Friday, May 19, 2006
Today...
This is the final chapter of the short story. For some reason, whilst i was reading through it, i felt it did not convey the impact, the hardship, the emotion that i have been through in the process to achieve my school team place. nonetheless, i will try to end it off on a high note
2006 vs 1996, a decade has past since ty gets to compete at top level again. ty have survived past 10 years without a coach. with no coach, with an unconventional gameplay, and definitely all alone in his quest, anyone would have written him off. but 3 years under the tutelage of foo soon peng and tan paey fern, what ty has learnt was not just the basic skills of playing the game. but he has been to exposed to the tactical aspect, and the technical aspect of it. though it was a preliminary exposure, ty learnt fast and quick during those time, which laid the basis for further improvement and improvision in their absence.
table tennis is a sport where skills is less than half the story, a proper bat is needed, and few players even at top level have the technical knowledge of rubbers, sponge, wood combination to have a bat which suit their style of play and their potential. few player know how to change their strategy during gameplay to improve their chance against their opponent. few know that each player have different potential in different style of play and its only through exploration that the player knows what suits him/her and not whatever that was recommended or taught.
10 years on, ty has changed his style. from the intially all out defense. ty has now played a slightly more offensive game. he is adept in defense, offense and positional offense ( a style of play which he deviced on his own). though not as agile as before and hence, less defensive, army has trained up his strength for offense. positional offense has been made easy with his choice of rubber. the anti-spin, a dreaded rubber for control. many people thought that rubber can only be used to seize position advantage but cannot finish off the game. however, ty has cleverly abused the rubber, modified the conventional stroke to add the offensive touch to the seemingly impossible anti spin. a 5-ply wood is chosen for its lightweight. this allow for greater mobility of the wrist to force a slight spin and to "flip" the ball with the modified stroke. recently, an additional rubber is added on the reverse. a move which even the shop keeper cannot believe. the outcome, an unprecedented amphibious bat with 2 contrastly playing style for each side. however, ty intends to use the reverse to start a game play. the whole trick lies in the transitioning between the 2 surface. its a unique gameplan. as ty looks ahead, he is confident, confident that he can pull it off. the most important aspect of his game is now back... confidence.
posted @ 9:04 PM ||
