Before I go to the local clubs where I play, I take few minutes to do some cardio on the treadmill. Next, I practice for few minutes - in addition to 30 to 40 minutes of practice in my basement every morning. Though I have done such preparations before playing at the club, I have never understood the importance of warm up and stretching. I was in Europe last year and I have seen the world best players starting their day with warm up and stretching exercise – the Table Tennis Lifestyle video has footages of various such warm ups. At the Joola Super Camp, there is a series of stretching exercises Chen Weixing asks the participants to do – the Chinese do it tough. Tania Hoffman who is the other coach has her own series of stretching exercises – they are tough as Chen does. The warm ups for 10 to 20 minutes will prepare you before the training starts for the day. I've asked Tania about the camps and practices in Germany. She has told me the practice sessions in Germany starts with at least 30 minutes of warm up exercise.
I don’t want the readers to be scared about these camps because of many physical exercises the participants have to do. I weigh some 220 lbs and have difficulties in following some exercises. There are few exercises that I have done in my childhood were easy for me to do in the stretching time – I had difficulties to do the rest of exercises. Tania or Chen was not hard on the participants on who is doing what. Their focus is how you are executing your strokes. I also have to stress the importance that a warm up and stretching for few minutes before and after you play will keep you from injuries.
I’ve spent at least 20 to 30 minutes with Chen Weixing in the morning. He was impressed by my backhand chop strokes, however he has caught some mistakes too. He wanted me to fix those mistakes. He is such a cool guy - he kept cheering when the stroke was right and looked at me when the stroke was bad – that helped me to identify where I was making the mistake. He has revealed some important defense strategies which I have never thought about in my life.
Before I came to the camp, I had a list of things to ask Chen Weixing. For any question that I’ve asked him, he was glad to explain and show how it works. In some situation, he has called Tania to demonstrate it. Tania is very knowledgeable too – I’ve learned some cut techniques against lefties from her.
The multi ball training is the hardest drill I’ve experienced at the camp. It is harder for the young players too. I have this strong feeling that a table tennis player should go through this training to become more successful – it will improve your eye, hand and foot coordination.
Two more days to go before the camp will end. My body is already sore – have pain all over the body. Though the camp is little tiring, I’m not tired of learning new techniques. Table Tennis is fun and it can raise your lifestyle and quality of life. It is worth getting out of the routine club play and get some training from camps such as Joola Super Camp.
If you would like to receive information on future camps, you can contact JOOLA CLUB USA at http://www.clubjoola.com