Sean Lee is the latest in the stream of top juniors that Northern California table-tennis has produced.  He finished second in the Cadet National Team Trials (for under 15 years old) at the December 2004 Las Vegas Nationals and is a member of the 2005 Cadet National Team.  He appeared on the "Best Damn Sports Show Period" on Fox Sports Net as a hitting partner for actor Seth Green who is one of the best celebrity ping-pong players.  He recently went to Spain and shares with us his daily journal.

SEAN LEE (LEFT) WITH MEMBERS OF THE 2005 CADET NATIONAL TEAM.

day 1: I trained only with the US team members. trevor adam and steven. I mainly trained with steven. This training session was made mainly to get used to the conditions and the environment. this wasn't a such a good training at the beginning because of the lack of play for a while, and also the change to environment. but  i adjusted quickly, and my shots went in like crazy and everythiing was smooth

 

day 2: today we did the entire foreign county training thing. this is where we train with foreign county team members. I trained with two puerto Rican players. one if a two-winged looper and another is a chopper. they weren't that good,  but i still trained very hard and made the best of it. i played a match with the chopper and i beat him 2-0 easily. these training sessions mainly emphasize forehand, which i like, and is my game, so it was still very beneficial.

 

day 3: i trained with the same puerto rican looper today. despite his lower level of play, again i trained hard. I now straightened my wrist a little bit as to get more power and consistency on my loop. i changed it to just the most comfortable grip. this is perfect now. i played the looper and i won easily 2-0.

 

Tourny

day 4: i played the team event today. these players levels were around 2150. spain and france. but despite their lower level of play, i still lost. but i learned from these losses. i learned that i need to improve my short game drastically, and my serves need more side spin. everytime we got to topspin, and when my forehand was on the ball, i won, unfortunately, i lost the points in the short stuff, and couldn't get to the topspin.

 

day 5: we played doubles today with steven chan. we won our doubles matches today against a belgian pair. in doubles, i learned to constantly attack the middle and my serves must always be short. it went to the fifth, and we were down 9-6, but i was relentless to give up, and i told my partnes between points, we must not quit, and they must win, not we lose. it worked, and we came back to win. i also watched the top players such as takakiwa, kishikawa, mizutani, and the korean b team play. I learned their short game tactics, their serves, and their constant punishing attacks and their balance between backhand and forehand. all of them use mainly forehand, and their backhand is used to set up their forehand.

 

day 6: today i played singles. i played a spain player that i lost to in teams. this time i won in the fifth game. the main change i made was pushing hard both sides on the short game, doing the inside out serve more, serving with more side spin, using my head more, and also using a good re-loops and forehand to dominate the match. so my main tactic was to push hard both sides, use hard side spin on my serves, and get my forehand into play. i also watched the koreans and the japanese play more, and learned more about their balance between forehand and backhand. they usually open with their forehand, but 1 outa 4 or 5, they would use their backhand as to not have their opponent cut wide to their forehand.

   

day 7: i'm now the last US player to play. it was a good feeling, it somehow relieves me. makes me play better. it's weird. I played a danish lefty and i lost 3-0. but despite the result, i was proud of myself, i put up a good fight, founs my forehands, and lost on my weaknesses like my short game. but now i know the importance of the short game. when i get back, i will improve my short game, add more side spin to my serves, and making a better balance between forehand and backhand. 1 outa 4 bakchand, and the rest is forehand. i also watched the koreans and japanese again, and added more to my adjustments, and i also watched for the excitement too.