Finally !!
After nearly 4 months without playing (apart from a few sessions on an outdoor table which wasn't even the proper size), I had a real knock with my teammate E. for 2 hours.
We were both far from our best. But i'm quite happy with the result given the circumstances. Actually in drills i was doing rather ok, especially on the BH side. D80 really suits me well, and is making me forget the SpinArt. Physically i've been jogging regularly and even did a few Air-TT sessions so i was ok.
In matchplay however it was a disaster. E. is a better player than me, but I can beat him from time to time and take sets very often. However we did many many sets, and i couldn't even get one, only a few deuces. My serve, and especially receive game was really under par. Even when I told him to tell me in advance if he would serve topspin or underspin, i couldn't receive properly.
To be able to play today, we had to rent a table in a private school and pay top yen for access.
The public venue we play normally will open on Tuesday, but I'm worried about what they wrote in their website:
- only 30 people allowed while there's 18 tables and peak hours are overcrowded...
- extra screening at the entrance (temperature, paperwork...) --> loss of time
- everyone should play with a mask
- access to changing rooms will be limited (no more than X persons at a time)
We cannot expect tournaments to resume anytime soon. 2 June tournaments that I registered to have been cancelled.