Monday, July 9, 2007

Monday Practice Review

Seven boys came.

Tommy came on time, Calvin and Nicholas were late for about ten minutes.
Later, Matthew and Barry came at around three-thirty.
The Wong's brothers came at about four.

The theme of today is the footwork.
We focus on the boys' footwork, you know, they had the heavy legs.

At first, they had some running shot for forehand and backhand. Some volleys.
Then, they had their challenge for "ten balls". They had to hit ten continuing ball. One forehand, one backhand, foreahand, backhand... In case, if they hit the ball out or to the net, that ball would not be counted. So, they have to hit ten balls to the court. This is a very hard drill for the ball, not only they should have the consistent stroke, also the stamina for running the shots.

Boys were tough today.
I gave them many hard drill including some shuttle runs.
Moreover, we had some team singles and double match practices. The team single is exciting.

Thanks Raymond for coming and supporting the boys.
I hope the boys would be fast-runner next time.

Lastly, I recorded some video about the boys' stoke, some of their serve and forehand, not the tactics they used in their doubles.

I would post the video later.

4 comments:

Chris said...

I love the TEN BALLS.
it is challenging.

Raymond Ho said...

The boys have obviously improved after the tournament

We had great fun with the Team Singles and most of them started to hit better returns.

Chris and Barry beat Matthew and me 4-2, which was quite good. Just one break of service.

Edmond had spent a lot of quality time and drills with the boys. They are all improving. Edmond also keeps a notebook on their strengths and weaknesses.

Some of the boys will be entering a Juniors Tournament in Aug and wish them good luck.

Jordan is playing quite well and it would be good friendly rivalry between Chris and Jordan. This will take them to much higher level just like the Murray brothers

Simon Ho said...

Dear All,

Serve volley and service return are two key elements in good doubles play. So here are two good drills for you to try out - taught to me by my Russian Davis Cup coach when I was in London:

1. Four players playing figure of 8 (one pair hitting down the line and the other pair hitting cross court) volley:

Everyone tries to keep the ball in play for as long as possible - no half volleys or ground strokes allowed. This is a good drill to help with footwork at the net and feel for the ball at the net.

2. Cross court doubles court serve volley and return drill:

Two players play cross court doubles court. Server only has one serve and must serve volley.
Returner must make first return and the point is played out on a doubles court. Play first to 5 and swap. This will be a good drill for practising serve volley and service return.

Have fun!

Simon

Ernest said...

Hi Ho Brothers :

Thanks for yr adv. n comment. We've tried the drills that Simon mentioned several times n the kids love it. Wish they can pick up something n use it in the match.

Cheers
Ernest