Another month has passed. The lockdown is very gradually easing. But life is still on hold. So what have I been up to?
Well, rather frustratingly I have not been playing any table tennis. I’ve not been able to get an outdoor table tennis table for my garden. The existing table stock quickly sold out in March. Hopefully with some manufacturing starting again, we may have some more stock in June or July. So when I can, I will be snapping up a table for my garden, dusting off the robot and hitting some table tennis balls!
My main table tennis activity has been my daily workout sessions. These have been great. I’ve been joined by players of all ages and from different countries around the world – India, USA, Australia, Belgium, Holland, Poland and more. We do lots of table tennis specific exercises – side to side movement, in and out movement and lots of down and up movement when looping. My legs are feeling strong and fast – the best they have been for many years. I will be continuing the workouts until the 22 May 2020.
I’ve also been working on my first table tennis book. It’s been on my to-do-list for about three years. But I have never seemed to have the time. Well now I do (sort of). Most of my day is spent with the children – a mixture of schooling (8 year old), fun activities (4 year old), avoiding injury (8 month old). But in the evening I can usually find an hour or two to work on my book. Some of the content is made up of the many articles I have written for my website over the past five years, but I have written lots of new content too. It will be a book full of tips and tactics to win at table tennis. All going well, it should be ready later in the year.
Our league season has been abandoned. There will be no attempt to play the remaining matches. So my team has been declared champions of Cambridge for the second year running. But it’s a hollow victory. There doesn’t seem to be much worth celebrating in the circumstances.
For my coaching, who knows? It is possible that I may be able to start some 1-to-1 sessions in July, but I say this with no real certainty. I think 1-to-1 coaching will be fairly safe. Social interaction is minimal and there is a natural distance between myself and the player I coach. But I am reliant upon sport centres reopening. At the moment, I have no idea when this will be. So July is my optimistic outlook. September is my realistic outlook. Never again is my doomsday outlook!
The only other event of note, is that I decided to give myself a new haircut. A lovely mohawk with a tidy moustache. I kept it this way for about half a day and then shaved it all off as I was too embarrassed to leave the house. But it was a glorious look for half a day!
