so January is already almost past us in 2023.
i had already 2 tournaments this year. on Jan7th, i wasn't ready at all, although i had played 2-3 times before the tournament, i hadn't trained properly and was out of condition after going back to Europe, still some jet lag and 3 weeks without touching a racket. lost a lot of matches that i could have won and my level was pretty poor especially compared to last November.
Then i started to recover physically and I'm in much a better condition, although not yet at my best yet.
Today at a tournament, i was playing in Doubles with my friend Eric, and after winning our group we lost 0-3 (-6 -6 -8) to the eventual winners which were much stronger. We learnt plenty and hope we'll do better next time.
In singles, in a group of 3, i won my first match 3-2. I should win this more easily, but thats the way it is. still too many stupid mistakes but OTOH there were a lot of quality shots/ rallies, I was always ahead, and it always felt the match result depended more on me than the other guy, and i didn't choke.
in the second match, its a younger guy that i've beaten only once in many training matches, and not played for a while. his main quality is his consistency, a bit of variation with his short pips BH, and good underspin pushes. i was the better player for more than 50% of the match, leading 10-7 in G3, we were 1 game all then. I didn't choke but i got a bit more tense, and lost 2 long rallies at 10-8 when he was serving and my receives weren't very good quality compared to what i did during the game, and i was in passive mode, a bit too far from the table, and missed the counter attack twice. i don't blame myself much for those end of set tactical choices, but I regret more the beginning of G3 where i was 3-0 up with momentum and lost with little reason the next 3 points.
However there was no reason to lose G4 so badly 2-11, worse its like i gave up at 2-8. i gave him the match too easily, why ????
----
so first of all, for 2023, im making a big change as i bought a new racket with new rubbers. going from Nittaku Acoustic Inner + T80 (1.9) + D80 (1.9) to Tibhar Kenta Matsudaira Carbon + Tibhar Hybrid MK (max) + Tibhar Hybrid K3 (max). i don't change often at all my setup, i've been playing with the same for more than 4 years, so its a bit of a change. but i've tried the new setup once and had a great session with it, i train a lot and feel it would be beneficial to my game.
I think i've improved quite a bit with all the training and coaching i received in the last few years, but it doesn't show so much in the tournament results because I haven't been working enough on the skills that make you perform well in match (like serving / receiving / 3rd ball) but more on footwork, technique, FH/BH transition for example.
I've started to work much more on the match skills (serving / receiving / 3rd ball) from last year only. i can see some improvements but there's more work to be more consistent with this in match.
so now matches are like: some very very good quality stuff, alternating with stupid mistakes and some holes in the game still.
I still believe that despite my age (50) if i can make the effort to keep a good physical condition by doing running / swimming / gym etc... outside TT , then i still have some better days of TT ahead. the goal for 2023 is to get more consistent in serving / receiving / 3rd ball and win more matches. I hope i will contribute to the team doing well and we can get in higher divisions
