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Let me begin by saying I'm only intermediate, maybe even lower than that. But then how can I access the very high level ? you ask, because my country of origin is not into table tennis at all, while I live and play/train in France and have this mid-level, I'm among the best in my country of origin, mostly because the lack of players. Last december, there was this regional tournament for clubs, where every country in the region send their two or three best teams. Many countries have very good players, other countries have a level that is not great but still better than my country. I accepted the invitation, which means that I now need to prepare for a trip to Cairo.
I'm in Cairo now and my team-mates didn't arrive to Cairo yet but it was our time on the main tables so I said maybe I just go to check the Arena and maybe find someone to play with. One important piece of information wasn't communicated to me was that every club has the right to hire one international professional. So I'm walking into the tables and I was like, is that Gacina ? whats going on here ? it was actually him, so I totally forgot that I'm supposed to be a player just like him not a fan and I actually went to him and told him that I was so happy for him winning that WTT title. Took some balls and tried my serves and players started pourring in, ok thats Meshref and Goda, oh this Gardos ? Quadri , what a beast , Szocs aussi ? this is absolutely crazy you know.
Now comes the most irritating part of this whole experience. In France, the mid level called "regional" and there is only one general umpire, the real referees are the players themselves. So we kinda only inforce the general rules of not hiding the serves, and even that only to an extent. Having played only in France, and now I'm in this international thing, two umpires per match, and all my serves are wrong !!! you ask what was it, do you hide your serves ? do you not launch the ball 16cm ? well non of that, it was just the starting point, I have the ball on fingers, instead of starting from the palm. Many of you would understand, but changing the starting point to the palm, screwed all my timing and rythm of the serve, now I'm playing very strong ppl and I can't keep the serve short or with good underspin !!! Let me be clear, with my original serves, many matches the best I could have done is maybe winning a set, few others nothing at all, only one match I felt like the guy has the same level as me, and if I would have won that one, my team would have won because we also hired a semi-pro younger guy who wins most of his matches. So winning, other than that one match wasn't the point but at least I could have enjoyed playing, which with new shaky serves, I didn't really.
Let me serve you the main dish. I think it the second day when I met Antoine Hachard, nice guy, being both from France I approached him and when I told him about my ranking in France, we were both dying laughing, because you know, I have absolutely nothing to do here lol. The thing is, people saw me talk to him and laughing together so they assumed we knew each other beforehand or something ?!! I'm saying this because when it was the time to play the big names, I'm now on the table opposed to #100 in the ITTF ranking !! someone I used to see on Youtube for God sake. However, for some reason, he was really really serious, like upon doing the toss, he actually chose to change sides !! like only ppl who are really serious about winning their match would do that. First set, tight serves, on his toes and absolutely crushing me, my only concern even before the match begin was not to loose 11-0. Upon 8-1 he realised he doesn't have to actually be that serious, so the next two sets he just played whatever and I didn't loose a set with 0 points. two days later it actually hit me, the guy saw me with Antoine, he doesn't speak french , so he thought, this guy (me), maybe I should be careful playing him hhhhhhh
To my defense, I wasn't in my normal form even if the serves weren't called out. It was the first time in my life I'm playing TT and there are actual ppl in the stands shouting either for me or against me. There was this woman cheering for me loudly and I really wanted to tell her to shut it down but I can't because I'm a nice person hhhhh. In addition, as I'm writing this, I believe there are many examples of what NOT TO DO. Firstly, two years without getting covid, I got it just a week from my flight, I actually had to change it for the next day. One month before the tournament, I used to play with a wood blade, with Hurricane 3 Neo and Rakza soft. Felt the Hurricane would be slower so I changed to a 09c. I feel like I would have been better off with my USED-TO setup. I also have bought new sport glasses few months back but I felt there is some difference when I put them comparing to my original glasses so I stopped using them, but for this tournament I said let me put it 24/7 instead of my usual glasses so that I'm used to them already. I feel like there was something wrong completely with it and made literally my vision to be a bit worse. I guess the message here is : don't change anything if you have big event coming..
Lastly, that was really cool, just the fact that I lived the life of those I admire for one week, having a badge, players bus, being in the training hall and in the Arena. Sitting in the stands next to them and there is a still a chance that I re-do this in the future too. When I came back to France, I couldn't care less about who I'm playing against, because who ever you are, you are not even in the top 1000 in the ITTF ranking ROFL.
I'm in Cairo now and my team-mates didn't arrive to Cairo yet but it was our time on the main tables so I said maybe I just go to check the Arena and maybe find someone to play with. One important piece of information wasn't communicated to me was that every club has the right to hire one international professional. So I'm walking into the tables and I was like, is that Gacina ? whats going on here ? it was actually him, so I totally forgot that I'm supposed to be a player just like him not a fan and I actually went to him and told him that I was so happy for him winning that WTT title. Took some balls and tried my serves and players started pourring in, ok thats Meshref and Goda, oh this Gardos ? Quadri , what a beast , Szocs aussi ? this is absolutely crazy you know.
Now comes the most irritating part of this whole experience. In France, the mid level called "regional" and there is only one general umpire, the real referees are the players themselves. So we kinda only inforce the general rules of not hiding the serves, and even that only to an extent. Having played only in France, and now I'm in this international thing, two umpires per match, and all my serves are wrong !!! you ask what was it, do you hide your serves ? do you not launch the ball 16cm ? well non of that, it was just the starting point, I have the ball on fingers, instead of starting from the palm. Many of you would understand, but changing the starting point to the palm, screwed all my timing and rythm of the serve, now I'm playing very strong ppl and I can't keep the serve short or with good underspin !!! Let me be clear, with my original serves, many matches the best I could have done is maybe winning a set, few others nothing at all, only one match I felt like the guy has the same level as me, and if I would have won that one, my team would have won because we also hired a semi-pro younger guy who wins most of his matches. So winning, other than that one match wasn't the point but at least I could have enjoyed playing, which with new shaky serves, I didn't really.
Let me serve you the main dish. I think it the second day when I met Antoine Hachard, nice guy, being both from France I approached him and when I told him about my ranking in France, we were both dying laughing, because you know, I have absolutely nothing to do here lol. The thing is, people saw me talk to him and laughing together so they assumed we knew each other beforehand or something ?!! I'm saying this because when it was the time to play the big names, I'm now on the table opposed to #100 in the ITTF ranking !! someone I used to see on Youtube for God sake. However, for some reason, he was really really serious, like upon doing the toss, he actually chose to change sides !! like only ppl who are really serious about winning their match would do that. First set, tight serves, on his toes and absolutely crushing me, my only concern even before the match begin was not to loose 11-0. Upon 8-1 he realised he doesn't have to actually be that serious, so the next two sets he just played whatever and I didn't loose a set with 0 points. two days later it actually hit me, the guy saw me with Antoine, he doesn't speak french , so he thought, this guy (me), maybe I should be careful playing him hhhhhhh
To my defense, I wasn't in my normal form even if the serves weren't called out. It was the first time in my life I'm playing TT and there are actual ppl in the stands shouting either for me or against me. There was this woman cheering for me loudly and I really wanted to tell her to shut it down but I can't because I'm a nice person hhhhh. In addition, as I'm writing this, I believe there are many examples of what NOT TO DO. Firstly, two years without getting covid, I got it just a week from my flight, I actually had to change it for the next day. One month before the tournament, I used to play with a wood blade, with Hurricane 3 Neo and Rakza soft. Felt the Hurricane would be slower so I changed to a 09c. I feel like I would have been better off with my USED-TO setup. I also have bought new sport glasses few months back but I felt there is some difference when I put them comparing to my original glasses so I stopped using them, but for this tournament I said let me put it 24/7 instead of my usual glasses so that I'm used to them already. I feel like there was something wrong completely with it and made literally my vision to be a bit worse. I guess the message here is : don't change anything if you have big event coming..
Lastly, that was really cool, just the fact that I lived the life of those I admire for one week, having a badge, players bus, being in the training hall and in the Arena. Sitting in the stands next to them and there is a still a chance that I re-do this in the future too. When I came back to France, I couldn't care less about who I'm playing against, because who ever you are, you are not even in the top 1000 in the ITTF ranking ROFL.
