The past week was devoted to the preparations for the EBU tournament next week in Prešov, Slovakia. I’ll take part together with my regular men’s doubles partner Dave Khodabux and this tournament I am going to play the mixed doubles with Iris Tabeling. In this event we are trying to find out which combinations match best and this is the second tournament in which we try this out. A nice challenge is waiting for us.
This past week went well. A number of physical training sessions were alternated with some more quiet sessions focussing on standard situations and technique. Of course we have also played a considerable number of matches to get into the right rhythm. In between the training sessions I had my shoes and inner soles checked and fixed again by David Evers from Footconnection (http://www.footconnection.nl/)Â one of my loyal sponsors.
Last night we had a first meeting in the Duinwijck hall with my teammates. We discussed the upcoming season. It was fun and it gave a familiar feeling again to be back as a Duinwijcker again in the hall where I started playing as a 7 year old little boy. I am confident that we will have a successful season with good performances.
I believe this weekend is my last free weekend till Christmas so I intend to relax and enjoy myself. I hope I will be able to keep you informed from Slovakia but there is a good chance that we won’t have internet in our hotel. Of course I will write a report on my site after I have returned from Prešov. For the real diehard followers; you can see the results on www.toernooi.nl and live matches via the live stream of www.badmintoneurope.tv
Tags: badminton, EBU, jorrit de ruiter, Papendal, Slovakia, tournament program