Upgrading the System!

What's up with you planet Earth, this is your boy Pacer checking in with you after another week of training in the sport I love.

When I do table tennis, I do it one way. ALL OUT! When I played before I was fanatical about what I ate, how I slept, what fluid I drank, what vitamins I took, how much mediation I did. It had taken years and years for me to add the proper building blocks that allowed me to run the program when it was time to prepare for competitions. That is what I’m going back to, because that is the only way that I know how to do it.

After walking away from an intense relationship like I had with table tennis, it’s inevitably that you need a detox from the regiment. When I transitioned into mountain and road bike racing, it was purely for fun. I wanted to be competitive without having to travel all around the country, or world. So I ate what I wanted, I went to sleep when I pleased, etc. I also put on 20lbs as result. The more improved on the bike, the more the table tennis athlete came out in the form of very specific training, long rides on the bike, more intense intervals that would make the normal cyclist vomit. I felt like I had an extra gear because I had been to a much higher level than the cyclist I was racing against. I quickly became an obsession.

Now, that I’m making a return back to table tennis, I’m coming back with the same “Take No Prisoners” attitude. I was pretty fanatical about how dedicated I was when I was a single guy playing the table tennis. For example, until I retired I always trained on Friday Night at 8pm. I trained on Friday because I had a pretty good idea that most of the top players were not. I created that concept living in Augusta. So, when they would go out, I would call Coach Peng to do some multi-ball. Another important thing is, I never, EVER, cut a multi-ball session short. If you don’t know, multi-ball is the most grueling exercise that you can do in table tennis. It improves your footwork, technique, timing, stroke integrity, aerobic profile, patience, etc. On top of that it just wears you down, but with future benefits. Most of all, you start to realized that it’s a really, really painful process to go through. I have seen many players cut out of this session early because they were just not up to it. Well, I accepted that I was going to finish this session for the same reason that many would cut it short after it got difficult.

If I was going to come back, then I was going to come back on the Cutting Edge, by implementing most of the concepts I learning in cycling.

The first one would be building a better aerobic engine. When I played before I can't think of anyone that was more fit than me, and I'm taking it to another level. I sleep at 9000ft every night.

This is a Colorado Altitude Training Unit. It filters out the Oxygen in the air, and this raised the Altitude like you are in the French Alps. This is the unit

This is the tube that goes into the unit at filters out the oxygen as you sleep.

The body responses by making more red blood cells becasue of the repeated nights of being oxygen deprived. If you have more red blood cells, you have more oxygen. If you have more oxygen, you have more energy. If you have more energy.........Well, you get the picture.

I also changed the type of water I put into my body, by using a Water Ionizer.

It filters out the impurities in basic tap water to 99.99%, and it raises the ph from 5.0 to 10.0. Ifyou are drinking water that is more pure and full of alkalinity, then you are hydrating your cells on the molecular level which makes your body more functional on every level. The concept here is "You are only as good as the fluids your cells bathe in".

You wanna know what that means for your body? Observe.

To drink anything that is close to this, you would have to juice this many oranges.

And the ph would only be 8.5. So running on better water has it's benefits, and it means no more money being spent on buying expensive water that has not hydrating benefits.

I also went 80% Alkaline food intake (I hate the word, DIET) with regards to what food I put in my body. If I'm not eating a salad like this,

I'm eating stir fry like this.

I thought truly eating this way was going to get boring, but when you put the best food in your body and you perform and feel better it easily becomes addictive.

Some other minor things that I have is the P90X.

It's 12 gut busting workouts that will leave you in the dirt, FOR SURE. I have to give my wife credit for this purchase as she saw the infomercial. I wasn't entirely sold, but after not being able to complete 15min Ab workout called "Ab Ripper X" the first 5 time I did it, I quickly became a fan. In fact, if you can finish this 15 min workout, I will take you and your spouse out to Bonefish. That is how convinced I am that this workout will kick you in the dirt.

I also have a device that improves the ability to breathe deeper, called the "Power Lung".

I would have not believed it would make me more fit, but I can't remember that last time I have done any labored breath in cycling, and it's practically unheard of for me when I play table tennis.

So, I have lined up all my ducks with regards to what I need to do off the court. I just need to get some time on the table. For that, I had to activate my old training partner, Rafael. When I walked away from table tennis I kind of felt like I had abandoned him, so he was the ONLY person I emailed when I decided I was still had some more to give.

We have put in some slamming training session equipped with a "All Out" multiball session, and I'm feeling better and better everytime I play. I feel like I'm coming back with a more well-round philosophy and a more balanced game. I haven't lost any hand or foot speed, and my over the table touch is coming back every session I play.

I have a 62 mile Mtn Bike race on Saturday in Weston. On Sunday I will go to play practice matches at the Boys & Girls Club to fine-tune my game more in preparation for the Cary Cup.

Until then, I'll keep you up to PACE!

Brian

Video Clip of the Week - No Gifts

My "Return to the Table" campaign has been more successful than than expected regarding getting my form back. I wasn't sure if I could get the super competitive attitude back after racing bikes for 4 years. I instantly got the"Pong" bug back, and I went right back into deep mediation approaching any of my weaknesses.

After playing a mock tournament at the Boys Club and playing sloppy for most of the day, it left a really sour taste in my mouth. It made me go back and write out a extremely ambitious training program, and made my practice partner asked, "Are you trying to make the Olympics?" as it addresses all the errors I made through systemic functional training.

I'm going back there Sunday to exact revenge on the errors I made from 3 weeks before, and some players will get in the way of the freight train as it gets going. I apologize now for the whooping you are gonna get. I wish I could say that I wanted to beat a particular player, but my program is bigger than that. What is my program? You'll find out in due time, but it's going to knock the socks off anyone that never thought it could be done.

My objective now is to have another good practice session that addresses all the things that will prepare me for a solid day on the table on Sunday.

If you beat me a match, then you have truly beat me. I don't give gifts, even on Xmas. Well, Maybe Xmas, but you have to know my middle name for me to give you a gift.

I believe in training hard, and competing even harder. If you ever get a chance to do this, then do it.


Have a great week

Pacer Out!

Good week of Training

What's up planet earth! Just checking in with you after another great week of training. It was a slow week for me on the bike since I did a 12-hr Race. I had to pull out of a race after I overdosed on the salt solution that goes into everyone of my bottles. Here are some highlights from the race.

Normally, after this type of race I need to need time to recover. Great! I can hit the table, and get more of my feeling back. So I was able to pick up the frequency and intensity of my training with the Cary Cup just on the horizon.

My club is in the YMCA in Weston, but I can't take credit for finding it.

The owner of the fitness club where I had my club for 6 years in Coral Springs was selling is building, and Lev knew about the YMCA opening, and he talked to the person in charge to get the table tennis in. So I moved the tables in on the first day it was opened. Uri and Lev normally play every time I play.


The objective this week, SERVES, SERVES, SERVES. I had to get my serves back, so I actually did about 3 and a half hours of serves this week. I actually had my timing, spin, placement, and height down in the first 1hr session. After that I just started to fine-tune the details of all my serves.

This week I still wanted to work on stroke integrity and stroke production by doing basic and advanced drills that focused on footwork and timing. I actually didn't feel like I was so sharp, but when I looked back at the video from this week of training, I felt like I was right on target. Actually, with how well I'm serving I'm actually ahead of target. One new aspect is I'm utilizing my backhand loop more often, which has added an entire new dimension to my game with it's effectiveness.

The next 2 weeks I'll focus more on game situation type drills. Every drill will start with me making a sereve, short return over the table, or pushing deep to let my partner loop. The main objective is to get more comfortable with playing the first 3 balls at a very high level. I'm very comfortable in extended rallies, so my focus is to start the point by putting myself in an ideal situation.

Here is some highlights from this week of training.

Pacer Out!

Video of the Week - Training with Andrei Filimon

I was looking through my archive of videos, I found some footage of me when I was training in Romania. My coach was Viorel Filimon, it was always a treat when his son Andrei came to town. I knew I would get a call, and would a chance to train with a player that was truly gifted. Here is just a little video from out training session.

Pacer Out!