MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: 1 Month to Go!

Today marked one month until I fly back to New Zealand to meet my team. One more month to train enough to be prepared for the World Championships. Today the first problems arose, a lot of stiffness and sore feeling in my lower calf above the ankle on my right leg. I reduced my training to around an hour and a half.

We are lucky to be joined at LYTTC by Joey Cochran who is preparing for the Olympic Trial at our club. I practiced with him a little this morning and we had a great long warmup. He won the 2600 event at the recent Aurora Cup in Chicago. I played with Judy after and revisited my two point forehand drill from the week before. Much to my surprise the quality of the drill this time was much better again. My movement was better and my stroke was more compact, allowing for better transition and recovery.

Things that still need to be worked on are stamina and fitness for quicker and longer footwork drills. I'm finding especially in the multiball with Lily that my pulse is just soaring and I'm really losing my breath. Judy suggested I should focus more on quicker burst fitness exercises when I'm doing physical or am at the gym.

I played a practice match later in the evening. Need to drop the habit of pushing serve receives out long and playing too loose. In the rallies I played much more effectively, but still presented too many opportunities to attack and overplayed or mis-timed easier balls. The quality of my good play was really good, but just too many unforced errors coming in which need to be addressed. More match practice definitely needed.

Went to the gym in the evening and just did some very light core work so as to avoid further stress on my ankle. Here's hoping I can sleep it off and be fine for training in the morning! :)

I've also been enjoying my spare time more, getting out of the club whether it be resting at home, watching movies, eating meals out, sometimes I'm partial to try my luck gambling online and I just found Norsk Casino Info which compares the best online casino signup bonuses. All in all having a better time outside of the playing center has also helped my mentality and focus on what I need to do.