Today was quite a good day. I was well rested and more relaxed than usual.
I'd been trying to let my arm go more lately, and today I finally succeeded somewhat. I did some of the best shots I've ever done and my killshots were much spinnier and stronger than usual and consistent too. I couldn't do this before.
I played my gym teacher again today, going 2-2 in games. I think he was just polite and let me win in the crucial moment on the 4th game.
He is a 1500 player or so based on what I can understand. He can redirect my killshots for crying out loud. I consider him much better than myself.
He played the short game very well, taking away my opportunities to attack, so I had to be more delicate in how I approach serve and serve return. Most of the time I was stuck playing slow loops on low, slow balls towards my forehand, and after he had driven me wide, he played a hooking backhand into my backhand, or blocked it half-long and wide. If I am to avoid this, I need to increase my shot quality, and play more towards his backhand to close up my angle and force him to move as well.
Sometimes, I gained a genuine upper hand over him and forced a pop up to loop hard or just killed one of his worse blocks down the line into his backhand. I think I could have been much more aggressive with my shots, but I'm not quite ready yet. I will try next time for even more whip and pace.
My backhand close to the table against a good opponent is rubbish. I could barely loop, most of the time blocking or driving. I need to improve it, and also learn to step back a little to play my backhands. My forehand was better than before, and while I feel I could REALLY improve on today, I will accept it as it is.
I could also read the ball better than last time I played him. He has a lot of deception on his shots, and sometimes the end result of his motion doesn't make any sense and I'm slightly rushed to the ball, but it's just part of the process. Today I could "feel" through some of the deception, but I still initially fell for some. The angles he can play are much wider than I think.
I wish I had taken video, but I didn't. I will really beat myself up if I don't manage to get some next time. I can safely say he is an opponent who pushes me and gets more mistakes out of me, but at the same time my overall game is higher quality than usual.
