played a round robin tournament in a TT school today.
I still make the same stupid mistakes damn it. It was a bit cold and i didn't bring a sports jacket. I was playing first 3 out of 4 matches after refereeing - sometimes 2 matches in a row - and my body was cold. of course i played crap in game 1 in all those 3 matches.
1st match I play a young teen, after losing G1 , i won convincingly G2 with a large margin but a lot of nets and edges. in G3 and G4 i wasn't so lucky and outplayed. defeat 1-3
2nd match i play a young adult, a chopper with short pips on BH. im out of rhythm and miss a lot, looks like I haven't played choppers in my life. Only after losing 2 first games i remember i played this guy and he beat me already 0-3 easily. I learnt nothing. the reason is i received too weakly his BH serve especially to my FH. And i rushed and wanted to attack strong 3rd balls whereas he was very weak against slow but very spinny topspin to his FH. I did play such balls but not enough of them, being too impatient and panicking. 0-3 didn't even get to 5. I need to pretend it never happened and forget this match again. Also, i missed many smashes where normally i'm rather good at. I think its because of his unusual short pips rubber, i underestimate the difficulty of those balls. Im more used to LP choppers.
3rd match, i play a 8? 10? year old girl. But i refereed her and was quite impressed by how good she was at her age. very good tomahawk serve, very good BH with short pips, able to take the ball early, and attack everything, and FH flat and not so powerful but fast timing. Very promising. i thought id lose, especially G1 i was outplayed but i then adapted to her serves and started moving much better, and my fighting spirit came back. I won G2 G3 and she started crying. Despite her crying at beginning of G4, she did win this game. But i stayed calm and just focused on serve and getting back quickly in position. I could see she had weakness against very spinny balls, especially long backspin to her FH but i didn't manage to serve well with heavy backspin consistently. Still I managed to close the match 11-8 as she started crying again when things became tight. I felt a bit sorry for the girl for tchooing but if i didn't i would sure have lost.
4th match i played another young teen, he was a bit less strong than the 1st guy. and we warmed up together. i knew he would be very difficult for me to beat especially i had troubles against his serve but fortunately having practiced with him i got used a little bit. He's tchoooing louder and longer than Harimoto but I'm loud as well and quickly let him know.
for once i got a good start in this match. and i'm receiving much better than in practice. I'm playing with less pressure since i won the little girl also. but its tight 9-9 I'm serving and i still can't believe i miss those 2 serves !!! when did that last happen to me ? crap !!!
in G2 and G3 i manage to increase my level and get into the zone. We play some really good TT with long rallies. I play fearlessly and manage to attack many 3rd balls. 2-1 for me. I have a 4-0 lead in G4, but suddenly something must have happened, a point lost stupidly. missed serve or easy mistake, and its only downhill from there. I start to lose confidence , then get tense, and i guess you know the end of the story. 6-11 from 4-0 then 7-11 in G5. disappointing result, I don't think he played suddenly better or changed something, Its more me suddenly collapsing and him able to keep the same good level. My energy drink was already over after G1, and I think i badly needed another boost.
last week i had a good day where i won all 5 matches in another RR tournament. but players today were better I think.
Today I feel I wasn't able to put enough ball quality except in the 2 games won in last match. too tense, and a venue that i didn't know. tables were a bit slower than where i usually play and i didn't adapt well to that. and i didn't move that well.
