smashie54
03-05-2008, 06:25 PM
so before we get too far along in the tournament, here are my notes from the first 3 days of my first ss, much less my first ae!
day 1:
at 9am, malaysia, indonesia, and china were practicing. i was there that early because i didn't know what time usa practice was, and also because my host family had to work. so i sat between the msia and indo courts and just watched. kkk and lcw were playing doubles against a msia pair, th and sony were being fed by christian hadinata (sp?), he was half court and was moving them around full court, they would do about 30 shots consecutively and then switch.. of course others were practicing but i couldn't id them :( as i was sitting, i talked with the singaporean coach asep for a bit, and then later a msia coach came over to talk to me. he wanted to know who i was, what i was doing, because he had never seen me at a ss before, so we talked for a little bit.. i said i was hoping to practice a little, since i was there anyways, but i was shy to ask the other players to hit (inferiority complex haha). but he told me not to be shy, etc.. i had an idea of who he was, but i decided to ask to make sure anyways, and he so introduced himself: rexy mainaky.
later, as the practices were winding down, i saw a half court open, and decided to ask someone to hit. and the only people close by were nova and flandy. so i wandered over and simply asked if either of them wanted to hit. flandy said yes! and so i hit half court with him for about 10 minutes, and then played full court net for another 10 minutes or so. by the end he was pulling out some trick shots, and we would both pump our fists and say 'yes' when we made good shots haha.. it was very surreal. and afterwards the singaporean coach asked me 'do you know who you just hit with??' i did practice with our girls later though..
day 2:
i got to the gym at 8am, because the main hall was available for practice. the other us girls weren't there, so i had to look around for people to ask again. i walked towards the other side of the gym, and passed rexy chatting with some of the organizers. i said hi, and told him that i had taken his advice and got to hit with flandy and he said, 'oh, good! you're very lucky.' i explained that i was doing the same thing that day, and then i said jokingly, 'i should just ask you to hit!' and he said ok!! so then for almost 30 minutes, i hit with rexy. there were about 6 people per court so it was a bit squished, but we managed to do clears, drops, and then play net. it was amazing. he was very good (of course!), pretty much drilling me, even with the limited space we had.. and he was very smiley and joking a lot, even with the other japanese players on our court (but i guess he is always like that). when one of the japanese ladies (maeda, i think) was about to drop, rexy looked back and made a funny noise at her, and she was so surprised that she stopped her drilling to stare at him as he grinned back at her and laughed.. at the end, masuda (japan md) asked rexy if we would stop so they could play doubles, and rexy just froze and stared at him, like pretending to be upset. then masuda started making hand motions and saying 'sorry, sorry!', kind of bowing, and then he kowtowed all the way down in front of rexy with his head touching the floor - and then rexy did the same thing back to him! so masuda and rexy were on the court, heads on the floor, bowing to each other until they got up laughing and we gave the court up to japan. i promise i did not make that up.. it was another surreal practice..
later in the day china was practicing in the community hall, lin dan was practicing against yi lu and cj and bcl were playing doubles against.. i forget. ina's md were playing 3 on 3, i think it was rian, luluk and someone against alven, yonathan and someone.. ahh must get better at iding players. indonesia md wins for loudest practice, they were yelling and taunting each other all the time.
i played my first and only match and lost 21-17, 21-6 :(
day 3:
wasn't at the gym for too long.. saw kkk and tbh lose to the japanese, the japanese just played cleaner almost all the way through, the japanese were up almost the whole time, and actually kkk and tbh seemed to be messing around at a few points and making easy mistakes.. also, a taipei pair beat eriksen and lungaard-hansen! crazy.
ok, there will be more tidbits for the bc faithful as the tournament goes on.. :)
by: lauren todt (usa!)
day 1:
at 9am, malaysia, indonesia, and china were practicing. i was there that early because i didn't know what time usa practice was, and also because my host family had to work. so i sat between the msia and indo courts and just watched. kkk and lcw were playing doubles against a msia pair, th and sony were being fed by christian hadinata (sp?), he was half court and was moving them around full court, they would do about 30 shots consecutively and then switch.. of course others were practicing but i couldn't id them :( as i was sitting, i talked with the singaporean coach asep for a bit, and then later a msia coach came over to talk to me. he wanted to know who i was, what i was doing, because he had never seen me at a ss before, so we talked for a little bit.. i said i was hoping to practice a little, since i was there anyways, but i was shy to ask the other players to hit (inferiority complex haha). but he told me not to be shy, etc.. i had an idea of who he was, but i decided to ask to make sure anyways, and he so introduced himself: rexy mainaky.
later, as the practices were winding down, i saw a half court open, and decided to ask someone to hit. and the only people close by were nova and flandy. so i wandered over and simply asked if either of them wanted to hit. flandy said yes! and so i hit half court with him for about 10 minutes, and then played full court net for another 10 minutes or so. by the end he was pulling out some trick shots, and we would both pump our fists and say 'yes' when we made good shots haha.. it was very surreal. and afterwards the singaporean coach asked me 'do you know who you just hit with??' i did practice with our girls later though..
day 2:
i got to the gym at 8am, because the main hall was available for practice. the other us girls weren't there, so i had to look around for people to ask again. i walked towards the other side of the gym, and passed rexy chatting with some of the organizers. i said hi, and told him that i had taken his advice and got to hit with flandy and he said, 'oh, good! you're very lucky.' i explained that i was doing the same thing that day, and then i said jokingly, 'i should just ask you to hit!' and he said ok!! so then for almost 30 minutes, i hit with rexy. there were about 6 people per court so it was a bit squished, but we managed to do clears, drops, and then play net. it was amazing. he was very good (of course!), pretty much drilling me, even with the limited space we had.. and he was very smiley and joking a lot, even with the other japanese players on our court (but i guess he is always like that). when one of the japanese ladies (maeda, i think) was about to drop, rexy looked back and made a funny noise at her, and she was so surprised that she stopped her drilling to stare at him as he grinned back at her and laughed.. at the end, masuda (japan md) asked rexy if we would stop so they could play doubles, and rexy just froze and stared at him, like pretending to be upset. then masuda started making hand motions and saying 'sorry, sorry!', kind of bowing, and then he kowtowed all the way down in front of rexy with his head touching the floor - and then rexy did the same thing back to him! so masuda and rexy were on the court, heads on the floor, bowing to each other until they got up laughing and we gave the court up to japan. i promise i did not make that up.. it was another surreal practice..
later in the day china was practicing in the community hall, lin dan was practicing against yi lu and cj and bcl were playing doubles against.. i forget. ina's md were playing 3 on 3, i think it was rian, luluk and someone against alven, yonathan and someone.. ahh must get better at iding players. indonesia md wins for loudest practice, they were yelling and taunting each other all the time.
i played my first and only match and lost 21-17, 21-6 :(
day 3:
wasn't at the gym for too long.. saw kkk and tbh lose to the japanese, the japanese just played cleaner almost all the way through, the japanese were up almost the whole time, and actually kkk and tbh seemed to be messing around at a few points and making easy mistakes.. also, a taipei pair beat eriksen and lungaard-hansen! crazy.
ok, there will be more tidbits for the bc faithful as the tournament goes on.. :)
by: lauren todt (usa!)