Thursday Practice Report (27-Dec-2007)

This is my first training session after the examination.

Today, our training started on 10am.
I arrived the court at 9:45am.

We got so many kids: Tommy, Oscar, Louvre, Brian, Boris, Jordan and our big guest Sam.
I invited Sam to join our training today, as I hope he can rally or play with them, in order to help with the kids.

We first had some warm ups.
Then, we back to our normal practice.
The first drill we did is the ball chasing exercise. Sam and I be the net players and others had to chase the wide ball to hit a forehand. Some did well in the drill. Tommy and Jordan tried their best. Sam and I both agree that Oscar did the best.

What's next, we had the "super chasing ball game".
This is the drill I learnt in HKTA's talenT Group. We had to use two courts for the drill( probably I would try to use three courts next time). We started at the first court, and Sam standed at the second court. They lined up on the first court, hitting a volley shot first. Then, I feed a very high ball to the second court, they had to chase from the first cout to the second court.

This is a very tough drill, they had to RUN!
Most of them didn't get the ball at their first few times. Tommy chased the ball at his first try, I can get the ball but didn't hit it... After some shots of practicing, all of them did better. Boris did a good job.

Next, we had the approach shot exercise as usual.
This is a very important drill for them, I bet. As many of the kids can't hit a short ball, such as the approach shot. Once they hit the short ball and move to the net, they always forget to be ready at the net. We had this drill just like our past experience.

Many of the hit the approach to the net. However, Tommy did better at the end, his volleys improved. Louvre also had some unpredictible shots, which makes Sam feared.

Service and one more game.
The game is "3-kings one side".
Two net game players and on baseline. Others line up at the opposite side.
If any of the kings lose the point, other would come to replace him. So that, it is a very fast and exciting game. The aim of the game is to let the boys learn how to recover in the court. Recovering in a double match is extremely important. Once your partner move a bit left, you had to recover some of his place in the court.

At the very begining, they are awful.
No one recover others place.
However, after talking to them, some learnt recovering.
I hope they earn something in the game.

Lastly, double and single.
Sam + Tommy vs. Jordan + Boris
Louvre vs. Brian

Next, I paired with Boris and played against Tommy and Sam.

This is a very good day.
Boys played well.
I'm so pleased to see our boys improved!

Finneran Cup on 13 January 2008.

Dear Edmond and ALL

Thanks for the update. I saw Oscar played last week and he certainly improved a lot. He had a Singles with Barry and I think Barry took revenge for an earlier loss.

Tommy was playing well. He was more consistent with his groundstrokes. Ernest was working with him on his kick serve, and tried to slow down the pace of his serve to gain consistency.

Ernest also mentioned that he would be transferring some of the Form one elites to join your group. It is a very good idea.

The Old Boys are training hard for the Finneran Cup. If Covan returns to play for the Old Boys, perhaps the coaches should play for the WYK Tennis Team. The Finneran Cup will be held on 13 January 2008 (Sunday) at 2 pm. Please circulate the news among your team mates and teachers. Could someone let Mr and Mrs Zhang Ping know about this? I have already informed Mr WC Tang. If there is popular demand, we could start even earlier with some singles in the morning!!

Good luck with the exams. Whoever (in the tennis team) found to have the worst rankings in their Xmas exams will need to do 5 laps of the concrete soccer pitch. We should reward those who do well in their exams too.

Let's resume tennis training on 22 December 2007

Cheers

Raymond

6-Dec-2007

I' m really sorry that I've not updated the blog for a long long time. I'm so busy in November, because I got some many projects and presentations....=[

Here comes to the review of the training.
In the past couple of lessons, we focused on the doubles tactics.
We had some very basic strokes like forehand, backhand and some powerful shots.

Tommy and Oscar showed full attandance in my training session.
Tommy showed some improvement but he's still not that consistent.
Oscar improved a lot and he became a better player.

We had a double tactic.
I tought them some return and volleys in the doubles tactic.
Some learnt the intercepting of the return shots.
Boys' net game were still awful, only Oscar showed better volleys.

We had singles today.
I played against Oscar, while Tommy played against Ivan.

Oscar was great, he showed a good player in the game: powerful and stable serve. I had to play very tough to beat him. Oscar improved a lot!! He becomes more powerful and consistent.
I bet, he would be our top players in next few years!

We would bring the kids to watch the JB Group Classic 2008 on 2nd of January (Wednesday). It would be a good chance for them to learn and see the professional Ladies players lively.
We are now preparing for the Finneran Cup, Raymond, How do the old boys prepare? I know Covan would come back and help the old boys, it would be a very tough match.
Next, probably we would have one more friendly match in the December, the christmas holiday, play against the POLY-U. I would try my best to organize the friendly match.

Good luck for your examination, boys!