I haven't been posting in this thread for a little while, simply because there isn't anything much to post about due to me not playing much, and how terrible my playing environment is for improvement. (at this point, you may be thinking, why am I complaining so much, but I only really realized this after what happened tonight. The reason is because our uni club is using at least 5 different 'brands' of balls, and when i say 'brands', nearly none of them are 'ittf approved', and they are all still 40 not 40+. some of them feel like paper, some look like they can be fluorescent! The bad thing is that there is no barriers in a basketball court, with 8 tables. So if I was to bring my ball to play there, it will be lost in no time. With such a variation in ball quality, it is really difficult to practice any technique, as every ball is basically different, and I spend more time looking at the ball Im holding than thinking about what I should alter in my stroke)
I got to farewell my Taiwanese friend who is going back to his country after his graduation. He told me he has been playing some oldies back in Taiwan, and they beat him. He also said the players at the university play daily, so that is a huge difference to the level we get here.
Anyway, there were 4 of us playing together, for the last time playing with our friend 'K'. I used my ball DHS 40+. Good old ball, Ive been playing with it for more than 20 hours, including tonight, hitting it at max speed against metal and what not, and it still survives!
I played each of my friends, in the sequence: K, T, E. Then we played doubles.
So I played K first. It was actually a tough match for me. He improved since he went back to play in Taiwan for only 3 months, and I probably got more rusty due to playing less as well as how poor the training environment at my uni is. I took the first set, he took the 2nd set. I barely took the 3rd set after duels, and I think that was the game changing set, as I was behind, and came back to level it at 10-10. I took the 4th set (and final set) at 11-9. Winning it barely at 3-1. This is the only match that I recorded, as my phone was out of storage, and I improvised without a tripod by putting it on my blade holder, which turns out to be not too bad. So I might upload that and show you guys as you may be wondering how bad Ive got since the last time you guys saw me playing lol. (but please be patient, Im back in Aus, so there is no more 4min upload, but probably hours lolol).
2nd match against T: I played him perhaps a week ago, and that time I barely won against him 3-2. I sort of knew I have some trouble receiving his serves, so I tried to anticipate it so it does not shock me as much. I played better this time, and beat him 3-0 while playing quite aggressively, making alot of high risk shots.
3rd match against E: He knows my game the most, as he used to be my informal coach last year when I go play weekly matches. My most recent records against him had been quite close, either winning 3-2 or losing 2-3. Today, I was playing at my peak for some time, and I beat him 3-0! There was a set that was very close, but I held my ground, and tried to play natural, not holding back, and did some good RPB serve return. Quite happy with the results really, as I was expecting this to be the hardest match out of all.
4th match: the doubles.
I teamed up with E, as we always do. Won the doubles 4-1. Quite a convincing win, with a score of 11-1 in 1st set.
From how well I was able to perform tonight, I can totally see the significance of ball quality. Notice here, I am not talking about whether I want to use butterfly or nitakku or DHS balls, I am talking about just simply a decent ball. The past few weeks, our club has been using balls of all sorts (that aren't even decent, without ittf approved brands, some of which I call paper balls, as their sound is so different, their weight is like I'm hitting paper). Today I got to use my own ball, a 40+ ball throughout the whole session, and my touch benefit a lot simply from that. No more trying to adjust to each ball every rally.
Anyway, I am happy with my performance tonight, and I am happy to farewell my friend off. I may find him in Taiwan in the future, as it isn't hard to visit Taiwan from HK. But tonight's experience really made me think twice about going back to the uni club, simply because of the balls. This year is not going to be the table tennis year for me, as I will be focusing on my final year of studies, I am quite certain I will be quite cautious in choosing my club next year!
