Friday, April 25, 2008

24-APR-2008 (Thursday Report)

I'm sorry that I was too busy last week and didn't update the blog.
Let's have some summary of last week.

Last Thursday, we would pleased to have our guest, Sam.
It was the first lesson for the F1 boys, but only one F1 boy called Kelvin came.

Sam played a single with both Tommy and Nicholas.
Expected, Sam didn't lose to them.
All in all, Sam told me that Nicholas is more threaten than Tommy because of his topspins. Sam said Tommy is powerful but the shots are similar to some of the Poly U players that easy to return, and not too many different spins.

Talking about the F1 boy, Kelvin.
He's good and only learnt tennis for half of years.

_________________________________________________________________


Today, we had Tommy, Nicholas, Calvin, Ivan, Kelvin, Bryan and one new blood Ferrari.
Ferrari is a F2 boy who is Louvre's friend.
He told me that he's now learning tennis in HKTA's course.

At first, we had some formal hand feed drill like forehand and backhand.
I found that our players did improved on their footworks.

Later on, we had the drill about "in-side-out" forehand.
Tommy did best and had the powerful forehand, while Nicholas' in-side-out forehand is spin.
The new bloods did well.
Ferrari's baseline strokes is good and consistent but not that powerful. I bet, after some more training in wahyan, he will be a good consistent player in future.

Next, the chasing ball game of two courts.
Boys did well including Ivan and Ferrari.

The Champion.
It is fun that Ivan challenged Tommy many time.
Ivan seemed to be good but if he could have a larger back swing, he would be more powerful.
Moreover, Tommy and Nicholas seemed a bit hard when playing against Ivan. This is funny that our boys didn't know how to play against the "old man style" like Ivan.

Service.
Volleys.

Pleased that Nicholas and Tommy improved their game.
More solid and crispy.
Tommy and Nic are playing better and better at the net!!

Lastly, we had the "king of the court" for two courts.
Ivan beat all the lower form boys and he liked challenging Tommy and Nic.

I'm so pleased to see our boys' improvement, not only in games.
However, I heard that some boys did silly things against one of our team members.
I do hope that our boys to be more mature and considerate.

Coaching tennis is not only tennis, we are here to teach the right value to the boys, too.
Do pray for our boys in team.

Lastly, we would have training next Thursday morning at 10am.
Any old boys want to join?

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Friendly Competition and Partnership

Dear Edmond and All,

I would like to write to you to let you know that all your efforts are appreciated with keeping this Blog. Dr Tony Ko told me that he read all the posts in this Blog on a regular basis.

It seems to me that the Team members must play in more matches and there must be a friendly competition for First Team places. We all know that the Six best players of the week start in the Match. However, all the squad players contributed in practice and matches.

I am interested to read about Ivan and Kenny challenging the Cheung couple. They might have lost on the first 2 occasions, but if they tried harder and harder, they will win one day. I agree that Nicholas is improving significantly in practice, but again he must show match form by beating his teammates or others in competition. I have always said that there are stars of morning practice who blasted winners in every direction on practice court, but could not do it in a match that counts.

Even Chris and Jordan came back to practise for the 2 Sundays as they sensed the improvement in the Team. There is friendly competition for places, which will benefit all the squad players as they can aim to do better all the time.

Some of the younger boys must start to learn to play doubles and work with their teammates. It takes many matches to gel a Doubles pairing. Most pairings fails as they do not understand each other's strengths and weaknesses. They should work to cover on your partner's weakness as well as exploiting on the opponents' weakness.

We look forward to the next season with great eagerness. I expect the whole squad to train pretty hard for the summer. The WYK Tennis Team must start beating a few of the Old Boys to stand any chance of a good performance in Division One.

Cheers

Raymond

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Thursday Report (10-April-2008)

I'm sorry that I was too busy last week and didn't post.
Please forgive me.

Today, 8 kids:
Chris, Nicholas, Calvin, Tommy, Jordan, Kenny, Ivan, Bryan.

I'm so pleased many kids come today.
It is good to have drill and organize the court with only eight kids.

At first, we had some very basic technic game.
Rallying in the service boxes, but every time before you hit the ball, you have to stop it and then hit.
The game is fun which can train the so called feeling of tennis.
I found most of the kids did well.

Next, we had the half court match, however, there were some limitation on every match.
At the first kind of match, boys were only allowed to hit forehand only. If they hit a backhand, they would lose a point. The game is good form them as training their lazy feet to MOVE!!
Many did well, for example Ivan and Nicholas.

Second match is about the "serve and volley" but with underarmed serve.
The serve have to run to net as quick as they can to reach up the second shot.
I found that many of them found hard as their opponent were at the net, and could only hit in a very limited space---only half court.

Tommy lost two times to Jordan. However, they were in the very close match.
Ivan was great, killing others with his consistent high shots.
The new blood Bryan did a good job, even he's a new learner, he tried his best and did some killer shots, too.

The two games were played in the "ladder" system: winner move up while loser move down.
The top courts were always Ivan and Nicholas.

Great and funny games.
I like working this kind of drills or games to them, as match play could always help them to improve. Being set some more limitation or some rules in the game, boys could learn some special tactics, for example, some of them learn hitting two wide shots in order to win( just say hit a wide forehand to the opponent's forehand, and then his backhand).

I appreciated their improvement like Jordan, Nicholas and Tommy.

Next, we had the funny game: Recovery.
I like recovery which makes the boys to RUN!
Boys were divided into two teams.
They have to run to the second court and touch the far double side line if they miss a shot.
Exciting!

Service and Returning.

At last, we had the king of the court in singles within two courts.
Kenny and Ivan challenged Cheung Sir and his wife again.

I joined with the boys.
I found Jordan's serve improved, while Tommy became a killer and more consistent.
Nicholas was the great improver, I bet. His forehand and backhand are improved, especially his serve, a bit powerful.

Kenny and Ivan lost the doubles to Cheung's couple again.
The training ended at about six thirty.

All in all, a good day.
I appreciated the boys' improvement.
In my own view, the form four boys are improving but Chris was still playing in his own style. I bet, in coming September, Nicholas would be one of the core player if his improvement keeps significantly.