Another excellent good training session again.
Beated as usual my teammate (same as above) 3-2.
Beated for the first time an experienced lady. Last time we had a match was 1 or even 2 years ago, and she's not getting younger for sure. Obviously she cannot move well but she has a solid game, takes agressively the ball early especially with her BH, flat hits any high ball, and unusually has soft pimples on FH. Until now I had no solutions to her fast serve + hit combo, but today i was very consistent in rallies, got used to her serves quickly, and because i figured out she was not testing me in the short game, i played a bit farther from the table than usual so i could deliver stronger and spinnier attacks. a 3-1 victory -10 +10 +9 +4 , i couldn't even get ONE set from her before.
One small but important detail I've changed very recently is my posture where i have the feet less on the same line, and the left foot more forward, so more european style than Japanese style. I feel I have a better balance, especially for receiving on the BH side, and even on the FH side because I have the bad habit to step with my right foot towards the ball so i end up trying to loop with the right foot in front of the left foot which is very bad and makes me miss a lot those FH receives. With my new waiting position, this doesn't happen anymore.
I also played with a small kid. He's there every Tuesday like me. He's still in primary school but already so good !!! very good technically, looping from both sides, he can flick both sides, excellent serves... I can still beat him, but a few months ago it would be rather easy, now i really have to play my best, and he can get 1 or 2 sets out of me if I am not 100%. Surely next year or next next year he will beat me bad !!! What impresses me even more is how positive he is. He is always smiling, whether he wins or loses. I never saw him cry when losing (training or tournaments). He is just enjoying TT. I hope for him he will become really good at it and enjoy it till he's 90 or more !!!