It's been quite a while since my last blog entry. I guess life has caught up with me recently and my priority list has had to change out of necessity. I married my girlfriend Danni last Saturday in a small ceremony on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne. Just 25 or so nearest and dearest gathered at a lovely winery / restaurant for the ceremony and then a meal together.

Very happy bride!

My changed list of priorities has meant putting work and career ahead of table tennis recently. I've had quite a bit to catch up on considering the 18 months I took off for my Olympic preparation and I'm putting in the hours to get myself back on track. I noticed that my eyes just don't work well enough after a long day at work, staring at a computer screen, to be able to focus well enough for a training session so I train in the morning before work.

The tournament season is approaching and I've been trying to plan out what I am going to be able to compete in and what I'll have to give a miss to this year. I'm looking forward to the World Team Cup in March as the format has changed back to what it used to be. Australia (as the top team in the Oceania continental region) is going to be drawn against two top countries in a two team group. That gives us at least two chances to come out swinging against some big names. That is about as good as it gets for Australian players as we usually just have so far to travel, at great expense, to even get a chance to play players from other countries.

The team

My game is certainly playing catch-up as, on two hands, I could count the amount of training sessions I've been able able to squeeze in over the past two months. I'm trying to build some fitness up in training and am focusing at the moment on trying to get my eye and timing back in. So many open consistency exercise like free to backhand, down the lines and backhand middle backhand forehand. As the tournament season approaches, I'm going to have to fit in more service, return of service and tactical exercises into my regime. With limited time for training I think the best strategy is to focus on working on my strengths in training rather than working too much on my weaknesses.

My parents Robert and Jenni

When it all boils down to it, I mainly rely on 5 or 6 key tactical sequences to win me my matches. The less I work on these the greater the risk that they will let me down at vital stages of matches when I need them the most. I'd rather have more faith in these set plays than working on my weaknesses. That means I will be less likely to be able to adjust when opponents try to exploit these weaknesses but that's life.