's not a milestone I ever considered that I had achieved, and in this video I talk about why.
Here are the key points of the half hour long video:
1. I wasn't a competitive athlete
I didn't have the mindset of an athlete. I didn't have the competitive drive. I loved to play - but at best of times I hated to compete. My personality didn't care enough to win at all costs, but hated the pressure and the implications of losing. The more I trained, the more I expected of myself, and this ultimately cause me a lot of harm in my career building, which I eventually started trying to shut out by losing any competitive fighting spirit that I had in competition.
To be a professional in anything, especially sport, you need to be driven, fiery, competitive, and with a laser focus.
2. Lack of planning and organization of goals
I had a dream, I didn't have a plan. I was drifting, hoping that investing hours at what I thought were the right things would get me to where I wanted to be. Becoming a full time professional athlete does not happen by accident. I hadn't broken the dream up into a pathway for success, and therefore I lost my way.
Be deliberate in your intentions, if you want to be a professional, you need to plan and goal-set like one.
3. Thing outside of the table
When you see a tennis player on the court, or a football player on the field, you imagine the hours of practice they must have gone through to get there - which is true by all accounts. However a lot of the work to become a well rounded professional athlete happens off the court, or field - or table.
The physical training, the hydration, the recovery, nutrition, among many other things.
I was weak in all of those areas, and most of my competition was as well - improvement in those areas could have helped me surpass a lot of my rivals at the right times during my career playing - at least domestically.
4. Lean into expertise
If you have experts and can access them, then use them. It can be a significant investment, one which athletes in other sports make and surround themselves with a team of professionals in other areas. The physio, mental coach, nutritionist, physical trainer etc. All of those experts can work wonders in professional sports, and having that support can take you to much higher levels.
Granted it's expensive, but if you really want to reach the absolute highest of your potential, experts in other fields will help you to unlock it.
I'm looking forward to making more videos and also catching up posts on other videos I have made since my last blog posts. Feel free to subscribe to the YouTube channel and ask any questions there in the comments.
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