Training in China: Guo Yan's Young Shine TTC, Beijing #1

So I left Zhengding and the safety of my team from Lily Yip Table Tennis Center and ventured alone into the unknown and unexpected. I took the bullet train to Beijing and was picked up at the airport and brought to a nice modern looking campus.

My small room is right on the sideline of the table tennis playing areas. From my door to table 1 is about 20 metres. It's hugely convenient considering I changed my shirt 5 times on the first day. The club has been open just 2-3 months and I arrived to find a small group of dedicated young Chinese kids. I won 3-0 against the top 2 kids and in doing so did myself a huge favour.

I had an amazing opportunity to train with head coach Zhou Fangfang,  former Chinese National Team and Guangdong Super league team. She has been an exceptional training partner and I have spent part of both of my 2 days here so far training with her, as well as a former Shandong team women's player. I lost 3-1 in my first full match against Coach Zhou. Not bad.

I also had a good multiball session on my first afternoon, it's much hotter here inside the gym so I had to consume 7 bottles of water but there is AC by the front. The food is pretty basic, I'm quickly learning that vitamin supplements are a good idea. I have also had a couple of new English speaking friends Rachel and Andy helping me along the way and also Sergio (a Sergio Ramos fan no less!).

Yesterday evening I took a bus to the city area in South West Beijing (center is in South). I pounced on the opportunity to go to Pizza Hut because training center food gets old real fast. It was bordering on lifesaving. The air quality here is better than I was expecting which has been a plus also.

Guo Yan is in competition currently but returns tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that. I like the vibe here, I like the convenience. The team here have made a big effort to make sure everything is OK for me (being the first foreign player here) and that has made things great.

I'm uploading a lot of material to Instagram so if you aren't following mhtabletennis already make sure you do. The WiFi is a little patchy so hopefully I can get some more YouTube material up!

Stay posted! :)