8-May-2008 Thursday Report

Today, we had Nicholas, Tommy, Ivan, Kenny, Bryan, Alex, Kelvin.

Some formal warm ups and then the drills.

I decided to have some handfeed drills at first.
Some forehand, backhand easy down the line.
Tommy and Nicholas did the good job.
Most of them were trying their best, especially the F1 boys.
Alex and Bryan were great.

I'm so pleased that our F1 new bloods felt exciting and tried their best in every drill.

Next, we had the baseline and volley drills.
Kenny and Ivan were the net players, while others hitting baseline.
Kenny seemed to be better at the net.
Tommy's groundstroke was great, powerful.

King of the court with the approach shot.
The F1 boys were not good, may be they didn't know much about the approach shot.

The doubles game but once you hit a backhand, you have to switch with your partner.
Kenny and Tommy were good, being the kings for many times.
Ivan and Alex tried their best, but without tactics.
Bryan and Kelvin also tried their best, and at last be the kings once.

Funny game

Service and Returning.

At last, Ivan, Alex, Kelvin and Bryan had a formal double.
Ivan was paired up with Kelvin who seemed to be the weakest among the three F1 boys.
I told Ivan to take care and teach Kelvin.
Luckily, Ivan acted as an elder brother and beat Bryan and Alex.

Alex and Bryan were great, but you know Ivan is too consistent.

I had a formal single with Tommy.
Tommy was absolutely awful at the first set.
He was not playing his style.
All you see are double faults, hitting to the net...

Tommy seemed a bit nervous, or I don't know how to describe...
Some psychological issue affected...
Tommy don't know how to play with a stronger player...

I told him to be relax and just enjoy the match.
For the second set, he was better.
Many crucial shots and threatening me.

Nicholas was back and he challenged me.
Just like the case of Tommy, the first few games were all BAD!
He claimed that he just came back and without warm ups...

At last, Ivan had the single with Nicholas.

I'm so happy to have a good lesson with the kids.
The F1 boys were all improved, comparing their performance last week.
For our team members, Tommy and Nicholas still have the psychological dilemma in playing against a stronger player.
Ivan was still consistent while Kenny trying his best to learn Nadal's forehand.