MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: 1 Month to Go!

Today marked one month until I fly back to New Zealand to meet my team. One more month to train enough to be prepared for the World Championships. Today the first problems arose, a lot of stiffness and sore feeling in my lower calf above the ankle on my right leg. I reduced my training to around an hour and a half.

We are lucky to be joined at LYTTC by Joey Cochran who is preparing for the Olympic Trial at our club. I practiced with him a little this morning and we had a great long warmup. He won the 2600 event at the recent Aurora Cup in Chicago. I played with Judy after and revisited my two point forehand drill from the week before. Much to my surprise the quality of the drill this time was much better again. My movement was better and my stroke was more compact, allowing for better transition and recovery.

Things that still need to be worked on are stamina and fitness for quicker and longer footwork drills. I'm finding especially in the multiball with Lily that my pulse is just soaring and I'm really losing my breath. Judy suggested I should focus more on quicker burst fitness exercises when I'm doing physical or am at the gym.

I played a practice match later in the evening. Need to drop the habit of pushing serve receives out long and playing too loose. In the rallies I played much more effectively, but still presented too many opportunities to attack and overplayed or mis-timed easier balls. The quality of my good play was really good, but just too many unforced errors coming in which need to be addressed. More match practice definitely needed.

Went to the gym in the evening and just did some very light core work so as to avoid further stress on my ankle. Here's hoping I can sleep it off and be fine for training in the morning! :)

I've also been enjoying my spare time more, getting out of the club whether it be resting at home, watching movies, eating meals out, sometimes I'm partial to try my luck gambling online and I just found Norsk Casino Info which compares the best online casino signup bonuses. All in all having a better time outside of the playing center has also helped my mentality and focus on what I need to do.

MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: Day 9

Sunday was my rest day, Monday I went to New York so today it was back to serious business. First thing I'm still noticing in training is that I'm just not light enough on my feet. It became particularly obvious in the multiball, especially in the 3 point forehand drill that currently I just can't cover the space back to the starting forehand at a very good quality level. I need to keep doing multiball to get lighter on my feet and hopefully it should improve within 1-2 weeks and I will be able to push some harder drills out.

I had a good training session with Lily Yip in the morning. In terms of technique I'm a lot happier with how my forehand stroke is developing. I've managed to make the stroke more linear, take the backswing out from behind my body and add more torque from my waist so I'm adding in a lot more rotation and follow through in my swing. The results have shown more clearly recently!

In terms of things that need working on, re-watching my multiball videos, I still need to get my bat higher when playing backhand against topspin. In my three point drill (top) you can see that my preparation for backhand always starts with my bat dropping below the table and it was obvious again in a later drill. I need to be starting the stroke higher and driving through the ball more when I'm countering.

I need to be more persistent with my morning workouts, today I thought I would leave it until after my training session. As it turned out I did multiball until I dropped to the ground so I didn't have much determination to get up and do physical training.

Fundraising has been going reasonably well, I'm half way to my target but time is running out. Greatly appreciating the support received so far.

www.gofundme.com/mhtabletennis

MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: Day 6 Tournament!

Today was the first real test for me. Since returning to the USA I haven't performed in tournaments very well, lacking a desire to compete or even to be there. With my new mindset and motivation I was hoping today would be a turnaround point. I entered the Open Singles. Usually I find myself in 3rd seed position in the groups with 2nd players like Amy Wang and Judy Hugh from the US Women's team, never an easy draw. To date I had performed ok in rating events but had failed to qualify in the open singles time and time again.

Jessica winning u1600 and u1800! Amazing :D

Today I was 3rd in the group again. My opening match against the top seed for the tournament was a cold start and I played too loose with too many errors, it was 3-0 before I knew it. I wasn't in the zone for that match at all but took it as a warmup. Because of the schedule of other events my second match was against the number 2 player.

I got off to a confident start winning the first game 11-5 with simple serve and control setups. Now here's where the problems started leaking through. In the second set I was far too comfortable and all of a sudden points just started slipping away left right and centre. Before I knew it I was down 6-0 and I didn't even know what had happened. I switched on and tried to wrestle my way back in but lost the set. Third set I tried to get off to a good start, again 7-0 down what on earth was going on! My execution had gone out the window and I was down 2-1.

I had to really focus back onto my gameplan, cut the errors, tighten up and reduce the opportunities for my opponent to attack and start winning points from the very first moment of the set. I knuckled down and pulled out my more third and fifth ball oriented serves and tightened up on my receives, never giving away an easy ball. The shift in control was instant and I won the set 11-6.

I knew in the 5th set it would be a real test of nerves and of who could mark their ground first. I didn't look back, I knuckled down and made sure I structured all my points well and played with stability and intelligence. I took the final set 11-2 after a very decisive performance. I beat the 4th player in the groups but was knocked out in the quarterfinal by Li Jian, a very experienced and high level defensive player with OX long pips, in straight sets.

All in all my performance was a good start, I didn't give up 2-1 down in my important match and I settled and problem solved even with such terrible runs of losing points. A good day.

Topping it off, Jessica, one of the students I have been working with an hour a day mon-fri, won two rating event categories and swiped two trophies, only losing one match over the course of the day! Awesome :D

MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: Day 5

Today was my rest day from my morning workout so I took the opportunity to sleep in a little bit. Woke up and weighed in as usual and watched some table tennis videos from the Chinese National Team trials. I always find watching matches helps with motivation and with picking up ideas and tactics to use in matches.

I had a short training session with Judy, focused mainly on forehand opening and forehand movement. I had a second session with Lily Yip which was really tough.

Lily Yip

Lily was the top player in the Guangdong team in her prime and was one of China's best. She was a 2 time Olympian for the USA and has an incredible passion for table tennis. Lily has been a great coach for me so far and her club really is my home! www.lilyttc.com check it out for more info!

Lily being penhold and short pips has been really good for my game as you need to focus more on spinning the ball and in order to do that your movement and positioning need to be of a really good standard. I did the falkenberg drill and with the short pips blocking (dead ball) it proved to be much more difficult than ever before! By the time I finished I was drowning in my own sweat.

I also focused on dealing with service returns and not always preparing for attack after serve, mainly that I need to build more stability into my game, especially in the early stages of the point. That was something I worked on last night and am trying to improve on throughout the weeks ahead.

Reached 4000 followers on Instagram @mhtabletennis

We have a tournament here tomorrow so I'm just playing one event to try and hopefully get into a match mentality and stay in it. Hopefully I can just remain confident and focused no matter what happens in my games.

So far I'm happy with the progress and the routine, I've already come a long way since Day 1 especially with my mentality and my motivation/confidence.

MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: Day 4

The complete day. Woke up, weighed in, did another day of core workout since yesterday was mixed up. Seemed harder today but I pushed through it, knowing that in the long term it would be worth it. The thought crossed my mind of how much effort it took to stay in great shape, seems like an inconvenience, necessary though!

11am and I was at the club for training with many time US National Team member, Judy Hugh who is preparing for the US Olympic Trials at the beginning of February. We had a decent 1.5 hour training session. I worked on moving from the middle of the table out wide onto my forehand. My first run through the drill was not as great as I had hoped for and really outlined the need to focus more on that area of my game. On my second drill Judy asked me if I wanted to do the same drill again. I don't recall ever having revisited the same drill in a training session, something I may do again in the future as my second time through was much better.

Middle and Wide forehand footwork

I had a more moderate lunch of some soup and a small appetizer at a Chinese restaurant, much less than I would usually order (I'm quite a food addict). Moderation is going to play a big role in getting myself in better shape.

I practiced again in the evening for another 1.5 hours, this time with Barry Dattel. Barry has a lot of experience and knowledge from playing in the USA for many years and training with some very high level players in China in the past. We did some drills and my mechanics on my forehand seem to have improved quite a lot especially on my 5th ball attack.

We moved on to some problems I was having in gameplay with my movement and my follow-up on service against particular service sets. All in all it was a very productive session and restored a lot of my confidence. If I can continue to improve the aspects in the session and bring them into my gameplay then my match confidence should increase tenfold.

After the 2nd training session for the day I went off to the gym, which I just got home from (late I know). I did another 700 calories of cardio, this time using the ARC trainer for the last 30%. The ARC trainer allows you to increase the height of your stride so that it's more like climbing stairs with resistance. It works your quads and glutes more. Ouch.

Happy with my day overall. Confidence is coming back, motivation is starting to grow, hoping I can keep moving forward!