This was the first week without a trainer but fortunately this didn’t effect us. Although a large part of the selection, under the leadership of Gerben, was staying in Rome, I have had a very good week.
Koen and Ruud are back from Asia and during the multi-shuttle trainings on Tuesday and Thursday we have gone through with the exercises Mr. Kim has taught us the past year and a half. Thursday morning was the best morning of the week, because finally there was a video camera pointed at us during the exercises. I had asked for it quite a while ago because I think it is very important for a player to see on a display how he performs during a training. A training session is the basis for a match and when you do something structurally wrong, you will also do so in a match. If you want to get to the top everything, down to the smallest detail, should be perfect. Today we made a fresh start again. After an exercise it is very easy to just walk to the camera and look back. How is my footwork going to the net? How is my racket position at a certain stroke? Am I low enough in the defence? All small details that can make big differences.
As from this week we also have a real shuttle gun at our disposal. The so-called Knight Trainer is from Canadian origin and an early Christmas present from NOC*NSF (The Dutch Olympic Committee). I was already familiar with this device because last May my club Van Zijderveld Amstelveen bought the Knight Trainer to use it for training sessions at the club. I can remember that testing was great fun. You charge the cannon with a tube of 45 shuttles which are fired at you one by one. An ideal exercise to train the defence and racket skills. With a remote control you can adjust the firing speed of the device. I want to thank the NOC for this very good initiative because I am sure that we will all benefit by it in the future.
