Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Monday Practice Report

Toaday, we had five boys.
Tommy, Nicholas, Brian, Jordan and Chris.

I arrived at about 2:45pm. There was a sudden rain at about 2pm, little bit rain water on the court. Nicholas and I dried the courts.

Tommy, Nicholas, Brian and I warmed up first.
(Wong's brothers arrived at about four..)

Today's theme: VOLLEY!!!

So, I gave many volley drills for them.
Some volley-volley exercies as the warm-up. The volley-volley is not easy for some boys, especially when we were at the service line. More importantly, their volleys were lack of angle, which we should have a widen angle of volleys.

Next, Wong's brothers joined us.
I gave a test for them, an ability test of volleys.
The test consisted of many parts, I gave them only volley shots, which they have to put the balls to different zone/area.

Zone 1 is about the drop volleys.
Zone 2 is about the widen angle.
Zone 3 is about deep volleys.

Expected, most did not well in the test, especially the drop volleys. Chris explained that drop volley is useless in the match, because the opponent can chase and hit a better shot. But, I said that your opponent can get the ball only if your drop volley is awful! In fact, boys' volley needed to be improved.

So, I decieded to give more practices of drop volley and deep volley.
At the end, Tommy did many excellent drop volleys. Brian and Nicholas did some good deep volleys. But, Chris couldn't find the feel of the drop volley...

Service--- our must practice!
I would like to comment on boys' return of serve:
Jordan is weak when returning, especially his backhand. His brother Chris know this problem and he told me that at the ad side, serving opponent's backhand is a good tactic. I would agree with him if the opponent is weak in backhand. You know, a good tennis player cannot only has one kind of serve, which we should serve both sides of the opponent.

Brian also had a bad returning. Nicholas improved his returning.
But, boys' service are not consistent, too many errors.
Ernest, I think we should also focus on their servie and returing... it would take a very long time..

I'm sorry I have a volunteer work at TKO about counselling the F5 students, so I left at 6:15 today. Boys at the end have team single again.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Friendly match

We played our first friendly match against Chinese University tennis team yesterday. As Joseph n I arrived at 2, the young guns Tony, Horace, Calvin, Tommy were already there while the old boys Chris, Matthew, Jordon were behind schedule as usual.(Boys, u should be in time!!!!!!!!). We all arrived the courts around 2.30 n started to hit some balls. As two of the CU boys arrived, Tony n Calvin stepped up to play two single match to kick off the day. Tony's opponent was a lefty with Nadal's new racquet, however, Tony was Ferderer on grass yesterday to edge the opponent 6-4 to record our first win. Calvin had a shaky start coz this was his first official match in his less than a year tennis career n lost 0-6. As the match proceeded, we found we had a upper hand gradually as Chris won his single by 6-0, Matthew n Tony won their double with the same score while Horace n Tommy lost to two experienced player by 3-6. Jordon played a single with a girl later on n he was gentleman enough to give the girl two games(this is his version coz we saw him fight hard!! hahaa..). Chris n I played a double match with their coach paired with the CU Nadal, thanks Chris for saving my face as we won by 6-3 in a close match. We played some more doubles till 5.30 n ended the day with some snack in the CU canteen.
I'm pleased with the result as this is the first match the WYK team played with me as a coach.
However, there's still some aspect to improve:
1. In time!!!!!
2. come on, "shy" is not the word for a boy in a secondary school.(ESPECIALLY WHEN U MEET A GIRL!!!)
3. U have to be focus in every single point till the match finished.

I would like to have a big thanks to Joseph n our co-ordinator Jordon for their help to organize the match. Joseph took some photos n he will uploaded to the wyktennis web. soon. Finally, salute to the CU team for their hospitality n looking forward to play with them again in the near future.

Cheers
Ernest

Monday, July 23, 2007

23-July-2007 Monday

Today, we had some lower forms students, as they were having Day camp which helded by Matthew( the activity of SA). Two lower forms students and two students of the SA.

Seven boys again.
Matthew, Brian, Tommy, Calvin, Nicholas, Jordan, Chris.
And Tony Ko joined us, too!

Boys warmed up and did some rally themselves, as I taught the four new boys some basic strokes and ball sense exercises.

The school team boys did some cross-court rally and some down-the-line shots themselves.
Later, I gave them some backhand practices.

We had a game today with all the boys.
Round the World.
Do you know how to play the game? The game is about the consistence, what you would do on court is to hit the ball in and rush to the opposite side.... Some boys were really good, they had the consistent shot. Lastly, our captain Matthew won the game!

Service, of course, which is our every lesson practice!
Then, the return of serve, I served to them. It's really new for them, I gave some powerful serve for the boys. Some didn't know how to return the ball which is close to their body. Most did average only, Raymond and Ernest were right, their return of serve needed to be focused! I'm also tired after serving two basket of "rocket serve".

The next drill: volleys and smash.
We had some over-head. I would say okay for their shots, but maybe you would probably know that they can't do overhead in their match.. They also had some low volley shots. I found that boys didn't know how to deal with the low volleys, even Jordan. But, luckily, Brian did well in my drill. He bent his knee when the ball is low.

I would appreciate Brian, Tommy, Calvin, as they were improving in the Net.

Lastly, we had the doubles and single:
Tommy and Jordan vs. Brian and Calvin
Edmond vs. Chris

Chris didn't warm up too much, he ran ten laps today paying for losing the balls. Ernest, he left ten laps and would finish next time. Chris had not play tennis for about a wee, he said. He played with me badly, many many many unforced errors. Poor serve... Oh, I don't know what to say and how to say...

In terms of boys' doubles, I saw Jordan had little unforced error, especailly his return of serve. He tried many winner-shots, like hitting a powerful shot to the net player... One more thing, Jordan's net game is weak, standing too far away from the net. One more thing I would like to comment, boys at the net always turning their head when playing, watching their partner. I don't know why they did that many times...

Boys, hope you can play a good match tomorrow, the match with CU organized by Ernest.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Practice with Ernest and Joseph at Royal Ascot

Dear all,

Even the coach and volunteers come out to practise in the intense hit this afternoon. Thanks to Joseph and Ernest for arranging a tennis practice this afternoon at Royal Ascot, Shatin. This is where Joseph and Jeffrey lives, opposite to the famous Shatin racecourse.

Ernest and Joseph had a good Singles for half an hour before I joined Joseph against (Ernest) in a two-on-one practice for 90 min. It was good fun and we talked during and after the practice mainly on the improvement of the tennis in the WYK Tennis Team.

This must be encouragement for the Team that there is continuous learning even among the coach and the volunteers, but this may make it a bit harder for the Team to beat some of the Old Boys. As usual, I drive past WYK occasionally due to the proximity of my workplace. I caught the glimpse of someone practising service on Wed afternoon. This is all very good sign that some of you take the initiative to practise what you learn during your lessons with Ernest and Edmond.

I know that Ernest is keen to arrange some friendlies for the WYK Tennis Team, similar to those matches at HKFC. If any of the Old Boys could fix up some friendlies, please contact Ernest. My best friend from primary school told me he was the captain of the Club sitting on the bottom of Division E (the lowest grade). They even take pride to be the bottom of the League.

See you on Saturday afternoon if not sooner

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

balls

Arrived at 2.30 n had a good hit with Edmond till Calvin n Brain joined us at 3 n they were the only two boys who showed up today. However, though the attendance was so n so, but this allowed us to hv some more intensive individual training. Both boys worked hard with the help of our best volunteer---Raymond. We did several drills which covering most of the aspect n end with a good doubles game till 6.30 while the enthusiastic boys stayed behind to sharped their serve.
But there's one thing which made me frustrated today. I left more than a full basket of balls last Fri. while there's only less than 3 quarters still remained today. I walked around the court n found 9new balls which was lying just outside the fence!!!! Boys, how many times did I tell u to pick up all the balls after the practice ended? And how many times did u all promise to keep a good record about that? We, the old boys don't mind to pay for the ball as long as the ball is used properly. However, the situation is obviously out of control at the momment.
WYK TEAM, WHAT'S YR ANSWER FOR THIS MATTER???!!!!

16-JULY-2007 review

Seven boys came again. " Seven" is a great number in catholic.
Tommy, Brian, Barry, Frankie, Calvin, Nicholas, Jordan.
Today, we had our experienced old boys helper--Raymond.

Tommy was enthusiast in tennis. He's always the first one to come to the court. In these three weeks, when I arrived the court, I only saw him practicing serve himself. I do appreciated his heart of tennis.

So, we had so many drills today.
Some groundstroke foreahand practice drills.
Then, I gave them some forehand and backhand, with some in-side-out forehand. Most boys did well in the drills. I can see boys improved so much in these few weeks, especially after the gathering at the SCAA and the tournament in Victoria Park. Boys learnt more about their footwork and the sense of playing in the baseline. Raymond and I all totally agreed that they improved their stroke so much. We're glad to seeing that, so our next goal, or our coming goal is to win the Finneran Cup. Boys, try to do your best in the match.

What's more, boys have some serve practice. It is a fact that we do need serve practice every every time in our lesson. I would spare about fifteen minutes for the boys to practice their serve. You will see that, even they have warm-up their serve, they would have few double faults in a game, unbelievable. You would know that, though they had warmed-up and practiced their serve, two boys had two double faults in the same game when they had match at the end of the lesson. I doubted that, boys' serve are not awful, but they just want to have a powerful serve like Roddick. We can see that Chris and Barry like those kind of "rocket" serve. At the end, some boys didn't focus on the consistence of their serve. Maybe, next time we should focus more on their second serve.

Some boys tried "serve-and-volley" skills which they learnt from Ernest last lesson. Raymond told me that boys did well in "serve-and-volley". So, I decided to have some approach shot practices. I gave the drill for them before. The approach shot drill needs the boys to run to the next with an approach shot. Boys did well, especially the new intermediate players: Calvin, Nicholas and Tommy. I have to praise Tommy again, he did his best, I know. I like his approaching shot! He had improved his volleys. I can see boys were improving their volleys, they have the sense of the net play. We can see that they know the effect of the "split step", now they know how to focus at the net play.

Raymond and I were so happy about their performance.
So, lastly we had the match.
But, it rained. We waited a while.

The court is a little bit wet, and I decided to have some volley practice. They did some volley-volley practice. Tommy, Brian, Calvin and Nicholas improved their volleys so much. I can see boys' footwork! Improved!

At the end, we had the match:
Raymond and Tommy vs. Jordan and Calvin
Frankie and Barry vs. Brian and Nicholas

The result was unpreditable, Raymond's team lost and Barry's team lost.
We had the review of the match. The winner told us that Frankie and Barry had too many unforecd errors. I can see Brian was a good navigator, he communicated with Nicholas so much during the match. He leaded his partner and gave many advices, which I can feel that he would be a very good partner of Lourve. One more thing, Tommy did tried his best in his net play, Raymond felt that his volleys were improved.

This is the end of the review.
May boys leave some comments.

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.

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Boys, pls write the review of the tournament by comment this post.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Serena beats Daniela

In the battle of giants, Serena W beat Daniela H in 3 sets and overcame her difficulties with injury. She won because of her temperament and these are a few tips for you next time you show up on a tennis court. According to Daily telegraph, these are some of the notes extracted in her notebook to remind herself www.telegraph.co.uk

My good thoughts are powerful and my only negative thoughts are weak!
Decide what you want to be, have, do and think the thoughts of it.
Hang on to the thought of what you want. Make it absolutely clear.
Positive thoughts
You will look at tennis balls
You will move up
You R #1 (No1)
You are the best
You will add spin
TURN FAST
You will have long follow-throughs
You will win WIMBLEDON

Just substitute the word Wimbledon for Promotion when the next season begins.

Note those key important techniques in tennis when the champions want to win their games - Positive thoughts. Look at the tennis balls (as Fr Finneran said in practice); move up and get to the ball; long follow-throughs in your shots. Fr Finneran did not teach us with adding spins, but the good players such as Charles, Simon and Ernest soon found out about the need to add spins to survive the modern game, even 20-30 years ago.

Lastly, win the bloody match.

Monday, July 2, 2007

2-July-2007 (Wahyan)

We had our gathering after the boys' match.
Charles, Ernest(who didn't have the racquet and the tennis shoes today!), Chris, Frankie and I went to the court at about one thirty. Charles and Chris played a match.

Later on, more people came such as the old boy Covan.

At about 3pm, we started the lesson.
Chris, Tommy, Louvre, Calvin.
We had some basic baseline stokes.
I taught them about the split step, what they can do is to work hard on their heavy legs.
So, today's theme is focus on their heavy legs!

We had some serve, all you know, their serving should practice more in order to achieve consistency.

Then, we had a drill about running or chasing the lob ball from the net. I hit a deep lob and they start at the net. What they do is to run behind and chase the ball behind and hit the ball. It's hard for them at first, but Chris and Calvin learnt it after few shots. They were tired after the forehand chasing, they had to run fast as they can in order to reach the ball. After, we had the backhand chasing, I decided to play with them at the volley. After they hit the ball, I played the volley with them. Calvin and Chris did well, they hit some passing shots.

At the end, I prepared some shuttle run for the boys.
However, it rained at about 5:10.
We ducked into cabin for a while. Chris suggest doing some push-up. Raining dogs and cats, we moved to the LG of the New Wing.

At first, we did some exercise focusing on their heavy legs.
After, we hit the volley-volley.
Volley-volley is fun.

Then, we had a time to hitting against the wall of the building. The boys hit some forehand and backhand volleys. They really enjoyed hitting against the wall.

Nice day though it rained.
Cheers.

Review of Boys' matches

Today, I went to Victoria Park with Frankie and Chris.
At about 9am, I warmed up with the two boys.

We arrived at Victoria park at about 10:10.

Chris got his match at about 10:20.
His opponent was the 1st seed. Chris tried all his best, he had a consistent serve today. Moreover, Chris didn't made too much unforced error this time. He had a good match. But, he had his problem as usual: lazy heavy legs. He didn't react as fast as he can, SLOW. We may say that his feet and legs are too heavy..
Score: Chris lost 0-8

Anyway, he did it much better than I expected.

After that, at about 11am, Frankie got his match.
He played with the 4th seed called Kenneth Ip. Kenneth is not playing like the 1st seed( Chris's opponent), he had a powerful and fast stroke. In case, it made Frankie to rush and run around the court to reach every ball. I'm pleased that Frankie today was a fast-runner, we can imagine that Frankie played like the Clay court king--Nadal, who can reach every ball. Unexpected, Frankie's backhand slice is better than he played at wahyan. Fast runner, Frankie. But, after the match, Frankie told us that he felt tired at the 5th game of the pro set. He did well in the first few games, however, he can't do it at all the games.

Maybe, what we can do is to train the boys' stamina. Otherwise, the boys cannot withstand the sunny day and the best of three set.

I feel pleased about the two boys' performance in the matches. The two match were all unexpected, although they lost the match. In fact, winning or losing is not the most important in the match. What we can learn or the pleasure in the match is more important for the boys, instead, boys can gain more experience of the tournament outside wahyan. Lastly, I do believe that both of them tried all their best, and I think they had a good lesson today.

Boys, keep it on and try to remember winning a point is not only hitting a winner shot!