Damn it's been, 2 and half years since I last responded to this. Nobody probably remember this, so this will be the most random bump ever. Nevertheless I want to speak my mind once again.
I've been through alot the past 2 years. In 2020 I went to Hungary to play at a club in budapest for a month in June. This was my first experience going abroad, doing something like this. It was at the table tennis club Statisztika, which you might know cause quite some good players come from there. And the Hungarian national team used to train there, and I saw the Croatian national team playing with them in that month. I played with cadet and junior girls, who were ranked high in each of their categories. I was speaking to the woman trainer about the pimples, and that I wasn't really feeling the short pips, and they had Feint Long 2 there, so I put that on it and ever since I've been playing with FL 2 (And really enjoy it). By now I've gotten way way better with the chops so who knows, maybe the sp's wouldn't be as bad now but I'll get there.
I was talking with Mattias Falck at the time and he recommended to me, Eslöv Sweden. I had a flight booked around march 2020 already but then Covid hit and the flight got cancelled so I couldn't go at the time. I went to Hungary first, and then a couple months after I came home I went to Sweden in october 2020. I'm not going to write my whole Sweden story, because that would be paragraphs long. But I've been in the environment of super high level table tennis. I sometimes got the chance to play with them as well, but this didn't happen too often. I made some really good friends though, with an incredibly talented English chopper Sam Wilson and Luxembourg's best player Eric Glod (who came runner up in mixed doubles in Lima this weekend btw
). As far as the coaches, they are obviously experienced, but they didn't put enough time into personal attention. I do feel like the pros who train also don't unlock the potential they have, but you can possible get it from playing with the players there and the quantity is really good. But since I want more personal coaching specific for my game, I decided to go back from Sweden.
I've had a great time though. In the beginning I came there, I wasn't even really a defender. (This started in Hungary). But the final session I had before leaving, I played with Eric and I was playing insane. I was moving insane, it felt like the best thing ever. It gave me so much confidence and more confirmation that I can absolutely do it, especially considering I have always taught myself anything, the coaches in Sweden didn't teach me technical aspects of Defense, they gave me exercises, but I got better and better. Also I have had shin splints as an injury which has held me back alot in freedom in movement behind the table which was extremely annoying, and with quantity of practise. Also in 2021 in the summer I was at home in NL for about 6 months, and knowing where I come from I just feel so much motivation, I still do after all these years, and I don't want to stop. Eslöv was also Truls Moregardh's club btw, so I've seen him alot in the past years haha, we also had a party from his World Championship runner up achievement. I've seen alot of good players, matches. Jorgen Persson was at the club at some matches, so that was cool to see
.
For me the problem is, even though I've been practicing and I've become so much better, mostly in match play it's not too much seeable yet, because I didn't play anything really in Sweden. So match play is something I want and need to pick up now, but that last session with Glod, we just did some normal exercises, then the last 35 minutes I requested service 2 each, because it is amazing to get a match simulating exercise with a pro. At first he was winning almost all points, but then suddenly I got into a certain state (flow state, it's a real thing), and I was in the zone. I started being able to get points together against a pro, I played wild shots, had crazy rallies, even though I had only started chopping with the fh more recently, it felt super comfortable in practise. He said he was going all out in the serve 2 exercise, and we did that for 35 minutes straight, we were both really into it. It felt like the most liberty I'd ever had behind the table, and that was against a pro player. I have recently changed to spinlord marder 2 on the fh, just to try something out, and I read it was a little of a successor of tackifire drive or one of those rubbers (the one Koji used). At first I had a lot of trouble with it, but then I started feeling the rubber, and I started to chop more on fh as well. And now I can definitely see the similarities between this rubber and how Koji used to play, and I'm super happy with that because he is my main inspiration after all.
That brings me to today, I'm back in my old house, no opportunities at all here, but I've asked Glod since he's coming to the netherlands and hang out with Britt Eerland (since they're friends) to ask her for some possibilities for me in The Netherlands, since it's very very hard to get in involved with the table tennis here in The Netherlands, so for now I'll wait until I hear anything back from that.
Anyways there were probably some things that I've missed, as I've just been writing this on the get-go. It was super fun writing this though, I wonder how many people will actually see this and also read this whole thing, idk we'll see.