Tuesday, May 16, 2006
the fall.... and the come back
oops... its been a long long time since i have last blog. haha... lazy? busy? actually much has happen, but the bottomline is still the same. i do have that bit of academic blood in me and i enjoy writing "weirdo" stuff, even though my language is lousy. will try to compete it briefly.
ever since ty turned down the offer for the national youth team, it has been a downhill ride for him. his style of play is simply against mainstream and other than his first coach foo soo peng and tan paey fern, few could accept such of plays, even at amateur school levels. when he moved on to secondary school, he found it hard to adept. already, the mainsteam play of offense has already takes its toll on ty. as he progress, his opponent got more accurate and can easily out paced his reflexes. relying of the masterstroke of quick defense return and unforced error just do not seem a good tactic and gameplay to get into good books of his new coach. the new coach them embarked on a transformation training for ty, to change his style completely. the year 1997 onwards thus begin a series of offensive gameplay for ty which didn't go down well. gameplay wise, he was making a mess of it. he was handed a new TSP bat, with extra high elasticity sponge and sticky rubber for high speed and spin play. obviously for a person who played with minimal spin and slow control game, the adaptation was horribly hard. skill wise, the coach rated him poorly. though he is still able to compete in a match against his peer, after all, he has vast game experience, he was never rated highly. when a new batch of juniors from the same national youth team which he snubbed 2 years back came in 1998, the coach disposed ty off at first opportunity.
from 1998 to 2002. ty played in "lower" division table tennis competition like inter house. despite good showings, the coach is never around to see. the defensive plays continues, but the amount of time spent on training has decrease to a minimal. he tried again in vain to play at top level in jc but he didn't even make it past the trials. largely disappointed, ty did have thoughts to hung his bat up and stopped playing the game altogether. after all, he sees no future in it anymore. at this point of time, it just seem that it is all over. with so many other opportunities arising from other aspect of ty's life. this chapter is all but over.
ty entered army in end 2002, the rite of path of all sg guys... the dry spell continue in first year and all the way until 2004 when he realise that his pal, daniel too played table tennis and in their younger days and hence, they begin to play it during leisurely in camp to past time. given the compeitive nature of both player. ty soon find himself improving bit by bit in his gameplay. using the same bat he had since 1996. this time with bigger mass, and hence slower agility, but as a result of army, he has become stronger and therefore more brute. therefore, to suit his physical stature, he tweaked his old style. due to the long break, he has shook off the training that his sec school coach gave and started relatively anew. the new ty now as a tweaked offensive touch to seize and upper hand to the old control game. the versatility has improved, even though defensively, he isn't as good as before. but he has successfully brought out another aspect of game play.
in 2006, ty attended the trial of his varisty level competition together with his peers, he didn't harbour any hope of qualification. to the table tennis arena, he is now perceived as an outsider. though ty hasn't been in the scene for a long time. he still bear a unique style of play against the conventional high spin, high speed offensive. ty now plays low spin, control and a slight touch of offensive play, a more practical approach to his younger days. the most ironic thing is during qualification, he was drawn against his jc school team player, JJ. a player who was rated highly way back in 2001-2002 and has quite high rating against ty even in 2006 and ty run to a surprise upset. which put him right on course for a comeback which eventually happened. hence after a 9 years absence from the school scene, ty has come back.
it wasn't an easy first competition, no one knows who ty was. he is probably one of the few players who had never been seen before for the past few years. first match: vs Republic Poly. Ty plays in double. a normal opening, but it could go either way. ty's partner is also an ex schoolmate in jc. the match turn out to be a 5 set thriller. which ty won carve out a narrow win. with that, ty clench his fist and raise it into the air. his team mates cheered from the sideline. the critics was impressed and silenced. to ty... the clenched fist is sweet. its an action that he has never been able to do for the past 9 years. the taste of victory is sweet. but the ardous journey of the slide to the comeback is sweeter. ty is back. after so many years.
posted @ 12:01 PM ||
