Monday, August 25, 2008

24-Aug-2008 Friendly match with Chai Wan

We had the friendly match with the "small league" of Chai Wan.

Boys arrived the courts at 6pm. My friend Louie met them. Hitting a few balls, they started the match.

Let me conclude the results.
I'm sorry I didn't write the name of the Chai Wan players...
We had nine doubles and 1 single only.

Tommy and Oscar lost 4:6
Barry and Nicholas lost 4:6
Ivan and Aaron lost 3:6
Barry and Oscar lost 1:6
Jason and Louvre lost 5:7 (but they were leading 4:1)
Nicholas and Tommy lost 3:6
Oscar (single) tied 4:4
Ivan and Aaron lost 2:6
Louvre and Oscar lost 4:6 (they lead 4:3 again!)
Barry and Jason lost 0:6

All were exciting games between us and Chai Wan team.
Those big guys are A grade players in small league, that why their shots and games are more consistent.

I arrived the court at around 7pm as I got lesson till 6pm at Junction. I started watching their match at the second round.

Barry played well and quite consistent after the 1st round, big server!
Jason and Louvre were a great pair. Louvre and Jason were amazing, too many killer shots and both of them got the powerful forehand. Many of them felt that they were good partners. However, expected, they lost the match even they head 4:1. That was really a close match, they leaded 4:1 and then 5:2, but lastly lost five games... If they win one more game, they would be the only pair who beat Chai Wan.

At the first few games, our players are all energetic. But once they lead too much, they were all "down" and played badly.

Nicholas and Tommy were a great pair, too.
Tommy felt better in his serves, like Safin. Nicholas got the powerful two-hands backhand.
Nic were great at the net.

Oscar's single match was wonderful!
The young boy Oscar was consistent and powerful.
The match was an exciting game. However, we didn't have too much time. We stopped the single at 4:4.

Later, Ivan and Aaron lost the match but they both did a great job.
Even they seemed weak and powerless, they were consistent and good at placement.
They needed more experience and perhaps more concentrated training.

Louvre and Oscar lead 4:3 but at last lost 4:6 again.
Oscar did a great job with Louvre.
Some unforced error made by two kids...
Not bad.

We took many pictures and later I would all upload.
We all enjoy the match.
I think this is a good experience for our players to play outside wahyan, especially playing with the A-grade players like the Chai Wan small league. Perhaps, this is a good start for coming season, in both big and small league.

Lastly, many thanks to Louie for organizing the event.
After the match, we had dinner at Chai Wan and them rushed home.

Friday, August 22, 2008

21-Aug-2008 Thursday Report @ wahyan

Our courts are repaired.
We started our training in two courts.

Louvre, Tommy, Ivan and Nicholas.
Not too many kids but we can do some more concentrated work.

I arrived the court at about 8:45am and Nic came in a few minutes.
We had a well hit until others came.
Nicholas told me that he wants to buy a new racket, while Ernest suggests him to get a larger head size like 98 or even 100 inch.

I brought three rackets today:
Prince O3 hybrid tour (which is currently used by Sam Querrey)
Prince Ozone pro tour (which is currently used by Davydenko)
Pro Kennex Ki 5 (which is my new racket as recommended by Ricky)
As you all would know that I like Prince most.

Nic tried the Ozone pro tour and seemed better.
He tried some service as well.
I found that his service seemed better but he replied that Ernest told him he tossed the ball too behind his body. I think Ernest's right, Nic should practice more on the ball tossing in order to develop a better serve.

Louvre, Tommy and Ivan came.
We first have a basket of basic forehand backhand down the line and cross court.
Nic and Tommy's backhand were not that good, the problem is that sometimes they hit the two hands backhand with a closed stance. That's why they can't hit a wide angle cross court. Louvre and Ivan did it okay.

Next, we had the drop shots drill.
Most did it bad as no one could hit a drop shot.

The great drill: double tactics drill.
Nicholas' net game seemed better and while Tommy have to get used of his new stuff.
Ivan and Louvre got the lazy feet, and they have to be more "active" at the net.
All in all , our boys had improved a bit of their net game.
One fact is that they hit better while their opponents hit faster and stronger shots.

I think I have to focus more on their footwork.

Lastly, doubles.
The service of most of the kids were weak and inconsistent.
I do believe that next time we have to focus more on service.

I'm not disagreeing Tommy to switch a new racket, but why do you switch a new racket? I think you have to switch a new one only or once you old racket could not satisfy you. Indeed, you have to "test" or so-called "try" the new racket in a few minutes and then you could know the racket is suitable for you or not. You should not get the new one because you think that racket is pretty cool or the painting is good.

I found that many of our kids use some "pro" racket.
In the market, the manufacturers spend a lot of money on advertisement and sponsoring the top players. Once Federer won the Wimbledon or US open, the K six one 90 would be easily out of stock in the market. The Wilson and Babolat racket were all hit, as many pros are using it.
Funny.

If you want to get a new racket, please try it before. Otherwise you will just waste your money.

The friendly match of Poly U is postponed to next Friday (29-Aug-2008), the same time.
I hope the weather would be okay on coming Sunday, so we could have the friendly match at Chai Wan.
I think if all of our courts are repaired, we could organize more friendly match on Sunday and Saturday, right?

14-Aug-2008 Thursday Report

We got the courts at Cherry Street today.

Louvre, Jason, Tommy, Ivan and Brian.

Long time no see Brian.

We got some doubles and singles match today.

Tommy and Jason lost the confidence and they were all "down" in doubles and single.
Tommy told me that he lost to Ivan few days ago in Ernest's training...

I had a few hit with Jason, Louvre and Tommy.
Louvre seemed to be more consistent but without any backhand.
Tommy performs badly after using his new Safin's racket.

It seems to me that they need more basic drill training.
Perhaps, some more match play are needed as the D1 matches are coming.

I'm sorry for the delay of this post and the content is short.

Friday, August 8, 2008

01-Aug-2008 Friday Practice @ Junction Road

I'm sorry for uploading the entry too late.

We have training at 11-1pm @ junction Road.

Oscar, Tommy, Calvin, Louvre.
I invited my friend Louie to join us for training.
Louie was also a coach and he's the A grade player in big league of Heng Fa Chuen.

We have some warm up and then started our doubles and single.

Louvre improved a lot. He shocked all of us.
His great forehand kill many of us, while the room of improvement of his backhand is still large.

Oscar was till the best player among us.
Tommy got the same problem: weak and inconsistent service....

Then, we had some singles.
I played with Oscar, founding him he's a very good single player.
Calvin played against Tommy.

Here are some comments from my friend Louie:
He found that the pairing of Tommy and Oscar is good. Oscar seemed smarter than his partner. Tommy have to focus more on his backhand, many of his shots were too "flat". Louvre was talkative and with great forehand, but his backhand was a bit awful... All of the young boys were great player.

Louie hope to have some more friendly match with our team.
I'll try my best to organize the friendly match, perhaps we could played against his Heng Fa Chuen B or C graded players in future.

P.S.
On the 15th August (Friday), we will have a friendly match against Poly U at the Joint School Sports Playground. The player list of them will be upload and details will be uploaded here. In case of the inclement weather, we will postpone to 29th August.