Word Open.
Amr Shabana. 4 World Open titles to his name. I saw him play Hindi in the Quarters and he was in absolutely stunning form. I thought, he's either peaked too early or he'll go on to win the event. It was the latter and he wrote his name into the history books with a 3-0 win over compatriot Ramy Ashour in the final.
For myself, I made the last 16 in the tournament before losing out to Nick Matthew 3-0. That's the best he's played against me for a long time and he was sharp, taking the ball in short very well. I managed a 3-0 win over Joe Lee in the first round then came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Mohammed El Shorbagy in 5 games in the second round. I was really pleased with how I changed my game after the 2nd and then went on to dominate him in the last 3 games (3,4,3). The first 2 games were a bit scrappy. Both of us were taking it short and opening up the court for the other guy. Even though they were close (9,8) he won them both. I straightened up, gave him nothing to hit, and shut him down.
Training.
I have roughly 10 days to prepare for Qatar. It's a big event and I want to consolidate my new Top 16 ranking (15) by putting in a strong performance. It's good to be injury free again (touch wood) and I'll be going back to basics in my training in the next period of time. I'll be playing no more than 3 practice matches, instead training with my coach on structure in my play and trying to back up day after day from hard training.
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2 comments:
Cameron, would it be fair to say that players mostly "acquire" physical fitness in the off season, and that playing tournaments and practice matches is enough to maintain it during the season?
Does the during-season training focus on technique and tactics?
Hi Mike,
Yeah during the off season it's a good chance to do some training that may slow you down if done during the busy tournament season. Improving your base fitness, endurance, strength and also technique is probably more beneifical if done during the off season. Endurance work and weights can really slow you down on court.
Technique work can be pretty tough mentally and you don't want to thinking about your swing during a match.
During the season you just want to be keeping your fitness at that level. Playing matches, keeping sharp, injury free and getting your game right tactically is what you want to be doing I'd say.
Hope this helps,
Cam
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