Wah Yan Tennis

5-Feb-2009 Thursday Report and inter school vs. KGV

2009-02-11T18:10:00.005+08:00

Nearly all the team members came.
Oscar, Tommy, Barry, Tony, Ivan, Aaron, Micheal, Jason, Nicholas.

Louvre called me he was injuried.

Today, we focused on doubles.
We tried different pairing.

Barry and Tony were great pair.
Oscar paired with Ivan, but it seemed not really good.
Ivan didn't know how to play doubles and his serve was really weak.

Tommy seemed to overcome his psychological problem, feeling better in serve and in the games.

In terms of our young boys, Aaron and Micheal dedicated to his game but still not mature.

Here comes to the report of vs. KGV.

Barry with Tony
Tommy with Oscar
Long long with Nicholas

KGV played too good even they were not the full team. Many of their players have good forms, great serve and of course, consistent strokes.

Barry and Tony seemed to be the best team, as they tried hard and played many tied games. Tony's returning was so good, while Barry got a great serve.
Tommy overcame his own problem and played well, assisting Oscar to goal.
Long Long and Nicholas were in the far court, they dedicated and played okay.

Though we lost 0:5 at the end, Ernest, Joseph and I were all pleased that the boys did a great job. Then, we went back to wahyan and have fun in both tennis court and football field.

We will have our next match on the 14th Feb at Victoria Park, 11:00am.

29-Jan-2009 Thursday Report

2009-01-30T13:52:00.002+08:00

Kung Hay Fat Choy.

Ivan, Aaron, Louvre and Tommy.
Oscar and Nicholas went to Thailand.

The four enthusiastic boys were great today.

Today, we focused on the Approach shot, short ball and the net play.
Boys did well in the first few drills, like the shot ball, approach shot.
I thought those drills are interesting and boys did a great job.

Tommy's approach shot was great and of course he got the great volleys in four of them.
Louvre tried his best, he made the short ball well, but the room of improvement on his volleys and especially the overhead is still large.
Aaron did it well and I found that he's one of the consistent player.
Ivan was okay, but he's still playing on his own style. What he plays is something he wants to do, you can see his form, I feel he is a bit stuborn. I bet, instead of me, Ernest must have tell him to do better on his form and the strokes.

Running forehand.
boys did not know that....
What you have to do: run, run, run, set your feet with an open stance, hit the ball.
Only Tommy did the great job.
Aaron improved a lot, but he needs more practice.
Louvre tried his best, which is okay.
Ivan was still playing on his own style, pushing the ball instead of hitting it...

Service.
It was unexpected all of them did well in practicing serve.

Game.
Louvre and Tommy played against Ivan and Aaron.

At the first four game, neither of them hold their service game. They did well on practicing serve, but when it comes to real game, they sucks...

2-2.

However, Aaron was the first who hold the game.
All of them had doubles fault, but Louvre got the least number.
I bet, they are not good at their mental way instead of their form.

It was a close match.
6-4 at the end to Ivan and Aaron.

Next, singles.
Tommy vs. Louvre.
Aaron vs. Ivan.

Good game to all.

All in all, good practice today. They did well.
We will have more match play next week, as they will play against KG5 next Sat.

22-Jan-2009 (Thursday Report)

2009-01-22T22:29:00.002+08:00

Oscar, Tommy, Louvre, Jason, Ivan, Michael.

Many kids today.
We first warmed up.
Then, a little drill about the groundstrokes.

Next, we play the "ups and downs".
We set different rule like "volley worths three points" and " serve-and-volley".
Many of them did a great job.
Long time no see Louvre, he got a great forehand.
Michael, our great F1 boy, although he's strokes are not mature, he tried his best and I like his backhand.
Ivan sometimes hit a forehand with a "open" racket face which is too "flat".

Running Forehand.
We tried the running forehand today, many of them don't know how to hit a great shot and did badly.
What you have to do is to run and then step your right foot, set your feet and hit that shot with an open stance.
I bet, only few of them did a great job afterwards like Tommy, Oscar and Michael.

Chasing the ball in two courts.
This is one of my favourite drills.
Boys did a great job, but some of them still not get use of hitting a bounce smash.
They have to practice more on the "bounce-smash".

Service and Returning.
I found that Michael was great when returning.
Tommy's serve improved a lot as he tossed the ball correctly.
Ivan has to toss the ball higher in case he could reach up and hit the ball at the higest position.

Last, Doubles and Singles.
Tommy played against Ivan.
I paired with Lovure and play the two young kids (Oscar and Michael)

Louvre was not really concentrate on the game, he was not really even the opponent served.
Ivan should improve on his returning.
Michael have to work on his net game, he is a bit nervous and afraid on standing at the front. He still has a little bit back swing and wrong contact point.

Good practice today.
Nice.

We have training on next Thursday morning: 29-Jan, 10am
Old boys are also welcomed.

Happy Lunar New Year!

15-Jan-2009 Thursday Report

2009-01-22T14:39:00.002+08:00

My training switched to Thursday.

Oscar, Ivan, Tommy, Nicholas, Aaron.

We first had the groundstrokes, like the deep forehand and backhand.
Net games.
2 vs. 1.
Overhead.
Service.

What we did are similar to last week.
Boys tried their best.

Nicholas and Tommy played a set.
I found that Tommy and Nicholas improved a lot, especially on their groundstrokes and the serve.
What they have to be focus is something insidie their mind, I mean their mental mind.

Long time no see Oscar, his stroke is quite mature but have to be consistent.

This is a brief report.
Hope to see the improvement of the boys next week.

6-Jan-2009 Tuesday Report

2009-01-11T23:27:00.002+08:00

Happy new years, everyone.

We started our first training today.
Ivan, Tommy and a F1 boy called Micheal.

It was so great that we had new blood.
Welcome, Micheal, who has the great single-hand backhand.

Tommy and Ivan took part in every single training except they were sick or absent in school. I appreacited the two young kids.

1. Spanish drill.
Deep forehand, short backhand, deep backhand and short forehand.
The two deep shots aim to hit a defensive one that's high and deep.
The same drill was did yesterday in talenT Group.
Compared with our kids, our footworks are bad and their shots are poor quality.
I'm not blaming for Ivan nor Tommy. They have to be focused on the footworks and some more about the tactics and techniqes.

Tommy always ran to the net after the short forehand shot, he hit that one like an approach shot. Micheal did well, his forehand and backhand are great. Ivan moved the fastest, indeed.

2. twenty balls drills
Boys have to ran for twenty balls.
Tommy was weak in fitness and didn't try hard.
Micheal and Ivan were good as they hit good shots.

3. 1 vs. 2 game.
One played against two in full courts.
If the one by his own beat the two, the two boys have to run laps.
Only Ivan won the challenged by his own!

4. Volleys.
Unfortunately, Micheal's net game including volleys and smash have to work more! His form was not good, including the contact point, swing, backswing...

5. Doubles drills
Great.
All did well

6. Service

7. Doubles
Barry with Ivan played against Micheal and Tommy.

Great training today.
We will have training on next thursday.

Summary of Dec and 2008

2009-01-05T01:33:00.003+08:00

We had regular training on 22th and 29th after the x'mas exam.
However, only Tommy, Jason and Ivan came.

A more concentrated training on both groundstrokes and the service.
They do have a great forehand, but it seems that one major error is the backhand. Many of them don't know how to slice, while their two-hands "power shot" are not that consistent.

Service.
Surprisingly, Tommy and Ivan got an awful service: inconsistent and powerless.
Ivan has to work hard on more power and one major tip is to hit the ball with straight arm and of course at the higest position.
Tommy, of course had tried really hard in ever aspects, but the room of improvement is still large. I recalled that when Sam and I first saw Tommy, his serve was incredible and threatening! How comes that he's now a "8-fault-in-one-game" player!

I hope to arrange more match play with the kids.
One more thing, I found that the number of participating in training drops a bit. I'm not sure wheather some of them have to study or other reasons, but I hope they can commit more on the team if you have promised to play and represent as a school team member.

Sorry for being late to upload the photos and video of the match on 3rd DEC, WYK VS. GSIS.

video: http://hk.youtube.com/user/gl4355
photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/gl4355/20081203WYKVsGSIS#

November and Early December Report

2008-12-05T15:31:00.003+08:00

We had training on 18th Nov, 25th Nov and 2nd Dec.

Not too many boys joined these few sessions, I bet many of them started focusing on their examination.

Tommy tried best but it seems to me that he lacks confidence and consistency. I appreciated Tommy he joined all my training sessions including the one in early December. I pray for him, I know he tried best and improved a lot.

We lost to GSIS in a very closed match, for detail information, you can refer to Raymond Ho's email.
Here are some photos....

18-Nov-2008 Tuesday Report

2008-11-19T23:23:00.003+08:00

I'm sorry for my laziness to upload the entries.
We do had training on 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th October and 4th, 11th November.
I was just too busy, sorry.

Boys tried hard in practice and they have regular training of every weeks.
It seemed to me that they had tried the best but the victory still not yet come in both winter league and small league.

Tommy now had a consistent groundstrokes, but unfortunately his serve was awful sometimes... Oscar complained on me that Tommy had a consequent 3 double fault a game.

Oscar was great again, he's always our new star!
He's now more powerful and consistent.

Ivan tried hard and he won some single matches.
I feel his improvement but what he had to do is not the tactics, he should have work on some power or basically the form.

Barry seemed busy. He seldom comes on Tuesday.
However, he played maturely and could lead the team!
He had the powerful groundstrokes which terrify us.

Nicholas was great,too.
He tried his best, unexpected, he's doubles game was good. Started from November, he stopped tennis as he has to focus on the HKCEE.

I hope HILLTOP would have the first victory in next match.
Work Hard, boys.

Many thanks to Ernest and all the old boys, providing all the goods thing to them, like the chance of playing outside wahyan. I think, I might join HILLTOP and the small league next season...

Raymond and Joseph, I have an idea, could we organize a " christmas Cup" in the x'mas holiday, including old boys and the kids. So that, we could have a very formal and seriuos tournament for the old boys and kids, what do you think?

30-Sept-2008 Tuesday Report and some comment of the "big league"

2008-10-06T23:12:00.003+08:00

Because of the inclement weather, there was no Tuesday training last week.

Tommy, Oscar, Jason, Nicholas, Barry, Ivan and Aaron.

Today, we had some warm up first.
I rallyed with Louvre. I found that he couldn't control the ball, even in the service box.

Next, we had forehand and backhand drill.
Most of them felt easy and did a great job, which I have never seen they play like these in matches.

Service.
Doubles drill.
4 vs. 4

Here are some comments of today's training:
Boys did really well in drills, I think they play good at Ernest training, too.
Louvre seemed to have practice more on some basic and foundation things like the form and the footwork.
Tommy switched back his Head racket, playing better than Safin's racket. He had the great and powerful shots but is not that consistent.
Oscar was our great player.
Nicholas improved a lot but still not consistent.

Big League tonight.
GCYCC vs. HILLTOP

I paired with my partner who was not that good.

Nic with Long Long
Tommy with Oscar
Alvin with Joseph

Boys tried their best, lost 1:8.

After playing with all team, I thought Long Long and Nicholas were the most consistent.
Long Long was great and consistent. Unexpected, Nicholas had less errors, played so good!!
Tommy did badly, I bet.
I played Tommy and Oscar at the third round, Tommy could not return a ball in our service game... Awful volleys... I was so sad that Tommy played like this.
Come on, Tommy!!

All in all, not that bad and boys tried the best.
They had a good chance to play at the artificial glass surface and the bad floodnight courts.

16-Sept-2008 Tuesday Report

2008-09-28T01:20:00.002+08:00

Sorry for uploading the entry too late.

Tommy, Oscar, Barry, Jason, Nicholas, Ivan, Aaron.
Boys had their first big league match tonight.
Although they were beaten, they did well.
For more detail of the match, please refer Raymond's email.

We first did a couple of warm up.
Then, the doubles tactic drill.

Boys enjoyed the drill and did well.
They tried hard and were consistent. ( becoz I told them to do a lap if they miss the first shot)

The drill is similar to the real doubles.
They tried to hit against two net players.

At about 5:15pm, some went for the big league with Ernest.

Tommy, Ivan and Aaron started practicing their volley, which is the worst of all their strokes.
Tommy tried hard.
Ivan must have get the ball early at the front next time.
Aaron seems not really ready for the net.

Lastly, we had a "king of court" single.
It is surprising that Ivan was always be the king...
Without doubt, he is one of the consistent boys in our team!

9-Sept-2008 (Tuesday Report)

2008-09-16T14:49:00.002+08:00

Tommy, Oscar, Barry, Nicholas, Jason, Aaron and Ivan.

Some formal warm up.

We first had a basic baseline drills.
Boys did well in this drill, especially when hitting the wide forehand.
Ivan did the drill excellent, too.

Next, we got the four balls drill.
Approach forehand, volley, running back backhand and volley.
Some don't know how to hit approach, while some hit a bounce smash like Aaron.
I know Aaron had tried his best in every drill, but he had to tried much harder.

Approach shot game.

At last, we had doubles.
I paired up with Oscar.

Firstly, we played against Aaron and Ivan.
The young kids played well.
But one thing I'm not pleased is that Ivan and Aaron were still afraid to be a net game player.
In the game, they were all standing at the baseline...
I've told them many and many times...
I hope they will try to be the net game players next time.

Nicholas and Jason seemed not really "fit" today...
Nic had to tried harder in serving.
Jason got the powerful forehand.
Barry seemed to be the most consistent player in our team, his strokes are very mature.

2-Sept-2008 Tuesday Report

2008-09-04T23:32:00.003+08:00

New start.

Barry, Oscar, Ivan, Tommy, Jason, Nicholas and Aaron.

Warm up with service box.
Some ball control exercise.

The ladder.
Aaron did a great job in ball control.
Jason tried his best, but it seems to me that he could do much better.

Approach shot drill.
Boys did really bad in the approach shots, especially the young kids like Aaron and Ivan.
Barry got the powerful approach shot, while Tommy was inconsistent...

Fun game: 3 vs. 4.
All of them did it well.

Service.

Rained...

We only can have one more smash and returning drill.
Tommy was bad at overhead...
Ivan was great, returning every shots back to the court.

one more fun game and then we ended the lesson because of the wet court.

Good day and all of them play so good.
I'm looking forward to seeing the improvement next Tuesday.

29-Aug-2008 (Friday Practice)

2008-09-04T23:18:00.001+08:00

I'm sorry for uploading the entry too late.

We had the practice today before the friendly match of Poly U.

Tommy, Nicholas, Aaron, Ivan and Louvre.

We had the very normal warm up and them some more basic drills.
Forehand and Backhand baseline.

Double tactic practice again.
Boys did well.

We didn't do much concentrated drills as they have matches tonight.
Sorry for the poor content as I forgot some...

I would like to express some of my feeling of the friendly match.
As Kane and Joseph will agree with me, our boys did a great job.
The Poly U team players all agreed that our players are very good and tough players, especially Tony Chow in both single and doubles.
Oscar and Long Long were good pairs
Sam felt that Barry improved a lot and played like Federer.
All in all, I bet wahyan had beat Poly U.

However, there are some improvement of our boys.
Ernest and I agree that the attitude of some kids were not good, perhaps really bad attitude while they are leading the game.
Learning tennis is not only the drill and the tactics, but also the attitude and how you behave. In wahyan and perhaps in the tennis team, we are here to learn how to be an all-around boy in any aspects.

24-Aug-2008 Friendly match with Chai Wan

2008-08-25T13:01:00.002+08:00

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.

21-Aug-2008 Thursday Report @ wahyan

2008-08-22T15:02:00.002+08:00

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

2008-08-22T14:10:00.002+08:00

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.

01-Aug-2008 Friday Practice @ Junction Road

2008-08-08T11:42:00.003+08:00

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.

24-July-2008 Thursday Report

2008-07-25T14:18:00.002+08:00

10-12 n at King's Park
A hot and sunny day.

But, two enthusiastic boys came.
Tommy and Oscar.

We focused on the net game again.
Tommy seemed not yet wake up at the court.
Maybe, the weather was too hot for outdoor activities...

After one hour drill, we had the single match.
I joined the game with them.

I first played with Oscar.
He was a great boy, powerful and consistent strokes.
His backhand seemed weaker than the forehand.
I played a bit hard as he's a strong player and the weather was so hot.

Played with Tommy.
He tried his best and he got the powerful shots.
He could return my powerful serve with a wide angle, so great!
Once he hit hard, I just returned to him and let him make mistakes.

Both of them did well.
At the end, Oscar beat me at the tie break.

Nearly the end of the lesson, a muscular man called Simon invited us for a double.
I saw Simon in the past and he's a good player, powerful serve with poor net game.

I was paired with him and playing against the boys.
They lost at the end, but I think this is a good match.
Simon told me that I had so much experience on tennis, just like playing doubles and single.

I would like to share my views or what I thought today.
I agreed that I'm more experience than the kids or even Simon, as I've played tennis for more than 10 years in the past and I've participated in many matches when I was a bit younger like the TA's tournament and even in university. Experience is quite important, I bet. Taking an example, when I played against Tommy, I know what I should do is just returning the shots to him. Then, he will miss the next shots. However, I've to play so hard with Oscar as he is far more consistent.

In the doubles game, I played easily.
I just returned the balls to the net player and I really did some down the line passing shots.
These all so called experience should be learnt, and I think the boys could learn in the matches and tournament.

I hope to organize more friendly match in future for the boys.
So that, our boys would be more experienced.

21-July-2008 Monday Extra practice @ Victoria Park

2008-07-25T14:02:00.002+08:00

This is one more extra lesson for the kids.
After the tournament, TA had free all the courts at VP.

We have Tommy, Jason, Nicholas and Oscar only at 9am.
Boys were all late.

Some formal warm ups.
The main drill today is "the net game".
I bet, most of you would agree that many of our players' net game have a large room of improvement.

One intercepting drill.
Jason's foot was lazy while Tommy tried his best.
One bad thing Tommy did is he has a too big back swing for the volleys.
Oscar seemed to be the best at the net among the four.
Nicholas was okay but still he has to practice more for the high balls like lobs...

Doubles.
Jason and Nicholas have some unforced error.
Jason needed to be more consistent, he missed some easy shots in the game.
Nicholas broke two strings today, and his service could be better next time.
Oscar did the great job while Tommy tried to assist at the net.

At last, the Tommy and Oscar played a single match for one game.
I think both of Tommy and Oscar were great at their single match.

Today is an extra lesson for the kids.
You know, the courts at VP is so hard to book.
Boys did well and I appreciate their "heart" on tennis and they really did a good job any time in the court.

Reviewing myself in the past when I was in the school team, I didn't practice so much like them!

17-July-2008 Thursday Report

2008-07-17T18:36:00.003+08:00

We played at King's park today.
Long Long, Tommy, Oscar, Matthew (our great Captain) and Ivan.

We played at the shaded court which is so great!

Firstly, we had normal warm up.
It was great that Tommy and Oscar went straightly in the semi-final in the 18 or under double. They both told me that they have great confidence to beat their opponent and would go into Final without deny.

Tommy and Oscar be the net and then played against others.
Tommy's net game was better and improved, but his shots are still to short and should hit it deeper.

Next, Tommy and Oscar be the groundstrokers and returning the smashes by others.
Long Long's overheads were all killer shots. Tommy and Oscar did learnt how to return others' killer smashes. Then, switched.
Ivan and Tommy seemed not how to overhead... too many mistakes.
Matthew was one of the great player today, his forehand shots were full of topspin. Once he returned the smash, the ball goes high with topspin and straightly go in the court.

Some services.

At last, Doubles.
Tommy and Oscar,
Matthew and Long Long,
Edmond and Ivan.

Tommy and Oscar did the best.
Matthew made some mistakes.
Ivan was one of the most improving players today. Unexpected, Ivan did a good job. He could return the serve without a wide angle forehand. He seemed to be more consistent even in doubles game. Often, Ivan's performance on drills were not that satisfactory and sometimes his form of strokes were weird. However, he tried his best in the game and improved a lot.

This is the end of the report today.
Hope that Tommy and Oscar would straightly go into final.

14-July-2008 Monday Report

2008-07-17T18:27:00.002+08:00

We have the courts at Shek Kip Mei again.

Sunny day.

Long Long, Oscar, Calvin, Tommy, Nicholas and Jason.

Boys did well today.
We had three hours today.
Boys were taking part in the Junior series.

Some formal warm ups.
We then did the overhead practices.
Most of the kids played well, even our great player Tommy. Tommy tried his best at the net, pointing the ball and at the right position.

Serve and return.
I found that Long Long's serve seemed to be the most consistent serve among our players. Long Long is a great player: powerful and killer shots.
Oscar was great, too. Though his forehand shots were a bit "flat", most of the time the shots killed others.

I'm sorry that this post would not be a long essay, as I forgot some of the great things...

At last, the single.
Jason and Tommy had a very closed game.
Tommy and Nicholas seemed played better.
Nicholas was good today, he can play a good shot when his shoulder didn't turn too much. One thing Nicholas did is his shoulder turn. Sometimes, he turned his shoulder too much or when hitting the ball but not finishing the stroke... I like his style, as his shots were all topspin.

Sunny day but the boys did well.
Remember to drink plenty of water!

7-July-2008 Indoor practice with Ernest

2008-07-12T12:08:00.006+08:00

We had a good time in the indoor court.
Some match play.
Here are some videos

I like Barry's footwork. Do look at his footworks

Good game

Tommy's double fault....

Jason and Nic..

3-July-2008 Thursday Report

2008-07-04T12:54:00.002+08:00

I'm sorry that long time no update the site.
Last month, exam started and rained nearly every day.

This is their first training after the exam which conducted by me.

Oscar, Tommy, Jason (Jordan's new name), Kenny, Ivan and Nicholas.

Due to the landslide, we have to book some public courts. Unfortunately, many of the courts were full, even the sunny hours like 2-4pm. We only have the Shek Kip Mei.

We have the formal warm-ups.
Some basic drills like forehand and backhands.

Some of them felt hot and tired.
I know that the sunny days may be too hard for them, so we have matches after in the second hour. Some took the break, while others playing a single.

I had a four-game match with Oscar. Draw.
I found that Oscar improved, his groundstrokes were more powerful than before. He has to be focused more on his consistency. Great serve, too.

Tommy was one of the less-improved boys.
I can't believe it, his footwork seems awful: lazy....
Tommy used to have a fast foot and I do like his footworks, but now....

Boys, work hard!
This year, you have to beat the Giants in D1!

Many left at 4pm because of the sunny day.
Though the courts of 4pm were all full, Kenny and Ivan still have energy and take a free court because of no one use...

Kenny tried his best in tennis, I bet.
However, Ivan is not that good. I see his work and his heart, but his improvement is not significant. He should double his effort!

Nicholas tried demonstrating Nadal's forehand today.

The public courts are hard to book right now, the government's "free admission scheme" seems bad to us. Many of the courts were fully booked, but no one use...
I hope next week, we can book the courts.

15-May-2008 Thursday Report

2008-05-19T19:18:00.002+08:00

Not too many kids today, Bryan, Kelvin, Kenny, Ivan, Tommy and Nicholas.

Simple hand feed drills again.
The reason why we do these hand feed drills is to train our kids' footwork.
You must know, many of them have "heavy legs", even some of the higher form players.

In the drill, they have to be ready every second and them rush to get the ball. After hitting the ball, they have to recover back to the middle of the court. Moreover, in the hand feed drill, I could see their form and the back swing easily.

Kenny did a good job, I bet his footwork is the best among the kids. He also told me that he had joined HKTA's TG which I act as assistant at GAP. I'm sure that Kenny had tried his best in tennis, he's now far better than I saw him last year. Kenny's form and the strokes are more mature than few months ago, that's why I'm sure he had tried very hard and had practiced for a long time. In long run and with his good behavior and manner, he would be our team crucial player.

Ivan, tried hard in the drill.
But, I wonder his form and strokes are not that good as others. You know, in every single shot, including groundstokes and service, he's hitting the ball in 45 degree with his body... I don't know how to describe to you...

Ivan is extremely consistent, but he have to be focused more on his form, should be in a more correct way and balanced in order to be a powerful player in long run. Otherwise, he would be the "old-man-style" tennis in wahyan.

Some volleys.

The F1 boys tried the best and giving good form of volleys even their shots are not powerful.

Nicholas' volley is the best, I bet.
His shots are crispy and deep. Even I hit a very powerful shot, he could return the ball with his crispy volley. Moreover, he got a good ready position and footwork at the net.

Tommy was great, too.
But, some of the shots are weak and too short, not threatening the opponent.

Some game about the approach shots and volleys.
Many did well.

Service.
Some of them complained that their service is not that powerful.
I have the same experience when I coached at the gap.
I'm not saying that powerful shots are useless, but I think more important is the consistence of the serve instead of the power.
In the professional match, many of the double players' serve are not too powerful but instead of spinful.
All of you know that Tommy had the powerful serve, but you know the probability of his serve in is quite low in real match... Moreover, even if his powerful serve is in, the opponent can only push back the ball easily. However, I believe the kick serve or the spin serve is more threaten that a flat serve. In my own experience, I feel hard when my head coach Matt serve with his kick serve, but I could push back easily with his powerful flat serve.

Maybe, the powerful flat serve is cool, just like when you go to Hong Kong tennis centre, many of the foreign coach serving so fast! But, hong kong people are that muscular to have that great powerful serve.

I will try my best to teach some more spin serve later.
One more thing, Ivan still serving with his wrong position and stance...

This is a so good lesson.
All of them did well.
By the way, some of the are missed some very fundamental technique or skills like the very simple stances, the back swing, etc. What we have to focus and teach are not only the double tactic, but also some very simple fundamental things like footworks and forms.

We will have our next lesson at 1:30pm next Thursday.

Ernest, do you where are the cones and target?
I found no targets at the store room.

Golden Era of Tennis Returning to WYK

2008-05-14T11:28:00.002+08:00

Dear All,

I am thrilled by the exciting developments of the past season. We have witnessed an unprecedented interest in tennis among the WYK students and Old Boys (and their children) too.

Waking up late on a Saturday morning and strolling down to WYK for a game of tennis, I am surprised to find that all four courts were packed with familiar faces. I even had to wait for 30 minutes on the sidelines before getting a game. This is a pleasant wait, as I was witnessing good Doubles games played all over the place. Spending more time in WYK tennis courts than at home, Ernest has slowly instilled a new sense of purpose and culture among our tennis players. Of course, he is ably assisted by Edmond Ip in this revolution.

The transformation of the team is amazing. This Saturday, we witnessed Tony Chow playing mature doubles against Kane and Kelvin. It will be beneficial for Tony to play against the likes of Kane, Kelvin and other experienced League players. We expect Tony to beat most of us by the end of this summer. The same must be said about Barry, who played magnificently on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. Barry is now holding his own against the likes of Kane, Ricky, Kelvin, Ambrose and Joseph. Tommy is another outstanding improver. Chris is practising solidly and can improve his mental game. Nicholas and Jordan will be pushing for First Team places next season. Joseph and I started to work on left-hander Kenny's game for the first time and see a lot of potential in him. He was flying on practice courts, but played quite differently in match situation.

Our Team of Old Boys are also practising hard. Jack and Alvin hardly missed a practice lately. Medes has been playing with us for a few Saturdays now. Tony Ko always makes practice when he is not saving lives. Ambrose, Kane, Joseph, Charles and Kelvin (honorary) showed their whole-hearted support and practised with the Team all the time. In fact, all the Old Boys are playing much better tennis now than a couple of years ago. While we are helping the WYK Team, we are also helping ourselves. Kane and I have a much improved backhand now than before. Joseph was given a new serve and return.

The future is brighter with the next generation, those who have not yet reached 12 years old. Chun Chun (Kane's son) and Brian (Alvin's son) will become top juniors one day given their talents and commitment. Jeffrey (Joseph's son) is improving. Galax (Ambrose'son) and Jarvis (Jack's son) are both interested in tennis. Ernest will sort them out one by one.

We are seeing the return of the golden era of tennis in WYK. While our Boys may struggle in Division One for a season or two, we expect them to end up in the Top Half of the Table rather than the bottom Half with years to come. It will be unrealistic to think that we can win the Divison One title again given the talents and sound recruitment policy in sports in DBS and La Salle these days.

8-May-2008 Thursday Report

2008-05-09T11:38:00.002+08:00

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.

1-May-2008 Thursday Report

2008-05-07T20:44:00.003+08:00

I'm sorry for updating the report too late. =]

We had the practice on the public holiday, starting at 10am.
Luckily, some old boys came and joined the training.

We had Nicholas, Calvin, Tommy, Ivan, Matthew, Jeffrey and Kelvin.
Some warm ups.

Then, we had the first drill: three balls drill.
Many did well in the forehand running shots. As many had seen, Tommy and Nicholas had the great shot, especially the mid court attack.

Next, we had the backhand.
Not bad.

The first game was " the Champion".
Once you win the point, you could be the champion at the other side.
The funny game and it proved that even if you are not good or weak, you can still be the champion.

Many of them did well, including the old boys.
They felt happy in the game, even old new F1 Kelvin, Bryan and Chun Chun.
Raymond and Kane were playing so hard, threatening our boys.
Ivan and Kelvin did best at the net.

Next, we had our favourite game: Recovery.
I think many of you know the game, this is one of my favorite game.
Old boys vs. wahyhan boys.
Once you miss a shot, you have to run to the next court and run back.
At the end, wahnyan school team beated the old boys at the first set.

It was a very interesting game, the only one solution is to be consistent.

Serve and Return, with promotion in three courts.
Once you beat the returner, you can be promoted to the next court and challenge the next returning.
Many were still in trying at the bottom court.
Tommy had too many double fault, staying at the bottom court.
Nicholas tried his best and always stayed at the top court.

Some may think that the game is boring, but one thing you have to learn is to win every single point in the game or match.
I hope all of the boys would learn this after playing the game.

Lastly, the match play.

We had the great day and have fun.
I hope the old boys would like my games and drills.

Some photos attached.

24-APR-2008 (Thursday Report)

2008-04-25T12:48:00.002+08:00

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?

Friendly Competition and Partnership

2008-04-23T17:24:00.002+08:00

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 Report (10-April-2008)

2008-04-10T23:51:00.002+08:00

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.

Friday Report (28-Mar-2008)

2008-03-31T21:07:00.002+08:00

There was no training on the Thursday this week, but we had the training on Friday.
Unfortunately, with the rain, we postponed our training at 12n.

Not too many boys.
Louvre, Oscar, Tommy, Jordan, Brian.

Normal training like warming up and some basic strokes.

We had the forehand and volley drills.
Louvre was great, returning many powerful forehand shots which hit by Tommy and Oscar. Louvre seemed improved a lot at the net game: he's no longer afraid of being a net game player.

While Oscar and Tommy became more powerful.

Next, we had the backhand slices drill.
Horribly, only Oscar could hit a good form slice.
I told the boys to hit a backhand slices down the line, in case to pass the net player. If you could do that, the ball would land on the tram line and without the intercepting by the opponent.

Except Oscar, all the boys' backhand slice form are incorrect.
I don't know how Jordan can hit the single hand backhand with his "special" form.
Louvre and Tommy hit the slice with an opened racket face.

One thing I have noticed, I found that most of time, Louvre would make the same mistakes as Tommy made. For example, they hit the forehand without standing still on the ground, open racket face single hand backhand.

One more drill about the "saving the shots".
One player with my side, others hitting overhead.
The one have to save as many shots as he could.
Interesting drill.
Oscar did the best, while Jordan seemed not paying attention to every shot.

Lastly, we hand the double and the king of the court.
I joined with them for the king of the court.

I'm so proud of our boys' improvement.
Tommy could return my powerful baseline strokes, while Brian can rally many shots to me.
Many of them did well in the game.

Let's pray for the good weather next week.
I will have training with them on next Thursday, probably in our tennis court.
As Chris told me that the courts of king's park are full, we may have the training back at wyk.
I hope, next week, we would have more concentrated training for preparing the match.

P.S.
Ernest and Raymond, probably in summer, we should focus more on the boys' backhand, especially their slice.

Wednesday Report (19-Mar-2008)

2008-03-19T21:10:00.002+08:00

Good weather in the morning.

Oscar, Tommy, Louvre, Jordan, Chris and Calvin.

We had some warm up.
Some hand feed easy drills.

I found that many of them have the lazy and heavy feet.
In long run, we have to give the boys more running drills!

Groundstrokes and volleys.
Louvre improved a bit in his net game.
Oscar and Tommy should focus more on their topspin baseline, in order to get the ball in.

A funny net mini game.
Boys divided into two teams and hitting volley only.
If the ball bounced, the team would lose a point.

Tommy and Oscar were great, they do bend their knees, especially the low volley.
Louvre was a funny boy: when he is at the net, he can only hit backhand volley. It seems that he never try any forehand volley...
In fact, Jordan didn't hit a low volleys: never bend his knees!

In long run, the net game needs to be focus.
As if we are promoted into Division 1 next year, net game would be crucial for winning the match!

One drill about the forehand.
Wide in side out shot, a mid court attack, and lastly hit a drop shot.
The drop shot is a hard drill for some of our boys, I bet.
This is a bit hard for them maybe, they have to hit a drop shot in order to "put" the ball into the basket.
Tommy couldn't slice or even drop shot. Oscar seemed better.

Service.
I' m so proud some of them improved their service:
Jordan became more powerful while Tommy is a bit more consistent.
It is funny that some of them demonstrated the "Louvre's serve".
Louvre seems to work hard on his service, but one problem of his serve is that every time when he tosses the ball, his feet would move forward few times.

Oscar and Tommy played against Louvre and Calvin.
I gave Chris and Jordan some private and individual training.

Chris tried his best, he told me that he wanted to be more consistent.
He hit the bal cross court with Jordan, they rallyed a bit.
I saw Chris improved a bit of his forehand, but some error will be made if he wants to hit a wider angle of shot.

Not that bad.
Jordan seemed inconsistent when he hit his backhand.
Chris wants to improved his backhand.

Good day.
I appreciated the boys as they can wake up so early in order to play tennis.
I'm sorry I'm a bit hurry to end the class as I have to go to school.
Maybe, if anyone wants some more individual lesson during the holiday, please feel free to call me to arrange the schedule.

Next week, I will have the lesson on Friday, still start at 9am.

Thursday report (15-Mar-2008)

2008-03-13T21:08:00.002+08:00

Today, we have nearly all the school team for practicing tennis.

Tommy, Oscar, Nicholas, Calvin, Barry, Chris, Jordan, Kenny, Ivan, little Bryan.

Unexpected, too many kids.

We first had some warm up.

Tommy and Oscar played against Chris and Barry.
Our vice captain's team was beaten by the two young lions.
Chris did bad and was so nervous.
One thing is that, Barry has to control his temple in the game. You have to give support to your partner, not just blaming him. Maybe, just say "add oil" just give him a hug is okay.
Support is better than a word of blame, you know.

Ernest, Raymond and Joseph, please tell Barry on Saturday to control his temper.

The two young boys were great, especially Oscar.
Tommy did a good job, but he seemed a bit nervous and did make some unforced error.
He needs more practice and perhaps more experience of playing matches.

I offered other boys some drill and game.
We had the team divided into two.
3 vs.3, running back to get the high ball...

Good job the boys.

Service.

Our boys did serve well when practicing in wahyan.

Next, we had the new game" recovery".
Team divided into two and then if you miss a shot, you have to run to the next court and touch the far single side line, then running back as quick as you can in order to help our team mates. Our boys did well. We then had the "elimination", if they miss a ball, he had to be "out".

A very exciting game which demonstrates a nervous environment for our boys.

Oscar and Tommy played against Nic and Calvin.
However, this is a handicap match, every game starts at 0-30.
Oscar and Tommy did bad at the first as they feel that this is not that fair.
However, I told them that it is a good chance "feel" the adverse condition in the game.
Luckily, our boys overcame and learn how to get back from this kind of condition.

We also had the special training to help the second pair: Barry and Chris.
Barry and I stayed at the baseline while Jordan and Chris at the net.
We rallyed and Chris volleyed for a whole basket of trolley.

I fed many fast ball to them, both Barry and Chris.
Chris seemed better at his net play. He sometimes gets the back swing too much and then racket face opened, the ball out. In terms of Barry, he couldn't hit a low volley, especially his backhand volley. All in all, both of them played better and better.

It is a fact that our boys really hope and wish to beat the next two big giants: WYCHK and WEST ISLAND. It would be a must to win both two matches if you want to be promoted to Division 1 next year.

Maybe, we shouldn't worry too much.
Some of our boys were too nervous when playing in the inter school, I know.
Some of them afraid that they would lose the set, as they are representing wah yan.
Maybe, there are a bit pressure they feel.

Boys, you have already done your best, I really know!
I'm so proud of all of you.
I appreciate our team, especially the team spirit, the heart on tennis.
It seems to me that this is even better when I was the school team in wahyan.

Many of the old boys wish the team luck, not even Raymond and Joseph.
Sam told me that everything will be fine, the team is strong and we can still be promoted to D1 if we beat the next two giants.

Pray for our boys.
I will wait you all on Saturday morning.
Moreover, I will try to arrange a court for warm up.

Thursday report (6-Mar-2008)

2008-03-06T20:16:00.002+08:00

Many kids again:
Louvre, Brian, Nicholas, Oscar, Tommy, Jordan, Chris, Kenny, Ivan, Bryan.

We first had some easy drills.
I told Brian and Louvre to first play a double with Tommy and Jordan.
The score was 4:0 to Tommy's team.

We got the three ball cross drill.
One baseline forehand cross court, one mid court attack and lastly a very tricky drop shot.
I put a basket near the net, boys had to hit a drop shot in order to "bounce" the ball into the basket.
This is a very hard and tough drill.
Most of the kids did well, especially Oscar and Jordan.
However, Nicholas was the only one who can drop the ball into the basket.
I'm proud of him.

We also had the running two court drill and the chasing short ball drill.
Many of our kids ran quickly to get the ball.
The footwork of them had improved, I bet.

Service.
I then told Brian and Oscar to play against Kenny and Ivan.
The score is 6:3 , but I knew Kenny did a good job.

I'm sorry, today I don't want to mention too many of the drills as many of them did well in the drill. Moreover, it is a fact that our kids play so good when they are practicing in wahyan. I want to mention more about our game match today.

At the end, we got two doubles and a single.
Single: Brian played against Kenny.
Unexpected, Brian lost 4-6 to Kenny.
Kenny was great, so consistent that he could beat Brian.
In fact, I found Kenny are playing better and better.

Next, Chris paired with little Bryan, played against Jordan and Ivan.
Our vice captain's team won.
Jordan was a bit not in a good mood of match play, Chris complained to me that Jordan seemed not paying attention or focus during the game.
I knew Bryan was new and he's not that good in backhand. But, I appreciated him that he tried all the best to rally the ball in the court.

Then, I paired with Louvre and played against Tommy and Oscar.
Tommy and Oscar were great, they got the understanding of each other.
I didn't do well, as I have long time no playing or rallying on the baseline. Unfortunately, I have one match of my university next Tuesday.
So, we were beaten by the young men.

Oscar is very consistent while Tommy do have his powerful serve.
Tommy have to work harder on the net game.
Not many unforced error.
Louvre seemed better, he could control his temper even I made many unforced error.
Sometimes, Louvre was unexpected: hitting some killer shots.
Louvre did a good job.

At the last, one more double:
My place was replaced by Jordan.
Jordan and Louvre vs. Tommy and Oscar.
It seems to me that Jordan and Louvre played so well, they have the understanding of each other. I bet they would be a good team in future.
Oscar played the best: he was so strong and too good.
But, Jordan seemed not that good, some unforced error. Chris and I agreed that Jordan was still hitting only with his arms. Chris told me he could see his brother hitting the ball with very straight legs.

Louvre also did his best.
I'm proud of all the four players.
They were great players.

Good match.
Boys did well today.
The return of serve of them seemed better today.
But, playing in the real match is not the same as practicing in wahyan.
The more important is our kids seemed not really good in their mental:
some may get four double faults in a game as they were nervous...

Just pray for the team.
In long run, gaining more experience of playing tournament would help our kids.

Something that I have noticed:

1/ Raymond and Ernest, I'm still seeing some of the boys or I could say all our boys DO NOT call the score loudly when they in the match. Please do tell our kids to call every score loudly next time, especially in the inter school championship.

2/ That's nothing about tennis. It is pleased to see we got the whole trolley full of tennis balls. But boys take so long time for picking up the balls. I know, no one like picking up balls. However, I do hope to see the balls to pick up the ball in a faster way next time.

3/ Some attitude I have noticed today. I don't know whether it would appear on Ernest's class. It seemed that I'm too clement and too kind to the boys, I seldom shot at them even they are not listening my words. Today, I told the boys to pick up the balls, but some still hitting or just serving. The F4 boys should show a good image, so that our younger kids like Oscar and Little Bryan can learn from you. Wahyan is a good school, our students not only learn from the textbook, but also they learn from the higher form students and the old boys. I think, it is crucial for our players to show their good image or they should be a good demonstration for the F1 boys.

I'm sorry for my poor grammar.
It seemed that I have so many demands or requests on the boys.
In my own opinion, I just feel that the coaches here are not only teaching you tennis skills, we are here to help you or to teach you the right value and goods. I hope our boys will be polite, kind and considerate men in future.

Thursday report (29-Feb-2008)

2008-03-02T19:27:00.002+08:00

So many kids today:
Nicholas, Calvin, Oscar, Tommy, Jordan, Chris, Bryan, Kenny and Ivan.

The inter school is coming, we will have our first match next Saturday at the Gap.

We practiced a few shots for volleys and basic ground strokes.

The young kids Kenny, Ivan and Bryan were great. Kenny played better, while the new blood Bryan still on his improvement. I'm sorry that we had to focus on our core players, preparing the coming great match.

Boys did well in the first few drills: those basic ground strokes drills.
However, I found that some of the kids were still inconsistent, like Oscar and Tommy. They had the killer shot, but the probability of hitting in of these killer shots was only one-forth. On the other hand, many of them played better at the net.

I gave them some doubles drills.
Nicholas and Calvin played against Tommy and Oscar.
It was a great match, Oscar was consistent while Nicholas did his best at the net.
Nic and Calvin were beaten by the two young kids.

Then, Wong's brother had the double drill with Oscar and Tommy.
The " switch" game.
Once you play a backhand, you have to switch side with your partner.
Once you come to the net, you have to come in with your partner together.

At the first 11-point game, Wong's won.
Here comes to the second game, Oscar and Tommy played better while Wong's brother had some misunderstanding with each other. Tommy and Oscar came to the net few times and hit many killer shots.

The game score was one game all.
Here comes to the last game, we had a different rule.
Four of the players came to the net, I fed a high ball which they had to chase back and get the ball back.
The drill is interesting, I found some of them really feel afraid with a lob.
However, after some shots, most of the them could get the ball, but some still hit it out.
At the end, Oscar's team won.

Some service and return.
Next, I served to them, they practiced their returning.
Tommy did a very good job, returning my every shots and rallied with me.
But, I don't know whether he can perform like this in the real match.

At the end, I paired with Jordan and played against Oscar and Tommy.
Good match.
Tommy's serve threaten us, while Oscar consistently rallied to us.
Jordan made some mistakes.

Maybe, for our last practice next week, I will focus on their returning and serving.
Moreover, more match play.
I hope more kids could come next week, in order to prepare for the Saturday match.

Raymond and Ernest, any ideas that we should focus on at our next Thursday Class?

Some feeling about watching the tournament

2008-02-22T00:44:00.002+08:00

Boys had the Lion Club tournament today.

After our Thursday training, I went to the Victoria Park with the boys.

It is a sad fact that Long Long lost his single.
Long Long and Oscar beated their opponent without losing any games.

Nicholas and Calvin lost to the DBS pairs.
They were great, they lost only 1:8.
I'm so pleased that they can have one game playing against these two good players.
Nicholas enjoyed the match.
The DBS players were HKTA's NTS player. ( NTS is the best training group of HKTA)

When I was watching their match, I chated with the HKTA national coach Christiaan (who is my friend, and I helped him last year in the gap). The HKTA national coaches are visiting everywhere to see their players' tournament, which is what Ernest and I doing!
We chated and he asked one question," Why are they on the baseline?"

Nic and Calvin were at the baseline all the time.
I knew Nicholas tried some volleys and gained some points.
What I was upset is that, we had work on their volleys today's and in previous many lesson. But they never volley at the real match. Maybe, Calvin was a bit nervous and afraid. Nic did his best, I bet.

Waitng till nearly 8pm, our doubles played.
Louvre and Brian played against Tommy and Jordan.

I watched...
Another HKTA national coach Nathan came, we chated.
He asked the same question again, " why are they on the baseline! Edmond, did you coach them?"
I just replied I had told them many many time to come to the net.
He replied, " you should train harder next lesson!"

Four of them were right standing at the baseline.
No net game.
No intercept.
I just saw Brian came to the net and approached, winning some points.
Others were just standing at the baseline and waiting for the ball.
Unforced errors...

I knew Jordan blamed Tommy when Tommy made mistakes. ( Actually, Tommy was still a bit sick in the court)
On the other side of court, I saw Brian giving some tips to his partner in a very good manner. Even Louvre made a mistake, Brian was still smile and cared him. I appreciated Brian's good job.

I was so upset and a bit angry...
Ernest and I coached them the volleys many many times, from last summer to now at least.
But, they are still standing at the baseline..
Maybe, some of them are a bit nervous as this is a very formal tournament outside wahyan.

We had practiced volley today, especially the interception.
There is no excuse that you don't know how to volley.
Some just making excuse that playing in the net may lead to a lost of the match becasue his net game is not that consistent.

We taught, we practiced, practiced and practiced.
However, in the real match, they never use what they learnt.
It is funny that our players are good in our court or the training.
They did learnt a lot in the training and improved a lot.

At the end in the tournament, some of them just still playing in their own style's tennis, not what they had learnt and practice in wahyan.
Why?
Because our kids are mentally sick when playing tournament? If so, experience is a must to improve.

I'm sorry I can't really express all my feeling in English here.
I'm sorry I may be a bit angry today.
I'm sorry I may be a bit impatient today.

But, I just hope to see the boys: use what you have learnt in wahyan!
Use all you learnt in the match.
It is absolutely a sad fact if you cannot use what you've learnt in Ernest and my class.
Why do we have trainig three times a week?
It is because, we want all of you to join and we want you to practice and practice many times.
Practice makes almost perfect. Then, at the end, you can use what you practiced and learnt in the inter school: showing off what you have learnt in the lesson.

Maybe, let's think for the solution to help the boys in order to remember everything they learn in Ernest and my class.
We had practice so many times. If you still playing your own style in the match, then you are just back to your starting point, which is the place where you have not yet join our training.

Ernest and all the old boys,
Next time, once you see both the doubles players are at the baseline together, no matter they are serving or returning, just stop them.
AND tell them to run around four courts for ten laps!
I don't want to see the so called "2-baseline" tactic again! I'm sick of this! This is not double!

Thursday report (21-Feb-2008)

2008-02-22T00:43:00.000+08:00

Sorry for canceling the lesson of last week, as I got sick.
I got the fever for nearly a whole week.

Today, we had too many kids, because many of the kids have matches today.
Oscar, Brian, Louvre, Jordan, Tommy, Nicholas, Calvin, Ivan and one new blood Bryan (Actually, I don't know he is Brian or Bryan, just named him Bryan to distinguish the two Brian).

I had an idea to give them some individual training.
I gave them everyone a whole basket to train.

I asked what they want to improve, they had one basket time to work with me.

First, we had Oscar.
I worked on his backhand, he complained that his backhand is weak.
I found that his slice backhand is awful, but the two hands backhand is much better.
I gave him many balls, he tried to add some spins in order to be consistent.

Then, he practiced the overhead.
I feel proud of his net games.

Next, Nicholas and Calvin.
Calvin worked on his forehand, while Nic focused on his backhand.
Both of them made a mistake is they "jumped"when they hit the ball.
I told them to hit "still", just stand still and hit the ball.
Good job, boys.

Next, Jordan and Tommy.
Tommy was a bit sick, telling us that he got a fever last night.
Simple forehand and backhand.

Then, we had the intercept session.
Nicholas and Calvin played against Jordan and Tommy.
I fed the ball, the two net players have to intercept the ball, while the baseliner have to hit a wide angle shot in order to prevent opponent 's interception.
Jordan was active, Nicholas tried his best.
All of them had a good net game. They tried their best.
I'm so surprised they tried hard to intercept.

Brian and Louvre.
We had the same training like the previous.
I told them to hit the ball wide in order to prevent the interception.
Brian did a good job.
Ivan came to the court and acted as the net player of my side.
They tried to come to the net together.
I was so happy that Brian wanted to improve his approach and net game.
Louvre and Brian did very good at the net.

Volleys for all the boys.
All of them played so good.
They are braved to face my powerful forehand killer shots.

Last but not the least, the two young kids: Ivan and Bryan.
I'm sorry as times is running out, I just fed them a forehand shots.
Ivan played as usual, but if he can "stand still", he could have better performance on his forehand and backhand.
Bryan was the first time to come, he is good and he learnt tennis only half year.
Bryan had a good form, but no backhand at all.
In long run, he could be a good player if he practices more.

I'm pleased to see the attandance today.
Many boys, they are trying their best to improve themselves.

Thursday Practice Report (31-Jan-2008)

2008-01-31T22:41:00.000+08:00

Last week, we had the K-swiss championship all the week. We miss the training last week.

Today, we still had the enthusiastic Tommy and Oscar.
The higher form Chris and Boris joined a few of the training.
Kenny and Ivan, and two new blood called Edward and Alex.

Edward and Alex played in Ernest's Friday course last year.
I talked to Ernest and told him to invite some good players to join our players.
Unexpected, both of them played well which I can't believe they just learn tennis not more than one year.

We dried the court first.
I gave Ivan, Tommy, Oscar some medicine ball drill, in order to train their serve and backhands.
Next, we had some normal warm ups like hitting in the service box, rallying, volleys.
In the warm up, I talked to them and making some correction of Tommy's lazy footwork, Ivan's bad volleys, Alex's jumping foot, etc.

The "non-school team"players Kenny and Ivan had bad net games.
We first have the running shot, Kenny and Ivan be the net player.
I shouted and shouted, telling them to hold up their rackets and be ready all the time.
After more than thirty balls fed, Ivan felt brave to hit every shot, but Kenny was chicken: fearing all the time.

Tommy and Oscar tried their best to hit a killer shot, but they seemed to neglect the consistency. Alex had a great shot, hitting some powerful forehand. Another new blood Edward made some unforced error, but once he hit a good shot, Kenny and Ivan would never get the ball back.

It would be a good idead to have the chasing ball in two courts( as we dried only two courts which we needed). Edward, Alex, Kenny and Ivan were the first time to have this game. They tried hard. Edward and Ivan didn't get the ball back for their first few times. After many many balls, they can even hit a killer shot. Oscar did the best among the team, he showed his powerful forehand and his fastest feet. Tommy did a good job too, but he seemed to have heavy legs.

Game.
3 vs. 3.
Tommy, Edward, Ivan played against Oscar, Alex and Kenny.
Tommy tried his best to intercept at the net, while Oscar showed his consistent groupstrokes. Alex and Edward showed their best performance, hitting the ball in! This is the consistency! Ivan also had a good lob, but once being lobbed by our star of future, Oscar.

After reading Raymond's entry, I decided to give the boys to have the approach shot drill again.
Today, we had the forehand approach shot drill, which would be easier to our new comers.
Oscar and Tommy were best, as they tried many times and pracitced so many times in our previous training. Shockingly, Alex did excellently in the drill: he got up so quick and hit a powerful shot. Most of the new comers didn't know how to volley, or may be they lacked the expereience for the net game. Chris hit an extremely wide angle shot which surprised me.

Then, we started our volley drills.
Some simple volley training drills.
Even I hit the ball so hard, Chris and Tommy could get every ball back in the court. I doubted that Tommy improved a lot in the net game, but I've never seen these kind of good shots in this real game! Chris hit a crispy and solid volley, threatening me! The room of improvement of net game for the new comers are still very large, especially Kenny and Edward.

Service.
King of the court (double version).
I paired with Ivan.
Oscar and Tommy, Kenny and Alex.
Ivan tried his best in the net, which I could see his improvement in both physically and mentally. He's trying his best to improve his net game. Alex did well in my drills, but I bet he just needs some more game practice or real match, in order to show his great tennis tactic.

We ended our training at about 6:15pm.

It is the good news to me as some new blood came for our tennis training.
I had a workshop yesterday which held by HKTA, about the Davis Cup training. Derek Ling told us that the training squad of Davis Cup was quite large at the very begining. However, the team would become smaller and smaller as only the fittest player or the best can be included in the team. At the end, only Dino, Roran, Tung and Michael involved in the Hong Kong Davis Cup team.

I bet, no one would deny that the fittest and the best in the team should be represented and play in the inter school final round. However, we should have a large group of people to play in our courts. The larger team we have, the more people we could think and decide to choose to be select to represent wahyan. Furthermore, the foundation of the lower form should be built. We don't want to see any gaps between the higher forms and the lower forms. We may miss some great players every years because of the Alevel or the HKCEE, so we must have more good players in order to substitute these places.

I found that the soccer team of the Grade C ( they practice every thursday like us) involved a large number of student. I'm sorry I'm not good at soccer as Ernest or Oscar, but I know only 11 players can be represented in a match, right? They have nearly thirty boys, I see. I hope we could have more boys to be involved in the tennis courts.

This is a fact that football or basketball dominated wah yan boys' habbits in these ten years, right? I hope, one day in future, tennis can dominate wahyan boys' habbits. Maybe, this is only my dream.

All in all, I look forward to seeing more new comers to join our training in the future.

* Where are all the F4 boys?

Letter of Commendation to Coaches Ernest and Edmond

2008-01-29T14:40:00.000+08:00

Dear Ernest and Edmond,

Ever since I started playing tennis, I have been working out how to hit a backhand winner. My deficiency was clearly demonstrated 6 months ago, when Edmond asked me, to join his drill with Tony Ko and the School Team, to hit an approach shot on my backhand. My success rate was about 5-10% with 50% of my shots going into the net. I figured out that I was relying on a lob, a slice or a hit and hope backhand. Occasionally, I hit a good shot, then I would pump myself out by yelling out "yeah; come on", just as Ernest described how the rest of the boys would react after hitting a winner.

Ten years ago, my Russian Davis Cup Coach Konstantin Pougaev improved my all-round game, but I did not have the inspiration to sort out my backhand. My brother said that I was trying to rely on memorizing a formula.

Last Saturday, I had a practice session with Ernest, who refused to give up chasing on lost causes. He spent half an hour working on the practice court with Mavis and me. When Mavis stopped, Ernest and I played on for another 30 minutes. My backhand started to come together and was trading over 30 backhand rallies with Ernest. Ernest then taught me to stop my hips rotating by using the free arm to balance like Roger Federer. The other mistake was my racquet face used to be opened when making contact with the ball on the backhand. Ernest spotted that and made me roll over the ball. I was so excited with this improvement that I asked Simon to give me a Singles game last night.

To our astonishment, I was hitting backhand winners all over the court, partially inspired by the visual images of Djokovic and Tsonga playing in the Australian Open. Although Simon was one service break up when we finished the match, I held on to the rest of my service games and pushed him to long deuces in almost every game. In Simon's own words, Ernest managed to teach an elephant to climb a tree. So there is always hope after 30 years of mediocrity.

The morale of the story - A great coach / mentor makes a hell of a difference to your tennis / your life. The WYK Tennis Team is so priviledged that they have 2 great coaches supporting your development, and even elephants can climb trees. Let's hope you guys will continue to work hard and improve on your tennis game.

Raymond

K-Swiss Tournament 2008

2008-01-28T11:08:00.000+08:00

This is a review on the performances at the K-Swiss Tournament. The K-Swiss Tournament is different from the Inter-School as it is a knock-out tournament and included teams in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories. We did not face any of the New Territories Teams for Inter-school competition. We have put out 2 Teams

Team A - Long Long, Oscar, Tommy, Louvre, Calvin and Nicholas
Team B - Tony Chow, Chris Wong, Jordan Wong, Brian Lau, Barry (withdrawal)

Team B played in the same group as Shatin College (B) and King's College. In the first match against King's College, Tony Chow easily won the first singles. Jordan was leading 3-0 in his singles before losing 3-6. He lost his focus in the middle of the match and was waving to the crowd in between points. He also changed his winning game and started playing "table tennis" with his opponent. Fortunately, Chris and Brian played a very solid doubles against King's and won their match 6-2. Brian had trouble getting his first serve in, but still managed to hold on to his second service game and the match after dropping his first service game. Chris played extremely well in that match and was hitting many forehand winners. For the second match against Shatin College, Jordan redeemed himself with the way he played against a top junior and lost 2-6. Tony Chow fought valiantly to win 6-4 with 7 breaks of service in an exciting match. In the Doubles, Chris and Brian were already 0-5 down before they realized to concentrate on firing shots on the weaker of the pair. They managed to get to 2-5 before losing 2-6.

Team A started with a walk-over in their group and we did not have high hopes of qualification to begin with as our "stronger" Team B failed to qualify for the Quarter-Finals. In the second match, Louvre played in the first Singles and lost 2-6. Long Long then won his next match in 27 points and levelled the series at 1-1. Tommy and Oscar then won their doubles 6-2, even when Tommy's service was not firing and resorted to under-arm serves. We were then paired with strong group winner Canadian International School, who was so confident of their success that they left their doubles pairing at home. Long Long lost 0-6 and we were heading for exit. Oscar then played in the crucial singles. During the warm-up, Oscar found that his opponent was extremely good was attacking on pacy shots. He decided to slow things down during his match at Centre Court. Somehow Oscar managed to find a way to truimph 6-1 in the reverse Singles. Calvin and Nicholas then walk-overed their doubles opponents. WYK Kowloon then qualified for the Semi-Finals, but had to face the all-conquering Ying Wa College. Our players played well but were outclassed by the top juniors in Hong Kong. However, it was a fantastic achievement to reach the last Four of the competition

There was also strong support and solidarity among Team members. Both A and B Teams were supporting each other. The whole squad of Louvre's team turned up even when they were not playing. Both coaches Ernest and Edmond did a tremendous job in leading and organizing the teams. Charles and I also watched some of the actions in the Tournament. We were pleased by what we saw on and off court. We have also studied the forms of some of our opponents in the Inter-School Competition. Let's concentrate on winnning promotion to Div 1. It is a golden oppotunity as Ying Wa was already edged out by West Island in their group and failed to qualify.

給副隊長的信

2008-01-27T20:18:00.000+08:00

榮俊賢學弟並副隊長足下
两年前因方學良盃再踏華仁網球場與當時校隊對疊, 一衆師弟表現實令吾等師兄震驚. 球技乏善足陳, 泰半盡得獨臂神尼真傳, 反手全面投降之餘, 正手大板直飛鐵欄神技直令吾輩嘆為觀止; 偶一失手球兒打進塲區亦能引發"come on"之聲不絕, 實能收娛人娛己之効. 而一群在志於學之年的小朋友之體能狀態, 更令我等已屆不惑之年的阿叔有入時光隧道之妙境, 頓覺返老還童之快. 正當我等當年叱吒學界網球壇之阿叔為華仁網球水平淪落而嗚呼哀哉之際. 忽接一師弟來鴻, 有曰其網球成長路之坎坷, 而一衆師兄之出現, 直如明燈一盞, 令其重拾網球之樂. 文中雖文理有瑕, 惟其赤子之心卻字字可. 及後再與一衆師弟切磋, 發覺大部份成員都有志於網球惟不得其門而入. 年前適逢上任教練因事忙辭別. 余雖不オ, 亦濫竽充數暫代教練一職. 喜得師弟文俊之助, 校隊成績總算不賴.
打進學界比賽決賽週之同時, 亦能於Kswiss打入準決賽才力戰而敗.
正值學界比賽決賽週將於三月拉開戰幔, 一衆師弟都為備戰而密鑼緊鼓地加緊訓練之際. 我們的副隊長卻一直芳踪杳杳. 致電問之, 每每支吾答曰因唱歌, 義工, 家慈未批等等原由而未能出席. 副隊長閣下多才多藝, 古道熱腸, 克己盡孝令人欽仰. 而閣下亦貴為網球學會會長, 功績昭著, 深受一衆會員擁戴. 但現今隊長及一衆主將因公開考試而未克於決賽週上陣, 閣下又神龍見首不見尾, 古諺有曰蛇無頭而不行, 球隊正處危急存亡之秋己.
余特此奉函, 還望副隊長閣下三思. 重拾昔日對網球之熱忱. 短短二三月彈指即過, 惟因疏懶而令球隊年多來之努力未克全功卻令人深憾. 試問身為副隊長又情何以堪呢, 再望三思, 三思.
愚學兄兼教練劉縝頓首

Thursday Practice Report (17-Jan-2008)

2008-01-17T19:56:00.000+08:00

Today, we got only five kids, including Tommy, Nicholas, Calvin, Ivan and Kenny.
Oscar was absent because his leg was injured.

We warmed up for a while.
Before the class started, I decided to have some group training.
However, at the end, I decided to have some individual and more specific training which would be benefit to all of them.

I told Tommy and have many single match as possible today.
Tommy would play a single in the K-Swiss next Monday.
He is a good player: more consistent than his past, extremely powerful serve.
I talked to and taught him a lot.
He played against Kenny but was lost.
He than played against Ivan and beated him.

I think he had learnt a lot:
He knew that consistency is the must, the more consistent you are, the higher chance to beat your enemy even he is a very strong player.
During the match, you should do what you are good AT THAT TIME! Just take Tommy as an example, he didn't perform well in the net. He tried three or four times but hitting many volleys to the net or out. So, you are not good at the net in this match. What you should do is to do what you are good in the game.

Tommy improved a lot.
He was inconsistent and not good at single in the past.
But now, he is a tough single player, threatening others with a very powerful serve and backhand.
I bet, after the summer, he would be our next crucial team member in next season!

Calvin and Nicholas had the specific double tactic training.
I worked with Ivan at first. Calvin and Nicholas played against us.
I fed the ball to the one in baseline, he just hit a wide shot to prevent the interception of the net player. This is demostrating the real situation in double match: the net player (especially our old boys Raymond, Joeph and Simon, they like intercepting!!) may intercept the ball and score.

Nicholas did well, hitting some powerful shot and threatened Ivan.
Calvin was okay at the net, but his legs are still too heavy to MOVE!!
We lobbed them, they were weak in chasing the high ball.
Nicholas always wanted to hit a killer shot but it doesn't work...

Nicholas and Calvin became more active at the net...
Nicholas's volleys and overheads are more consistent.

Tommy, Nicholas and Calvin become stronger.
I hope they will beat the enemy in next Monday's K-swiss.

One more thing, I told Kenny and Ivan to practice more in doubles.
Some will think they are consistent, but only in single match.
If they want to represent wah yan and play for our school, they have to be a good doubles player at leat to represent in the inter-school.

Boys were busy, some of them needed to attand tutorial lesson after school.
Some get injured.
The number of boys joined Thursday training decreased in these couple of weeks...
I told Ernest to call the F1 boys (who are good and have potential in the Friday lesson taught by Ernest) to come next thursday.

Developing our new lower form player is important.
As two or three more years, the lower form players like Oscar and Long Long or other new members this year will be the very important and crucial player in the team. They would represent Wahyan to play.

So, I hope to see more new face in the team, especially the lower form.
I hope these new faces would be our core player in future.
I hope, after Ernest and my tennis lesson, our boys would become strong and more importantly, they would be more proud as a wahyanite.

Today's tennis team is different from the time when I were in wahyan.
More team spirit, more team members even some says our team is not that strong.
But, I believe, we would be promoted to Division 1 again by all of our efforts!!!

*I appreciate our boys, Louvre and Oscar.
They didn't come for the training as they were injured.
Oscar called me yesterday and told me he couldn't come while Louvre called me at today's lunch time.
They were responsible.
Our team members are good men, they are more responsible.
I belive, responsibility is also the thing we want our boys to learn in tennis court!

Second Finneran Cup Match Report

2008-01-15T17:13:00.000+08:00

The 2nd Finneran Cup was successfully held on this Sunday (13th January 2008). We were extremely fortunate with the weather as the rain did not come until late afternoon. The match was officiated by Mr. Norman So (Principal WYK) and Mr. Terence Tse (Sports Teacher). There were a few people who re-organized their schedule before they could attend the Cup. Covan changed his flight; Tony Ko re-organized his house moving schedule and only had 3 hours sleep the previous night on duty; KK and Louvre were not 100% after laying low with cold; Charles, Jack Cho and Ernest were still nursing injuries on their arms. Nevertheless, we had an excellent turn-out for the Old Boys Team, a mixture of experience and youth. William Lee, our Chairman was the Captain in 71-72 season and he paired up with Sam Yeung (Captain in 2005) in one of the most exciting matches. Because of the no of entries, we decided to adopt the Super Tie-Break format playing just 10 points in each match. For the fastest serve competition, the 2 coaches Edmond and Ernest had the fastest and most consistent service, generally speaking. Simon Ho was unfortunate to have hit the fastest service, but ended a foot or so on the wrong court with 160 km/hr. For the fastest service competition, we had joint winners on 151 km/hr - Barry and Alvin. For the main match, the Old Boys got off to a flying start with Simon winning against Long Long; Charles edging Barry in a thriller; William and Sam narrowly beat Jordan and Tommy in one of the thrillers of the day (15-13), but arguably Ambrose's amazing come-back win against Tony Chow was one of the best performances that we have seen for ages. Many matches were within one or two points here and there.

The full results are as follows for the records (Old Boys winning by 20-13 rubbers in the Final Score) Here are the full results of the match Simon bt Long Long (10-4); Charles bt Barry (11-9); Sam and William bt Jordan and Tommy (15-13); Covan and Martin lost to Tony Chow and Matthew (8-10); Alvin bt Frankie (11-9); Jack Cho and KK lost to Calvin and Nicholas (6-10); Ambrose bt Tony Chow (11-9); Tony Ko lost to Tommy (6-10); Covan lost to Barry (5-10); Martin and Sam bt Matthew and Frankie (10-6); Simon and Henry bt Chris and Barry (10-6); Jack Cho bt Louvre (10-7); Joseph and Kane bt Long Long and Oscar (10-8); KK and Charles lost to Long Long and Tony Chow (5-10); Kane bt Jordan (10-8); Alvin and Henry Leung bt Calvin and Nicholas (10-8); Martin and Jack Cho lost to Oscar and Chris (8-10); Sam and Covan lost to Long Long and Tony Chow (7-10); Ambrose and William bt Barry and Matthew (10-4); Raymond and Tony Ko lost to Tommy and Jordan (7-10); Simon and Kane bt Long Long and Tony Chow (10-6); Charles bt Oscar (10-3); KK and Jack lost to Edmond and Louvre (5-10); Alvin and Joseph bt Chris and Frankie (10-6); William and Henry Leung bt Calvin and Nicholas (10-6); Martin and Sam lost to Oscar and Tommy (9-11); Ambrose bt Long Long (10-7); Raymond and Charles bt Chris and Barry (10-7); Ambrose and Kane bt Long Long and Chris (10-2); Covan bt Matthew (10-8); Simon and Joseph lost to Edmond and Barry (6-10); Martin and Sam bt Chris and Jordan (10-8); Raymond and Henry Leung lost to Calvin and Nicholas (6-10); Old Boy pair lost to Edmond and Louvre (4-10)

Most importantly, the matches were played in good spirit and full of entertainment. WYK Tennis Team has improved tremendously under the stewardship of Ernest and Edmond. There were good intelligent interceptions and tactical play by the School Team. Last year, there were hardly more than 3 rallies in most of the matches. We are seeing a very positive attitude of our players in training and match play. The winners and runner-up team were presented medallions by Fr Baptista. There was also nice group photographs taken at the start and end of the Finneran Cup today.

I would like to thank Simon, Joseph and Kane for helping out with the photography duties. Chun Chun was also supporting Kane throughout the day. Also Tommy Ho (WYK 84) and Yvonne (Kane's wife) dropped by and helped us with taking photos. After the match, we went to Big Head Shrimp for lunch. Most of you missed the amazing scene after lunch, we had most of the WYK Tennis Team playing tennis including Barry, Oscar, Calvin, Nicholas, Tommy, Louvre, Frankie and Jordan. Mavis (Ernest's wife) was also having her 4th lesson with Ernest, but played with the style of A grade player. Covan was also helping out with the practice alongside Henry Leung, Joseph and I. While we were leaving around 5pm, Ambrose came back to play tennis with his 9 year old son.

Detailed analysis of the match played by the Old Boys as follows:-

Take Ambrose as an example, he is the perfect gentleman. You throw him at the deep end and take on the young lion of Tony Chow. He told me that he had plenty of experience dealing with Kelvin Inge when he was younger before the start of the match. After the first match by winning from an impossible position, I did not let him get away with it so easily, hoping to lower his colours by pitching him with Long Long. He then beat Long Long and thus I tested him in 2 more doubles and he won every single rubber and tried his best. He is only matched by William and Kane with a 100% win record. Henry Leung is very similar and he should have a 100% record but for partnering me in our defeat against Calvin and Nicholas. Another good example is KK. He was unwell for most of the week and turned up to support the Old Boys. He played his heart out in all his matches, and the same could be said with Jack, Alvin and Tony Ko. For the young guns of Martin, Covan and Sam, they paired up with themselves or with the more senior Old Boys and played their part in the competition, so it was a team effort. Joseph, Kane, Joseph and Kane, Kane and Joseph, it is still a golden pairing no matter how you look at it. We should also thank Simon and Charles giving us a perfect start and boost in morale with their first 2 singles wins. It is very similar to the Ryder Cup with the Singles, we put our best players out in the opener.

It was all fun and games. Let's wish WYK Tennis Team a successful 2008. For those of you who left early, KK, Jack and Tony Ko, I have your gold medal in safe keeping, please ask me for it when we next play tennis. I will keep the medals in my tennis bag

Cheers

Raymond

Finneran Cup

2008-01-13T23:33:00.000+08:00

Many thanks to all the old boys and the Fund for holding the big event for the kids.
Here is the link of all todays' photo of my camera, I may miss some photos which Simon and Joseph had captured. If you want a copy of CD of the photo, please feel free to leave a comment here.

Joseph, I will burn a copy of the photos in DVD and give Ernest, he will pass to you later.

http://picasaweb.google.com/gl4355/200801132ndFinneranCup

Thursday Practice Report (10-Jan-2008)

2008-01-10T22:25:00.000+08:00

Today, we got many kids and we had two special guests.

Tommy, Oscar, Jordan, Chris, Brian and Nicholas.
Covan and Cheung Sir joined us for a few training.

I brought a basket of new tennis today.
Many of them felt happy with playing new balls.
It is a fact that our challange is coming!

We first had some warm-ups.
Covan warmed up with Nichoals, I bet Nicholas must learnt a lot from him.
Tommy did some rally with Chris Wong. Both of them are consistent.
However, some kids ran to kick soccer and skipped some training.
I know, some of them were enthusiastic about soccer, but I bet training is more important than the fun.

Anyway, I think they have learnt at the end.

I fed some shots for Nicholas, Tommy and Cheung Sir, hitting a powerful shot to the net player, Chris Wong.
Chris got a firm volley, but he's still afraid of being a net player.
Cheung Sir hit many killer shots which made Chris feared.
Nicholas and Tommy were not that consistant, but they are very Topspin players.

One more drill for the baseline and volley players.

3 vs. 3.
Oscar and Jordan were back from the soccer field.
Jordan, Oscar and Tommy were the same team, played against Nicholas, Brian and Cheung Sir.
Jordan and Oscar were extremely inconsistent! They claimed that they didn't warm up yet! They hit to the net or out every shots! For the first set, they lost.

They got a punishment: suicide---touching the lines in the court.
Next, the second set, Brian left.
3 vs. 2.
Cheung Sir was great, hitting many powerful forehand shot which threatening the three kids.
Nicholas also did a good job, hitting the ball consistenly in the court.
However, the three kids still in their dark side... lost the game...

Service.
I'm afraid some of them would get many double fault in the Finneran Cup, the coming Sunday.
I told them to serve 30 balls in.
They served and served.
Oscar and Tommy seemed to be consistent.
Nicholas's serve got too much topspin.

After the 30 balls, we got the volley drill.
Some major errors: too much back swing, contact the ball too late or too early...
The net game of the kids should be focus more, right?

At the end of the training, a double.
Tommy and Jordan played against Oscar and Nicholas.
In the game, I found that many of them couldn't serve good... In other words, double faults.
I were disappointed by their service...
Ernest, next time, please focus on their serve...

Tommy was great, he tried intercept and hit some killer volleys. I do think that he is the only one improved in the net game.
However, all of them should be more and more consistent, in order to beat Simon and Raymond and all the old boys.
CONSISTENCE is a MUST!!!!!

Anyway, a good match for both of them.
What they need is the experience of playing tournament outside wahyan, which they will develop better in psychological views.

Ernest, I got some forms of the Lion Club. I will bring all of the form on coming Sunday. Some of kids had already filled in. One more thing, it is a fact that the lost of the tennis ball in wahyan is absolutely horrible! I lost at leat two can of balls today!!

Pray for the good weather on coming Sunday.
I hope the boys would practice more and be more consistent.

Happy New year, the 1st training of 2008 (2-Jan-2008)

2008-01-02T18:31:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year!

Today, we had our first training in the 2008.
We started at 10am.

I arrived the court at 9:30am, then Tommy and Louvre came.
I gave them some individual practice.

Tommy on his backhand slide and Louvre on his forehand.
Tommy didn't know how to slide, but after couple of baskets, he could hit a down the line backhand slide. Louvre, tried his best... but I hope he could work harder on his footwork.

Later, Jordan, Oscar and Calvin came.

We had the very usual forehand and backhand warm up.
At about 10:30am, our wahyan Federer---Barry joined us.

Chasing forehand shot..
I found that most of the boys had lazy legs!
So, I decided to have the 3-court-chasing game just as our last training.

On our last training, we had the 2-court chasing game. But now we had the 3-court chasing game. It is a fact that running 3 courts is hard for our boys. They first hit a volley, and then dash very quickly to our third court and rally the ball to Barry. (* Barry gets injury of his leg, so I don't want him to run too much) Most of the boys did better than the last time.

Boys were tired, but I believed this is the most effective way to train their stamina.
I hope, at last, we can have a 4-court chasing game.

Next, we had our funny game: 3 vs. 3.
Louvre, Tommy and Calvin VS. Barry, Jordan, Oscar.
Tommy was great, hitting many powerful shots.
Louvre at the end calm himself down, hitting more consistent shots.
Jordan and Barry made some mistakes on the net game.

Service.

King of the court.
I think this is the first time to play the king of the court in wahyan.
Unpreditable, Louvre beated Barry and be the king.
Oscar, Tommy had become the king once.
Good play.

A double match: Louvre and Barry played against Calvin and Tommy.
At about 12:30pm, I joined with them and hit with Barry and Tommy.

A good day.

This time, I would like to write some of my feeling and some comment on some of our boys:

Tommy
I found that he played the best in today's training. He had the very powerful backhand and backhand, of course, he is also the service killer. He aced twice today. I bet, he had improved a lot in these few lessons, basically on his consistence and the baseline shots. By the way, his net game is not that good, and the room of improvement is large.

Barry
He told me that he didn't play well in the trip of Ernest's house. I see, he just like Chris: after taking a very long break, Chris would not play well and have to practice many many time in order to recover. But, his volley is still his killer shots, threatening any of the boys in the team. If he practice more, he would come back. Maybe, let's wish Barry to have flying colours of his CE result, and come back next year!

Louvre
Unpredictable again. If Louvre calm himself down, he will have better performance. He always wants to beat the opponent in one shot, but as you know, when you get older, you would never score a point by winning a killer shot. Consistence is a must in any games, double or single. Once he is consistent, he would win the game! So, Louvre, just be patient and consistent!

Oscar
What are you doing today? Some of the boys couldn't concentrate.... Some focus on footwork... You know, the challenge is coming, the inter school would start on March! Please keep yourselves ready and be tuned!!

This is the end of the report.
A good training, as many of them tried best and did a good job.
Ernest, many thanks to you. I think the trip to your house make our the team united, and the most important thing is--- Tommy TALKED more today!!! which is my first time hearing he spoke too much!

Thanks God.

Thursday Practice Report (27-Dec-2007)

2007-12-27T14:45:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-12-07T12:04:00.000+08:00

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

2007-12-06T21:49:00.000+08:00

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!

Thursday Report ( 8-Nov-2007)

2007-11-09T14:30:00.000+08:00

Arrived the court at about 3pm, no one were in the courts but I saw two boys wearing PE clothes were playing in the court. I bet that they were F2 only...
We are so pleased that the old boys and wahyan did many effort to raise the interest of tennis in wahyan students, especially the lower form students.

We had already did a good job!

Many boys came for the training: because they will have to play against the French International school, the most threatening team in our group.
Barry and Boris came for fifteen minutes, while Oscar, Tommy, Brian, Chris, Nicholas and one more new face --- Justin joined for the whole session of the training.

I'm so sorry of my voice today.
I couldn't speak too loud and I couldn't shout at all.

We focused on some very basic strokes like backhand, forehand, net games.
We then served. I found that Oscar and Tommy had improved their serves.
Oscar had more powerful serve, while Tommy had a bit more consistent serve.

Oscar, Tommy, Brian and Nicholas had a double.
I worked with Chris.
I asked him which strokes he wanted to improve or to be worked on. He simply told me that his backhand should have been concentrated more. I found that he cannot hit a backhand cross-court as his steps his right feet to the very left, which makes him couldn't turn his shoulder and hit a widen angle of cross-court. One more thing, his arms were too straight when hitting the two hands backhand.

Lastly, Chris and me played a double with Tommy and Oscar till we can't see the ball in the dark.

All in all, a good training today.
But if my throat gets better, I should have taught some more drills for them.

Fighting!
Work hard and have luck on Saturday!
I'm sorry I wouldn't come to support, but I would call you at the end of the match.

Pray for the wahyan boys.
Boys, go to bed early on Friday night!!

Wednesday Report (24-Oct-2007)

2007-10-27T00:31:00.000+08:00

I made an arrangement this week, we had Wednesday lesson.
I'm so sorry that I upload this entry so late, as there were so many projects and assignments.

Oscar, Louvre, Calvin, Ivan, Kenny and Jeffrey.
Joseph, this is my first time to see Jeffrey playing tennis in the court!

Although we don't have so many boys, we can have a smaller class size.
We had some warm-up.

Some basic strokes like forehand and backhand.
Louvre hit the target with his powerful backhand.
After some set of training, we aimed to hit the balls deeply.

A fun game: 3 vs. 3.
The score was close. Boys did a good job, they all enjoyed the game.

Today, we focus on the net game: volleys and overhead.
Boys didn't know how to hit an overhead. The beginner like Jeffrey didn't know what's an overhead is. Oscar tried his best and he had a quite powerful smash. In terms of the volleys, I can see they have the room of improvement.

We had the 2 to 1 match.
This drill is very effective and meaningful for our boys.
Louvre, Calvin and Oscar in the same group, while the rest are in another group.
The two vs. one game is quite challenge. You know, the two should totally beat the one person. What you have to do is only return all the balls back to the court, you don't have to hit a winner shot or some powerful killer shots. However, boys didn't know this!!

At first, they did bad. The two couldn't beat the one.
I told them what they should do! At the end, it became better.

Hitting a consistent shot is very important, not only in the Inter-school competition, but also every match. I hope the boys can know the fact that a powerful killer shot or their risk shots are not enough to win a point. What we should do is to be consistent!!

A nice day.

Our match began!

2007-10-20T23:16:00.000+08:00

Today, we had our first inter-school match.
Raymond, Joseph, Charles, thank you so much for coming and supporting the team.

The team members showed up the court at about 8:15. Ernest led a warm-up.
We had our wonderful match with St. Louis. We beated them! Score 8.5:0.5.

Could any of our players write something here? write some feeling?

Something I want to share...
I helped one of coach at Causeway Bay at night, a junior advanced course (HKTA Tennis-for-all course). I saw two of the St. Louis boys in the course (the tallest one and his doubles' partner). I talked with them, they told me that our team is quite strong. The boy praised our wah yan federer was absolutely tough.

One more important thing, when our team standed next to the court, showing some supports to our team members, they felt pressure. The team spirit and support is crucial, this is more important in our next tough matches like French Intel' or other strong team Ying Wa. Showing support for our team member not only can support our players, but also "fear" our opponent team!

We did a good job today.
Keep it on!

* Kei To withdraw =]
I saw another match at the Gap at afternoon, West Island vs. Ying Wa, they are both tough and I wanna to know who win the match.

Thursday Practice Report (11-Oct-2007)

2007-10-11T20:01:00.000+08:00

Wow, the inter-school competition is coming!
Boys would have the their first match on next Saturday!

Today, we had only 7 boys...
I'm quite sad as all school team boys came on Tuesday, Ernest class....
We had Tommy, Oscar, Brian, Jordan, Aaron, Kenny and Ivan.

Probably, the boys who join my training are intermediate level..
I do hope that they would have more improvement here..

I hit some shots with all the boys before 4pm.
Oscar has a powerful forehand, Tommy has a good backhand.
The young kids Ivan and Aaron also liked rallying with me.

We started the drill by the service boxes game.
Starting form the net and hit only in the boxes, the drill is to let the boys to run more.
Later, we also did some volley-volley drill.

Of course, today we had the volley to baseline drills.
All of the boys didn't have a good net game tactics, they seldom moved to the net. Some even never stay at the net when they're in the match.

Some mistakes they made:
later hit, backswing, too much swing, racquet face open....etc.

One more practice is the backhand slice shot.
This drill is for Brian at first, as Louvre told me yesterday Brian did't know how to hit a slice backhand..
We focused on some slice shots and then volleys.

I found that their slice are awful, of course the volley and overhead..

Lastly, we had one double.
Tommy and Oscar vs. Jordan and Brian.

For the first set, Oscar's team won, 6-2.
For the second set, Jordan's team led 3-1.

They performance were okay, but service were terrible.
I didn't tell them to warm-up their service, letting them to know that warming up the service is absolutely important. Once again, they seldom called the score before serving.

On last thing, the attitude in the tennis court.
Tennis is a game for gentlemen.
When we pass the ball to our opponent, please let it bounces once in front of the player. Passing the ball to your opponent should be polite. Others can easily know how wahyan students are in this little things, such as passing the ball, talking or just calling the score.

Tennis skill is important, but what I think more crucial for our boys is to teach them how to behave well in the tennis court.
Actually, I found that no more boys being late on Thursday.

You all have a great improvement, but I hope you can be more consistent in the doubles.
Practice more, boys!

I'm not free on next Thursday, I decided to have the training on the 19-Oct-2007(friday), 9-11am. So, anyone would like to join?

Thursday Practice Report (4-Oct-2007)

2007-10-05T01:49:00.000+08:00

We had Tommy, Oscar, Brian, Ivan, Kenny and two F4 boys.

Today, we focused on some basic strokes, as the inter school is coming, I knew. We had some basic forehand and backhand down the line. I found that most of the boys' volleys are awful.

So, we focused on volleys next.
Some of the boys cannot withstand the powerful groundstrokes. There were some mistakes they made: late hit, racket face opend, lazy footwork... As all of you would know and sure that, we taught these all many many times. Tommy and Brian always hit the ball late at the net, so their volleys are always powerles...

Oscar did better in the game, but these three boys have to work hard more! I'm really worrying for the Inter-school, I'm afraid the French Intel' would not be too weak this year.

So, let's talk about the beginners.
The two F4 boys were great.
They are hardworking and willing to learn, they asked many questions today. I appreciated their heart on tennis.

Lastly, we had the king of the court, doubles.

I'm sorry, this entry is a bit short.
I'm a bit sick in this week.....

Friendly Match with Poly-U

2007-09-30T23:03:00.000+08:00

Thanks God for the sunny day.

I would only give a very short brief report, as I'm so tired today, sorry..

We had a great fun today with the poly-U tennis team players.
Today, I went to the mass at St. Ignatius Chapel at 7:30am with Oscar, then we had the McDonald's breakfast, going back to the court. It was about 9am, we saw the head coach Ernest and left-hander Joseph, Aaron. I warmed up with Oscar and later talked with Ernest for the stuff of the team...

Later on, some more boys came: Chris, Barry, Tommy, Frankie, Matthew, Ivan, Jordan, Tony.
At about 10am, my teammates of Poly U came. They got only six players at first, including me. We decided to have the three doubles first, and waited for one more player for the single.

At the 1st round, we had:
Doubles:
1. Barry + Chris
2. Oscar + Tommy
3. Matthew + Frankie
Single: Jordan

Sam and I played with Barry and Chris, as they wanna to challenge us! Sam and I played with heart, we played for nearly hundred percent! Barry did well and very consistent, but Chris was still afraid to be a net game players, his net game is weak. He was also quite nervous. Of course, we beated them, 6-2. I watched some other matches, Oscar and Tommy's pair. It was only the first time they paired up and participated for a real match. They did well, especially two of them are quite consistent. Tommy had a good serve, not only powerful but also consistent. The F1 boy Oscar was great, good serve and stable ground storkes. After the match, one of my teammated praised him, telling me that the boy in blue shirt is excellent!

However, I just know the two boys need to have more experience and matches to play and learn!

So, the result of the first round:
Barry+ Chris 2:6
Frankie+ Mat 6:4
Oscar+ Tommy 1:6
Jordan 1:6

Poly-U win all the four match, the score is 3:1 to PolyU

2nd round:
The pairing was just like the 1st round, but with some arrangement. Matthew paired with Tony and Frankie had a single. I only got to played the single with Frankie. When I played with him, I found he is a very fast runner. However, without the training, his strokes were unstable, especially some easy winner point likt the mid-court attack. I hope he would come to the group more and practice more. Oscar 's team was still okay, I sometimes watched their performance. For Mat's team, they are excellent. They beated the Poly-U, the very strong pairing of Poly U. Tony was quite strong, as he is only F2. Matthew was also a good leader. Ernest and I were so pleased that Tony paired with Mat easily, no argue. Unexpected result appeared in Chris' s court, they also beated the opponent. Chris started to be consistent, but volley is still awful. Barry did a good job.

The score is quite close after this round:
Barry+ Chris 6:2
Tony+ Mat 6:1
Oscar+ Tommy 1:6
Frankie 0:6

Score: 5:3 to Poly U

Last round.
The last round is very determined. Before the game, boys had an about ten-minute break. They rushed to the convenient store to get some water. I'm afraid that they cooled down in the break. I just want to tell you that, after the long break(over five minutes perhaps), you should warm-up before the game started. Otherwise, you would play badly at the first few games. The pairing is like the previous round, but with Aaron and Ivan a double, Oscar a single. Matthew also paired with Jordan. With the too long break, boys did badly at the first few game, I bet. Chris and Barry started to be "hea" in the game, lastly lost. Maybe, their opponents were super strong, as Sam told them, if they lose the match, they couldn't come back to the team next time! It's a hard deal! On the other hand, Matthew did the best with Jordan, beating the Poly U for six eggs! Oscar had a single and lost only 2:6. As you should know, Oscar is only a twelve year-old boy, a F1, his opponent is 19 and a university student. Not a very fair match, but i like Oscar's topspin style.

Score: 8:4 to Poly U
1. Barry+ Chris 1:6
2. Ivan+ Aaron 0:6
3. Jordan+ Mat 6:0
4. Oscar 2:6

At the end, Matthew beated all his opponent, a very good captain!
Some short feed back here, I believe all of the boys played the game seriously and really treated the match as the very "real" inter school. The tennis team ofPoly U is quite good, actually, but I bet the boys would beat them in next, or next next time. Our players are all improving, just see Tommy and Barry. The new blood Oscar is also great, if he works hard in this year, he would improve a lot!

Feeling so great today. I'm sorry I represented Poly U and played and beated the boys...

We had a lunch together and back to the court at two.
We had some drills about the intercept, they found it effective. Thanks Raymond and Joseph for helping in the drill! We started trying to focus on the net game and especially the very crucial "intercept".

This is the end of the report, I'm sorry there may be some grammatical mistakes.

Junior Series Review

2007-09-29T21:40:00.000+08:00

This is my first time to watch boys' doubles outside wayhan.

As I had to coach all day at the tennis centre, after 5pm, I joined with Barry and Chris. While at about 3pm, I saw Barry and Chris' s singles match from my court.

Something about their single match:
Chris was unlucky, his opponent was really strong and powerful. Chris tried his best, but I think his footwork is lazy... Barry did well and lastly lost 7-9. When I am watching Barry, I feel Barry can have a very closed score with his opponent, or may beat him. Barry claimed that he was a bit sick and didn't play well.

For the singles, I'm so pleased they did well.

At about 7pm, I saw Louvre and Brian.
Louvre and Brian had the doubles, Brian is really good and did well, even their opponents are extremely strong. Louvre, once again, you should control your temper! Winning or losing the match is not very important, what you should do is to enjoy the match with these two high level players. It's a chance to hit with the two great players. Louvre served some double faults... But, all in all, it's okay and I'm quite unexpected Brian tried his best. Boys found that left-hander service is hard to return, especially with the side spins.. Raymond and Joseph, could you play more and serve some more spin serve for the kids?

Here comes to Chris and Barry.
Barry enjoyed the match and did excellent. He had a good forehand and the powerful, consistent serve. I found that Barry wasn't nervous, he can play the match "freely". He played and enjoyed it. Afterwards, Barry felt happy as he can hit with two high level players. For Chris, he's quite nervous and lazy footwork again! He seldom came to the net and have the intercept...

So, great to see the kids' match.
I know all of you improved a lot, however, it's a sad fact that we do have a far gap between the high level players. I'm so glad you all enjoy the match and learnt. Tennis is a long project! We should always learn and try something new. Hope to see the improvement on tomorrow's Poly U match.

Last thing, I found something interesting.
I saw some coaches watching the players today, this is what we didn't see in the past, especially in the junior tournament. I saw some coaches I knew, they used to be HKTA's coaches. Then, I wonder the relationship between the coach and players is very important. In the past, coaches wouldn't go and watch his players in the local tournament. Coach is important after the match, just like what we did today: after the match, I gave the boys some feedback, asking how they feel and how did improved, etc. Feedback is quite crucial for them, as they can learn more.

In future, I hope I can go with the boys and watch their match.
Thanks God, I'm so happy to be a " peer coach" in wahyan. I can easily chat with the boys and give them some advice.

Thursday Report (27-Sept-2007)

2007-09-27T22:52:00.000+08:00

A very short brief report today.

Nicholas, Louvre, Brian, Tommy, Ivan, Kenny and two other F4 boys. (Raymond asked them to join last Saturday =])

We had some easy warm-up and forehand, backhand shots.
Today, I decided to have some more specially class for every boy, so we didn't have many group games and group training together. Boys divided into few groups and every of them had a very focus drill.

First, Louvre and Brian focus on their net game.
I had some overhead training for them, as you would know Louvre's service and overhead is not that good. Brian also didn't get well of his overhead. Their net game needed to be improved and practiced. Brian's volley is quite good, but sometimes his backhand volley is late hit.

So, Louvre and Brian had a double with Kenny and Ivan, score: 2-2.
I also coached the two new F4 boys some basic strokes, the forehand and backhand.

Tommy and Nicholas had the focus session.
I rallied with Nicholas and Tommy tried to intercept the ball. Tommy's volley is not that good, though he had a very good ready position. Same problem--late hit... Nicholas did well in his forehand powerful shot, but not very consistent and too much spin.

Boys did well in the training.
I didn't have a theme to focus today, as I knew boys would probably have their match coming Saturday or Sunday. So, today is the class of the focusing and correcting. Group lesson is good, but sometimes it can't really help the boys individually, as it is hard to have correction among the group class. Some small group or individual lesson can help the boys, especially their basic strokes and footwork. I hope we can have more small class lesson in the future or in long run.

Here comes to the Grouping list of this year of the HKSSF:
GROUP 2---
1. Kei To
2. French Int'l
3. St. Louis
4. Sing Yin
5. Wah Yan KLN

Jeffrey, don't be shy! Come for the training on Thursday and have fun!
Come and enjoy the class!
If you practice more just like Brian and Tommy, you will see the improvement in the very short time!

26-Sep-2007 Make Up Class Review

2007-09-26T21:34:00.000+08:00

Just summed up something about boys' tournament on the Saturday night. I arrived wahyan at about 5:30pm. We left wahyan at about six, taking the MTR and then travelled by bus route 6. At the end, we arrived the gap.

After a while, boys had their match as there was many empty courts. They played at court no. 16, so I could only watch them from very far away. Louvre also joinned. However, I could see them. Nicholas and Calvin was not warm-up ready at their first game. They seemed nervous at the first few games. At last, Chris and Barry beated them, 8-4, but Barry claimed that the score should not be that close if he didn't break his string.

It's a great experience for all of them. They all agreed that the Gap is very windy and hard to get used of it. The court is not same as wahyan, the flood light is also new for them as they seldom played at night time. They learnt a lot.

What I think they should be improved is the footwork when they are returning or ready. Also, they should work hard on the volleys, as they didn't have some good volleys in the match.

Here comes to today's make up class.
There were only few boys at about nine-thirty: Raymond, Tommy, Brian, Ivan and Arron. So, we practised some service and waited for others. We also had the 3 vs. 3 game.
At about 10am, Kane, Louvre and Oscar joined us, having the " net game test" Some did well, but most of them didn't know how to hit a drop volley. What's next, round the world. It is more difficult one, as they have to say a name of wayhan's teacher. Boys did well and they had fun.
Then, king of the court, the approach shot and mid-court attack.

Rained.
Raymond and Kane left. We waited for a while, it stopped. We dried the court and have some volley-volley game. A doubles and a single. I played with Oscar and Tommy for a team single. I found that Oscar is quite consistent but Tommy is too "powerful". Louvre and Brian had a double with Ivan and Arron. The double was a very close match, Louvre, you should control your temper. I read your msn: "tennis is a game for gentlemen", so are you a gentleman? Throwing your racket couldnot solve anything in the court, but people would feel you are not a good tennis player. Calm down!

At last, Brian and Louvre left.
Private coaching with Tommy and Oscar for about 45 minutes, focusing Tommy's forehand and Oscar's single-handed backhand. They were all willing to learn, Tommy also raised some question today, unexpected! Oscar wanted to improved his tennis skills, he's willing to improve his strokes.

To conclude, we had good day. I'm so pleased to see so many boys and two of the old boys came. Boys did well and some are well prepared for the tournament. We'll have a friendly match on coming Sunday, 30-Sept-2007 with Poly-U school team, the match would start at 10am, but I told the boys to warm-up at 9:30am.

*ha, I would join the sunday mass at wahyan at 7:30am, any Catholics of the school team like to join the mass and have a McDonald's breakfast before the match. I found that Oscar is a catholic!

Thursday Practice Report (20-Sep-2007)

2007-09-21T13:39:00.001+08:00

Today, we had Louvre, Brian, Calvin, Nicholas, Adrian, Tommy, Kenny and Ivan.

We focused on the forehand steps, especially the stands!
Introducing the "open stand" to the boys, some of them felt really hard to accustomized it. Also, some tried hard and learnt quickly, just like Tommy.

"Open stand" is a very popular stand nowadays. Many professional players like to try this stand, as it helps you recovering in a quick way.

Boys like to rise questions. Brian asked me that he felt hard and couldn't get used of the stand, hard to hit a ball. This is quite normal, actually when you learn something very new, you can't really apply it easily at first, for example some mathematics, some science theories. So, what you have to do is practice more and try to get used of it. Louvre asked one very good question, I think. " What are the difference between the squared stand and open stand? Which one would be better? Also, All HKTA course would teach the beginner to learn the squared stand first." I would say both stands have their advantages and disadvantages, so you could try best stand. My advice is to try all the stands and feel that which stand would be more suitable for you. Even if you won't use the "open stand" to hit a ball, you should learn more about tennis skills and knowledge.

So, today we had some similar drills for the baseline forehand and backhand. Then, we had some approach shot, mid-court attack, bounced overhead drills. However, Kenny and Ivan told me that they didn't want to join the training, and they played themselves. Brian and Louvre said I were too clement to deal with this two boys, they told me that I should punish them, maybe some running, etc. In my point of view, I know that wahyan is the school of freedom, I bet all of you would agree that you would have many chance to skip your lesson in wahyan. So, we have the "freedom" to choose wheather we skip the class or not. It depends on what you think. In my school time, some very smarted boys felt the teacher was bored and they learnt nothing about the subject by him, they would skip the class and learn by themselves at home or the library. It would be fine if you dont' wanna to join the training. Whatever you choose or you think of the training, I would respect your choice. I don't want to act as some parents in Hong Kong, they force their children to attand some interest class which the children hated. At the end, if you think you can learn tennis by yourselves, go for it. If you just want have some funny games or match but not the training, go for it.

One more problem rised.
Would these boys be included to our list of tennis team? Would we include all the students who have joinned the training? How about if some boys only join us once a month or even few times a year? It's quite difficult to define the team Tennis team? I bet, that we cannot only include those who would represent wahyan for the competition as the team. So, who should be included in the list of tennis team? I know all of the students in wahyan would have their own protfolio in wahyan system, which would include what acitivites they have joined and the clubs they particpated. Chris, Raymond, all the old boys, should we have a chat on this issue?

We then practiced our serves. Boys improved a lot, especially Nicholas had a more spin serve. But, Tommy have to work hard to control the ball in the boxes. At the end, we had some singles match.

I'm so pleased some boys have been improving in these few weeks, such as Tommy, Calvin and Brian. They did their best in my drills. I see Tommy had tried his best to control the ball and try to be more consistent instead of power. Calvin also learnt how to recover and move in the court. Brian is still a good chatter box in the court, but he can easily work with others, especially the lower form student, our new bloods. It's also my first time to meet Adrian. Adrian looked short but he played okay. He gets along with other easily like Oscar. So, if my calculation is corrected, we now have three new form 1 boys!

Lastly, I would like to talk about the balls.
Whan I arrived the court, I found we had only 1/3 of basket of balls. I don't know why and how did the ball gone? Do our cabin safe? One more thing, one lock of the door is out of order, we lastly break the door to save Chris Wong. We could find the solution for the missing balls.

26/9 would be the make up class for the old boys and school teams.
I would offer you some games, hope you can all learn and feel happy in the games. This is for fun. Maybe, I should named it a "Fun day" or "workshop" for us!
Hope to see you!

Thursday Practice Report (13-Sep-2007)

2007-09-13T19:12:00.000+08:00

Seven boys came.
Tommy, Nicholas, Brian, Oscar, Alex, Kenny and one more boy (Sorry, I forgot his name...)
It's quite interesting that not many advanced player attended my lesson, those strong players like Chris and Barry would like to attand Tuesday's lesson.
However, more beginers like Alex would like to join my class.

Boys had a very short warm-up.
Then, we did the same drill like last week, but with some variation.
One forehand, One in-side-out, one forehand, one in-side-out...
The beginers like Kenny and Alex couldn't hit the in-side-out shot, and they counldn't control the ball to hit a down-the-line shot. Some did well, especially Brian and Tommy, they hit very good down-the-line shot. Actually, I liked Brian's in-side-out style, beatiful shot!

One more drill about chasing the forehand shot and dashed to get a drop shot.
Boys did well, but they were too slow. After some more shots, some did excellent, they got all the drop shots.

So, here came today's theme: mid-court attack!
We first tried some easy approach shots, which they had been very well known of the drill. Some did the drill okay, but some even can't control the ball or just say they hit many "out", Tommy and Oscar hit many balls "out". Tommy, powerful shot is not always win, consistent shot is more important.

Another mid-court attack is the bounced overhead.
The bounced overhead is not easy for them. Many players smashed the ball out and even hit to the net. I was shocked and unexpected. It is a sad fact that only one in the group know the path of the back swing of the overhead, he is OSCAR!!!

Overhead is different from the service. The path of the back swing is not the same. Only Oscar knows the difference, other six boys hit the overhead with the service posture...

Game! Today we had the "prisoner".
The team divided into two, played a team single.
But, the one win the point can "jail" the opponent or "free" his teammates for the jail.
The game should be fun, but they didn't enjoy much at first because many players hit the ball to the net at the first shot... So, consequetly, the whole team lost. Two teams traded their partners, and they performed much better.

The key to win the game is consisnence.
What you should do is not making any errors, sounded easy? but actually it's hard for the boys.
Another tip for the game is to be cruel, not free the teammates from the jail but send all your opponent to the jail!
Funny game.

Service, of course.
We had some cones for the targets and no one hit the cones.
I would like to comment on Tommy's service. He has a very powerful serve, but all were fault.
Powerful serve means nothing, especially you can't serve a "in". We are not Andy Roddick, and there are not many players like him has the rocket service. In your age or I would say in our level, serving in the court is far more important than the power.
I hope you would learn it by yourself in the match...

At the end, we had two doubles.
Lastly, we did the fitness.
Fitness is very important, especially for the boys to train their footwork!

I'm so pleased to seeing so many beginners today.
I appreciated Oscar and Brian, they did well in the doubles.
Also, Alex was great, willing to learn and try!

Boys, keep on and work hard!

Thursday Practice Report (6-Sep-2007)

2007-09-06T22:03:00.001+08:00

First day of the training after school term started.
It was great, with nine energetic boys.
The new form 1 boy came, called Oscar.
Also, a boy called Alex came, who joined the pracitce a few months ago but stopped playing tennis.

Tommy, Brian, Calvin, Nicholas, Louvre, Chris, Jordan, Alex and Oscar.

I tried so drills today, which I learnt from the HKTA talenT Group.
Those drills were for the very advanced player, but actually our school team players were good at the drills.

At first, some warm-up exercise in the service boxes, like some ball throwing without rackets and some funny service boxes match. Boyd did well in the starting drill.

Today, we still focus on the footwork!
Some tough drills, forehand and backhand down-the-line, but they had to hit six balls and dash!
Some played excellent such as Chris and Brian, they tried their best to chase all the balls. Those basic strokes were must, but some didn't have consistent baseline shots. Boys need more practice, especially some drills like today--chasing to hit the ball.

Another drill is about the chasing shot.
Forehand chasing shot, boys have to chase to hit a short ball.
Boys did bad at first. They couldn't get used of hitting a short ball, a widen angle shot. They hit all the balls to the net. I put two chairs for targets, after hitting few rounds, Calvin, Chris and Oscar even hit the targets! They learnt how to chase the ball and hit a widen angle, I hope..

So, some more drills about the volley-and-baseline...
I would like to talk about the chasing-back-the-ball drill.
Boys started at the net, when they touched the net, I gave them a very high lob. They had to dash back. After the ball bounced, they hit a shot. They can hit a powerful forehand, a lob or even a slice... But the main point is that they had to hit the ball after it bounced! No overhead is allowed! At the other side, two volleys for returning the balls.

At first, boys didn't get the ball, or even touch the ball with the rackets. After some shots, some did well. Chris tried his poweful forehand shot; Tommy tried his best lob. The volleyers like Brian and Jordan were also great, they returned some killer shots. Boys improved their lob and overhead, but their volleys have a very large room of improvement.

Some service, the four-to-four game.
For the game, their score was really close and it was exciting. I doubted that boys learnt much after the game.

So, another new game today!
I would like to introduce this funny game to all for you, which I learnt at the TG.
Five vs. Four.
Five baseline players against four net players. Coach fed the ball to the baseline players, they can do everything except a lob for the first ball. So, if a boy lose the point, he would be sent out of the court. At the end, the team which sent out all the teammates would lost one point. We played for seven points.

Louvre, Tommy, Brian, Alex, Calvin were the same team, played against Chris's team. At the begining, Louvre's team were all sent out, they lost three points. However, the score were close after few points later. The game showed us all that the hitting a very powerful shot to the net player is not an useful tactic. In some case, like Brian and Tommy, they can return the ball with a drop volley. The drill is fun, but actually they should be smart and tactic. Some lobs and wide angle shots can gain more points!

I would try my hard to learn more drills and games for the boys.
The game can be fun and boys can learn from it, I bet!
After coaching the wyk school team and the TG, I found that today's youngster like game and fun. Maybe, the dull drills in the past is not suitable for the boys. I would try my hard to think more drills for the boys.

Boys, do the drills boring? If so, please let me know=]

Thanks God for the good weather and the new F1 boy Oscar joining the school team.
Oscar told us that he learnt tennis at about six, at primary one (just like me =]). He's now taking the course of HKTA at the Junction Rd. ( I knew the course and also the coaches) Oscar had a very good form, the formal form. He had a very formal western grip like Matthew( Oh, where is Matthew? Busying for the A-level?) It would be great that our team have the new blood like him. At the end of the training today, Brian played a single with Oscar. Oscar lost.

Oscar's form and footwork are excellent, but he didn't earn much experience of playing match. Furthermore, he doesn't have a good consistent strokes and service. This is what other boys act like. So, what he can do is hitting more ball and learn how to be consistent. I believe, after a few months, he would be a very good player. I would like to praise that Oscar worked with others easily, he chated much with others and really enjoyed the lesson today. Other boys like Brian and Chris chated and played with him, he would be our new star! He promised to me that he would come next Thursday!

After chating with Oscar, I think about my past.
My past was like him, taking the course of HKTA. Also, the course at the Junction Rd. In fact, I knew Oscar' s coaches. They were also my enligten coaches. This year, I worked with one of the coaches, started my coaching life in Junction Road. I can see my past in Oscar, just like I entered the school team at my first day. I didn't join the team when I were in F1, because I were so shy at F1. I joined the team on October the next year. After few days joinning the team, I represented wahyan playing the HKSSF. In the team, I learnt more about tennis and improved my skills. I learnt how to co-operate with others, working with my teammates. One more important, I love wahyan more after taking part in the tennis team. We don't know how would be our future or how we would play like, but I trust that after taking part in the school team, you would learn more and be more mature. In case, you would feel more proud of being a wahyanite.

I hope all of you, the school team, Oscar, Chris and other teammates would tresure your friendship and the time in wahyan, especially in the team. Just like the old boys, Raymond and Joseph, after so many years, they are still very good friends. Wahyan and the tennis court are the best place for meeting friends, the tennis court is one of the best places for maintaining our friendship =]

Hope you all would enjoy in the court!
* Thanks Louvre telling me that the HKTA tournament's order of play updated.
Boys, please check it NOW!!!
Louvre and Brian are the 4th seed in Boys under 18 doubles!!!!!
http://tennishk.org/docs/Junior%20Series/Jr_Series_2007_Comp6_Draw_(2007-09-06).xls

Monday Practice Report (27-Aug-2007)

2007-08-29T12:14:00.000+08:00

First, sorry for being so late to report the Monday practice.

Six boys: Tommy, Calvin, Nicholas, Chris, Brian, Jordan.

The day after the exciting match.
I decided to have some relaxing drills, some games.

We dried the court and have some warm-ups.
Hitting few basket of forehand and backhands.

In the easy forehand shots, I found that boys were consistent. They hit many good shots. After some easy shots training, we focus on the volley and the groundstrokes, Chris's net game was improved. Thanks Simon for hitting the powerful stroke to him last Sunday. Their net game were okay, just say Tommy and Brian, their footwork improved. Another pairing like Calvin and Nicholas, though their net game is not the best, they tried their best and worked very hard. Lastly, Jordan... I doubted that he has the laziest footwork among all the boys!

So, we had some games today!
Game is fun. Boys can feel relax and be happy in the game. Also, today's game aimed to train the consistency and the net game!

Here comes to the first game: prison
Boys divided into two teams, 3 vs. 3.
Played like the team single, coach feed the balls. If the player lose the point, he would be "invited" to "sit" in the service box. So, the one is the box can only save himself by hitting a volley "in". A very exciting game.

The game focus on the consistency and the widen angle. Chris's team were lost 2 times and had a 10 push-ups punishment. Jordan did a good job, some were clever, hitting a widen angle to prevent the prisoner to get the ball and save himself. Consistency is a must in the game, hitting the ball to the net or out would lead you to jail in the service box. But if there were more players involved the game, it may be more exciting. I can see boys' improvement after the match: more consistenct and smart!

The next game is the 3 vs. 3 game. All players stand in the court.
Here comes to Chris's revenge. 1 volley and 2 baseline. three against three.
Chris's team were smart this time, Chris did some powerful forehand shots. However, Brian had a good idea, all moved to the net! The 21-point match were really excited and the score were close. At almost the end of the match, Chris's team were nervous, hitting some unforced errors. However, at the end, Chris's team took a revenge.

The two games were fun.
I think that practicing the drills only is not enough, games can be a fun for the boys. Furthermore, the game can be a way for the boys to use all things they learnt in the drills. I just remember when I took part in the elementary coach course, Ricky Chan(the head coach) told us the the three steps of coaching in the lesson: basket drill, rally drill and game. So, the basket drill and rally drill is for the student to learn and practice respectively. The game is for the student to apply what they learnt in the lesson.

So, I would provide more games for boys in coming September, I hope boys would feel happy and be fun, instead they can apply all they learnt in the drill.

At the end, I had a single with Chris Wong.
Chris improved after the exciting match, he is very consistent at the first six game. This is the first I saw him so consistent! But when he were leading, he couldn't be smart that win all the points at the end. Maybe, this is his mental. We can't do much in the training, Raymond was right, what Chris can learn more is only participating more tournaments, especially the so-called public competition.

I gave all the tournament forms to HKTA yesterday. Boys would have match in coming September at the Hong Kong tennis Centre(the GAP). Old boys and all, will you support them? I hope I can support them this time.

2007-08-27T09:28:00.000+08:00

Thank you for all the Old Boys and WYK Tennis Team who have turned up for the tennis match this afternoon, including the family members of Tony Chow, Jeffrey, Brian and Wilson. There was a big rain shower at around 2 pm in the Kowloon City and Mongkok area. Strangely when I arrived at WYK, the courts were all dried. Coach Ernest and some of his squad were already warming up. Louvre told me that he even practised on Sunday morning before the big match.

At around 3 pm we started our proceedings:- The first round of matches were between Ambrose and Dr Siu vs Chris and Barry (Court 1); Kane and Jack vs Calvin and Nicholas (Court 2); KK and Charles vs Jordan and Louvre; Alvin and Joseph vs Matthew and Horace. After the first round of matches, the score was 3-1 to the Old Boys. In the second round, the score was 2.5-1.5 in favour of the Old Boys and the third round was a similar story, the Old Boys edging 2.5 to 1.5. In round 4, WYK Tennis Team took the round with 2.5 to 1.5 points. For the final round, we played 6 matches and the score was a massive 5-1 to the Old Boys, so the final score the whole match was 14.5 pts to 7.5 pts to the Old Boys. All in all, we got through 22 matches in 3 hours of intensive competitive tennis.The detail breakdown of the score is provided at the end of this e-mail for those die-hard who are interested in the individual matches. Overall, the Old Boys were most impressed with the improvement of the WYK tennis team in this short time.

Since we last played the Fr Finneran Cup and in particular with Ernest and Edmond working hard on the physical and match condition of our players, they have improved enormously. For the WYK Tennis Team, Chris and Barry have become formidable pairing. Tony Chow, Jordan and Horace also impressed as fine young players. Matthew and Frankie are tough match-play pairing. Calvin, Nicholas, Louvre and Tommy all improved greatly and have wonderful attitude towards the game. Calvin, Nicholas and Louvre played their best and stayed till the end. Tommy was even practising his weakness at sunset and took in all the tips we gave him. Tommy served very few double-faults in his matches and showed good touches. The stamina and partnership of Chris and Barry improved tremendously throughout the 6 tough matches that they played. Boris and Brian also improved in the summer, although they did not show up in the matches. Ernest and Edmond did a good job building the team spirit of the young team with the senior players such as Matthew, Chris, Frankie and Barry all sharing the responsibilities. With the exception of Horace and maybe Louvre as well, very few of the WYK Team know the exact score during their matches. So your opponents will cheat you points and games quite easily in competition.

A few observations about the Old Boys. First of all, there is a huge age difference between the most senior William Lee and the youngest Tony Leung (probably 30 odd years). But we were happy to help out the current team. Secondly, most of the Old Boys take the competition very professionally - KK was playing even when injured in a football tackle, Kane took a lesson with Ernest before this match, Ambrose must be secretly playing with his friends on a regular basis to keep his game sharp and diving everywhere to get the ball back. Joseph played perfect tennis despite returning from a long trip. Last but not least, William just had an eye operation yesterday (thus missing the match today) and rang me up from the clinic not worrying about his eye operation but missing the match today. William even turned up to support us and send his young son Wilson on our team and he did us proud - winning one match and losing another one. One word of apology was to Dr Siu missing the group photo when we took it. We will make sure that Dr Siu gets in for the next one at the Finneran Cup. Dr Siu also practised very hard and played very well in the game. Another words of thanks to Roger. He has shown us a sample of the WYK tennis kit, which should be ready for the new season. Also thanks to Roger, Simon, Joseph and Charles for helping out with the photography.

The 2 coaches were also busy making notes during the matches, and we will have a match in our hands when we played the second Finneran Cup in a month's time (exact date to be worked out with Matthew and Chris). We all give a round of applause to Kane for being the most hard working and influential player in the Old Boys' Team. Not only he won all his 5 matches, but played with 4 different partners in doing so. The famous Kane and Joseph combination also won the only 8-0 game in the match, so they have waited for 30 years to take revenge for being dumped out of the CRC Open as No 2 seed. If you have not noticed, we have not had such a big crowd on WYK tennis courts for a long time. Did you notice that all the passer-bys at Wylie Rd stopped and watches our exciting matches when they walked past? We were also treated to a great exhibition match between Edmond and Ernest vs Ambrose and Charles on Court 1. The coaches were too strong for our premier pairing of the Old Boys and won 6-2. Finally, a big word of thank you to the 2 coaches Ernest and Edmond for putting through this young tennis team through the punishing training schedule. We are all proud of their first class attitude to improve their tennis game. WE ARE READY for the inter-school competition to start in October.

The individual match score is as follows (Old Boys' names first)

Ambrose and Dr Siu lost to Chris and Barry 3-5
Jack and Kane beat Calvin and Nicholas 6-2
KK and Charles beat Jordan and Louvre 7-1
Joseph and Alvin beat Horace and Matthew 6-2
Raymond and Ambrose beat Tony C and Frankie 6-2
Tony Leung and Roger lost to Tommy and Calvin 3-5
Charles and Kane beat Chris and Barry 7-1
Joseph and Jack drew with Matthew and Jordan 4-4
Wilson and Alvin beat Horace and Nicholas 6-2
Dr Siu and Tony Leung drew with Louvre and Jordan 4-4
Simon and Kane beat Tony C and Barry 6-2
Wilson and Tommy lost to Calvin and Nicholas 3-5
Tony Leung and Dr Siu drew with Louvre and Frankie 4-4
Ambrose and Charles lost to Ernest and Edmond 2-6
Simon and Alvin lost to Chris and Barry 2-6
Jack and Raymond beat Horace and Louvre 6-2
Tony L and Roger beat Calvin and Nicholas 6-2
Raymond and Alvin beat Horace and Jordan 5-3
Simon and Kane beat Chris and Barry 6-2
Joseph and Kane beat Frankie and Matthew 8-0
Simon and Joseph beat Chris and Barry 6-2
Roger and Tony L lost to Matthew and Frankie 2-6

Additional match Tommy and Jordan drew with Calvin and Nicholas 4-4 Ernest and Edmond leading Chris and Barry 3-1 when bad light stopped play

Cheers
Raymond

Monday Practice Report (20-Aug-2007)

2007-08-21T13:15:00.000+08:00

Arrived the court at about 2:30pm, warming up with Tommy. Then, Boris came.

Today, four boys came only: Tommy, Boris, Brian and Louvre.

We did some rally, cross-court.
The theme of today is still volley, or actually is to concentrate on boys' net game against the old boys on coming Sunday.

We did some forehand shot against the net player, some felt afraid and moved back, but some were brave. The forehand chasing shot is not easy for them at first. They felt hard to hit the ball down the line or to hit a passing shot. Maybe, they needed to have more practice.

I know the passing shot is not easy to hit.
We focused on the lob.
Unexpected, they did excellently! You must have know that, Boris's lob is always the best of our team. Boris's lob made Louvre run around the court. Brian and Louvre also did a good job, their lob were okay, making the net players confused. However, Louvre was not good at overhead. I have to concentrated on his overhead next time. The drill is important, as I'm afraid the old boys like Joseph and Simon would move to the net together.

Playing against two net players is tough.
We had another drill about the net player against the baseline player. Two at the net, other two at the baseline of other side. I feed a lob to the net players, so that the baseline players have to rush and get the ball. At first, they did it badly. When Tommy hit a powerful overhead, Brian and Louvre couldn't get the ball back. At the end, Brian and Louvre got all the ball back to the court. This practice is also decided for coming Sunday, Raymond and all the old boys, I bet that you will feel hard if you are the net player!

A special game of today: volley-volley match.
Boys were standing in the service box, 2 vs. 2.
If the ball bounce, you will lose a point. So, what you have to is hit a volley only to the court.
Brian and Louvre were smart, they hit some powerful volley, making Tommy and Boris felt hard and never get the ball. Moreover, Brian did some drop volley which is hard for Tommy. The drill not only trained their volley, also the footwork. If you want to hit the ball, you have to chase and run very fast to get the ball back.

Service again.

Boris left. We had doubles again, just like last Monday.
The best understanding team Brian and Louvre, I were paired up with Tommy. During the game, I found that all of them were improved, they tried hard to maintain the consistency. They never have the "killer" or "winner" shot in the game. I felt pleased, what they did is only hit the ball in the court! They learnt! However, Louvre had some unforced error today and... What I was shocked is he couldn't hit the easy ball, for example, the easy shot at the mid court or just in front of the net. The easy shot is hard for Louvre...

Another shocking thing is Tommy had totally 5 double faults in his two service game. At his 1st service game, he had 3 double faults in a game. Tommy couldn't controll his serve in the court. He didn't hit the ball with a straight arm, I told him so many times! His so called Topspin serve is not always in the two service boxes.

After the double, Brian and Louvre had a single match and I told Tommy to practice his serve.

In the single, Brian was smart, I can see he tried his placement, moving Louvre. But Louvre did well and hitting all the ball back with consistency. You can't see the powerful forehand/backhand like Barry and Chris, but you will find many consistent shot in the game. That's another style of tennis. They tried some approach shot and volleys, which were all unexpected. Overall, both did a good job in the single. But, Louvre was still feeling hard in the easy shot...

Tommy practice the serve. I taught him to have a flat serve.
He found it difficult, especially tossing the ball. I learnt that the foundation is very important to all tennis player, you know, it is hard to correct the posture after you had practiced the same incorrect stroke for years. I hope Tommy would practice more. I can only say, serve is very important in match. Serve is the start of the game, if you can't have a good serve or a consistent serve, it would be the end of a game!

Work hard boys!
I was glad to play with the hardworking boys like Tommy, Brian and Louvre!

Monday Practice Report (13-Aug-2007)

2007-08-14T16:37:00.000+08:00

Arrived the court at 2:30pm.
Saw three enthusiastic boys: Louvre, Brian and Tommy.

Boris came at about three.
We started the lesson at three o'clock.

Today, we focused on the volley again.
We did some groudstoke, net game and of course the approach shot.

In these few drills, I found boys were improved, especially the long time no see Louvre. I remembered when I saw him at the first time, he was the boys who hits many balls to the forest, and what I remembered he always throws his racket. I was shocked, because Louvre did many killer forehand groudstrokes, which almost killed me at the drill. I can see, Louvre had improved so much today.

What's more, I would like to comment on Boris. I didn't see him for a long time. Actually, I think he is the tallest in the team, but he is also one of the weakest server. He lacks the ready postition when standing in the court, only hitting the ball with his hands... We have to double our effort on Boris, helping him to develop the "sense of tennis". Maybe, he needs more practices.

As we did many volley and approach drills, boys' net game improved. Brian and Louvre were very good double player, they trusted each other so much. In the volley pair drill, they did well and understand each other. I would say they were one of the best understanding team in wahyan, perhaps, Marco and I were not that understanding. I were so pleased to see Brian and Louvre's attitude towards the game.

Service again.
I taught Louvre the service and he improved a little bit. He used to have a very weak serve. I told him to notice his posture, expecially his foot and the shoulder turn. I know, Louvre had tried his best today, maybe what he only needed is practice. Tommy had quite powerful serve today, but Brian and Louvre complained that two-third of his serve were not in... Powerful serve is wonderful, but consistency is also important!

At the end, Boris left early at about 5:15pm.
We lastly had a double.
Louvre and Brian VS. Tommy and Edmond

The match was really exciting and was very close. It was hard to play with Louvre and Brian, because they were so understanding. They tried many new tactics themself, such as the so-called " i formation(not for the service)" ... many many tactics. They did well. I didn't see too many unforced error in all the boys. Louvre improved his volleys. Tommy also tried his best, but he needed to learn how to control the ball.

All in all, a wonderful training today! But, only four boys came.
Barry and Chris, where are you?
I want to see the enthusiastic Chris Wong!!

Thanks God for the good weather!

Monday Practice Review

2007-08-06T19:07:00.000+08:00

I arrived the court at 2:45 and dried the court for a while.
Boys were late.

Today, we had five boys:
Calvin, Brian, Jordan, Chris and a new blood Kenny.

Kenny, a F2 boy and learnt some lesson by Gary To. Raymond, tell you a good news, Kenny is a left-handed! Actually, Chris and I found that he's really good at tennis. Though he's not an advance player, he has the ball sense.

I warmed with Calvin at first. Then, Jordan came. I told the boys to do some cross-court rally. Then, I had an easy forehand and backhand down-the-line/cross-court drill for the two boys. Boys did well, especially Calvin. I found that he improved his forehand. One more unexpected thing, he asked me how to hit more powerful forehand. The problem of his stroke is he's standing to hit the ball. Calvin, you didn't bent your knee. You hit the ball only with your fore arm and shoulder turn. Furthermore, you can try hitting the ball with a larger back-swing. I'm pleased Calvin asked me the question. You know, I always feel that Calvin and Tommy were too shy. (XP...)

We had the in-side-in drill. Boys did badly at first. Boys didn't know what is an in-side-in forehand, they only know what is an in-side-out forehand. In-side-in forehand means you run to the adv court and hit a down-the-line with your forehand. The shot should be deep and topspin.
Calvin, Brian and Kenny did well at the end. Actually, Kenny's performance was unexpected. Calvin and Chris keeped trying hard on the footwork, improvement were showed! But, Jordan, please, please, please, work on your lazy foot!!!! I don't want to see a boy hitting a stroke with only his hand!!

Some volleys.
Boys did well in the drill. Ernest, did you focus on their volley last practise? They seemed to have improved a lot on the net play. I saw the improvement of Brian and Calvin, but the room of the improvement is still big. Some also did well in the overhead.

Chris didn't get his racket today as he broke his string yesterday. He told us that he played bad today as he didn't get his own racket and string. But, I would like to say is, how about if you break the string during the match? If we lost the game, we cannot "blame"the racket. That's only an excuse! I know using the racket you are not familiar is hard, but try to accustomize the feel of using the "strange" racket. You would learn more in the future =]

We had 3-3 match today!
One volley and two baseline. This is the game I always hold at my group lesson at Junction Road. Boys had fun today. But the net player have to be cautioned. The one way to win the point is to hit a lob to pass the net player. If the net player intercept the ball, he would easily win the point. Boys were clever, some found a winning method: hit a powerful shot to the net player. Raymond, didn't they learn from you yesterday? XP

Service, of course.

After the serving, it rained dogs and cats.
We waited for a while at the cabin. At the end, the lesson finish at about 5:30.

Jr series 07 comp05

2007-08-05T22:18:00.000+08:00

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

Monday Practice Report

2007-07-31T00:36:00.000+08:00

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.

Friendly match

2007-07-25T09:25:00.000+08:00

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

23-July-2007 Monday

2007-07-23T23:03:00.000+08:00

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.

Practice with Ernest and Joseph at Royal Ascot

2007-07-19T19:55:00.000+08:00

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

balls

2007-07-17T21:12:00.000+08:00

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

2007-07-17T11:58:00.000+08:00

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 Practice Review

2007-07-09T21:32:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-07-07T22:12:00.000+08:00

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

Serena beats Daniela

2007-07-03T14:20:00.000+08:00

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.

2-July-2007 (Wahyan)

2007-07-02T19:40:00.000+08:00

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

2007-07-02T19:24:00.001+08:00

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!

Henman finally defeated in 5 sets

2007-06-29T11:12:00.001+08:00

Tim Henman finally lost in a 5-set thriller to Felix Lopez yesterday. He has again demonstrated his brilliant qualities as a serve and volleyer - a dying breed in modern tennis. To his credit, Felix was just as good at the net with his "Joseph" style service, it was difficult to guess whether it was a slice or top-spin serve most of the time.

Had Tim converted that easy volley when leading 3-1 in the first set tie-break, he might have won in 4 sets. Tennis is a game about converting your opportunities when presenting with them. One of the biggest criticisms of Tim was his inability to play the big points aggressively.

Two other learning points -

Felix Lopez was hitting his backhand cross-court 90% of the time, some even doubted whether he had a drive backhand down the line shot. So being predictable in tennis is not a good strategy. Every now and then, surprise your opponent with something unexpected once in a while, and mix up your choice of shots within your capability. It is not the same as hitting shots with low chance of success.

Secondly, you need to read your opponent's weakness. It was evident to Lopez that Tim's forehand return was not good under pressure. The same said for Lopez's backhand in tight situations. This is most of the points will be won. When you practise service, you need to hit them wide, down the middle and also body shot (making it difficult for opponent to take any effective swing at your service) Something Edmond and Ernest could help you with.

Finally, the main difference between victory and defeat in tennis quite often lies with physical fitness. Lopez is a younger, stonger player with better stamina in 5-set match. All those physical training will help you in tight situations. Remember you need to play 3 sets in 2 hours in inter-school competition, which is quite demanding

Enjoy your practice

Team Effort and Sense of Belonging

2007-06-28T13:53:00.001+08:00

Dear All,

Although I was not there at the practice, I realized that team effort was paying off slowly. Actually both Charles and I deliberately drove past Wylie Road at around 5:30 pm yesterday to check out on you guys in the first team practice, but thought that you already left instead of being put through the physical training by your coaches.

We now have Ernest and Edmond helping out with the tennis coaching. Both of them come back to help out WYK because of their senses of belonging to WYK. For Ernest and Edmond, it must be quite similar to the jobs taken on by Kenny Dalgleish to coach Liverpool and Joahn Cryuff coaching Barcelona and Ajax in football. We hope that they will help the School Team learn about the true spiritis of the game and develop a passion in tennis.

It is also great fun to be involved in a team sport. Although some of you will end up as qualified tennis coaches like Ernest and Edmond, some of you Super-A players like Ernest and Charles, some of you school champions and tennis team captains likes William, Ambrose, Joseph and Simon, some of you may be just club players like Kane, Roger, Alvin and me, some of you just enjoy a good game of tennis and a beer like Tony Ko. All of you will end up making lifelong friends and enjoy the discipline and social network from the great game of tennis. The comradeship and friendship will last longer than your tennis playing career. I have only had a handful of jobs in my life, but all of them were partly or wholly due to my outgoing personality of playing tennis to a good club level. It is a tremendous asset.

Hong Kong men has the longest average life expectancy of 79.2 years in the world. Tennis could also keep you healthy and relieve you of any stress. Whatever happens in the next few months, enjoy the process of fighting for that promotion spot in Division I, you will have a great time and enjoy the team effort and sense of belonging to WYK.

Once Roger and Wesley finished with the tennis uniform project, it will be a magic feeling putting that school shirt on and representing WYK. In fact, the Old Boys look forward to putting one of those shirts on and played against other clubs. It will be a corporate identity and great team effort

Have fun

27-June-2007 First day practice after the exam

2007-06-28T12:42:00.000+08:00

We gathered at about 3pm.

Ernest and I chatted with the boys first, talking about the tournament on Sat, team spirit, some of their behaviour, etc. Boys lack the experience of the public matches, especially some HKTA's official tournanment which you would meet good performance players. One more horrible thing which appeared in the past few year, our ball baskets were empty or I would say in aother way--we lost too much balls in a short time.

Old boys, how many balls were in the basket last Saturday?
Today, we got only half of the basket. Moreover, the balls were not the new one, I doubted. Unbelievable! I believe the old boys or the fund can't always buy new balls every months because the boys don't pick up the balls in the court. The balls are the property of the tennis team, please be respectful to the team!

Today's children were spoiled.
If the situation comes worse, I suggest the boys should pay for the new balls.
You know, old boys can't always give you the new balls because of the boys behavior.
In my time at wahyan, boys were lucky. We didn't need to pay for the balls. My dad supported the team by giving us many balls every months. My dad knew Gary To, they were friends. Moreover, as I were in the team, that's why my dad support the team in terms of the tennis balls. Maybe, this is my dad's fault! He shouldn't support the team in this way--- it spoiled the boys.

Boys, do you all know that the tennis ball is expensive?
Don't waste the ball! Please pick up every ball after you played in the court.

Then, we did some warm-up. It is a must to have regular warm-up like running and streching at the start of the practice. Next, the boys warm-up at the service boxes. Some even can not rally the balls over 20... I found that almost all the boys didn't have the ready position, some never bend their knee. Work hard!!

The first drill, the most important drill, the serve.
We had serve practice for about three times today. Ernest and I agreed that serve is crucial in the match. Ernest talked about the topspin serve. Boys, don't you know that what you have to do in the match is to hit every shot in the court! Even you have an awful second serve, but once you hit the ball in the service box, your opponent may return the ball to the net and "out". What's more, during the practice, the boys who hit a double fault would have an punishment--three push-ups. The punishment is not really an punishment, this is to remind the boys to hit the ball "in".

Some groundstrokes and volley drill came for the next practice.
Ernest concentrated for the forehand, I focused their backhand. Boys were divided into two groups. We had volleys and groundstrokes practices. They were okay.

Having some match.
We only played a tie-break.
Two doubles and one single.

At last, we had the running lesson. Joseph and I joined with the boys. Ernest led the boys to run around our wonderful wahyan. Some boys' faces were nearly turned pale. That's okay for the first time. I suggest to having more shuttle run in the court, but they were too tired. Luckily, no one fainted in the court after the tough training. But if one fainted, I would try my best to him as I just took a course about the first aid and CPR yesterday!

Some stretching, and one more match.
I paired with Joseph vs. Barry and Chris.
Played about five games, it rained.

*Thanks Joseph for coming and supporting the school team!

Wimbledon Tennis 2007

2007-06-27T14:23:00.000+08:00

Dear All,

For those of you who wish to learn more about how the game of tennis should be played, you could watch some of the actions on NOW covering Wimbledon tennis. It will be most relevant text-book tennis. Did anyone of you watch the exciting game between Carlos Moya and Tim Henman last night?

If you want to know how to play a volley, watch Tim Henman. It was poetry in motion. Both Carlos (Former World No 1) and Tim (The nearly Man in Grand-Slam tennis) returned superbly on their backhands. Carlos' forehand was great. Tim's forehand was colourful.

Both players show great determination and fighting spirit in the match. The choice of shots was phenomenal, a bit like chess players trying to out-guess their opponents by planning 2-3 shots in advance. Hope that some of you will show the same fighting qualities in Victoria Park the coming weekend.

Of course, we propose to watch Wimbledon tennis and play tennis video games sometime next week. I know that some of you will be meeting your new tennis coaches Ernest and Edmond today, together with Joseph in WYK. Let us know when and what you would like to do next Friday 6 July 2007 (Men's semi-final usually).

23-June-2007 Report of the morning session

2007-06-23T22:35:00.000+08:00

I got to the court at about nine am. I saw two boys were warming, Darren Lee (the old boy who is F7 in HSSC) and Calvin( or Nicholas, I forgot). Then, Marco and I came. Clement, who is F4 now if he's in wahyan, but he left Hong Kong a year ago and went to Canada. Also, Joseph came with Matthew.

We had few boys.
So, we decided to have a match.
I was paired with Joseph, Darren with Marco.
We had good time. Joseph, your volley is good which I learnt a lot. We won 6-2 at last.

At about ten, Raymond, Ernest, Tony Ko , Chris all came. (I forgot one of the old boys' name><)
They joined us for matches. Luckily, we had totally ten boys to have doubles.

In the second match, I paired with Chris, versus Joseph and Ernest.
We were tough this time. I know more about Chris in the doubles, just like playing in the HKFC last thursday. However, I doubted that Chris was too nervous and he's really couldn't concentrate or focus during the match. Maybe, he felt Ernest is too strong who we can't beat him! Chris, I would like to tell you my story...

When I was about F2 or F3, I behaves like you. I really can't concentrate in the match all the time. In those days, there were singles match for secondary school boys held by the Hong Kong Schools Sports Federation( just like the doubles match we play every year, but only two boys of each school can take part in). I once took part in the competition with an enthusiastic boy named Martin( Covan's partner, who had served four double fault in one game!). I went in to the semi-final at the competiton. In the match of the semi, I played with a La Salle boy who I knew him before. I was leading 4-1, but lastly lost the match (4-6). I was really upset because I can't concentrate or focus all the time at the match, that is, when I had too much unforced error or I were down, I can't face the difficulties. In other words, we can't lead the set all the times, there were ups and downs in our match. We have to face it. We can't just say we were tired so we can't win the points. There is no excuse! If you go in the court, you should or you ought to focus all the time and play a good match, even if you are likely to lose the match.

Matches is not only depends on winning or losing, but the joy you have during it.
Lastly, I lost to the La Salle boy and had another match for the 2nd and 2rd runner-up. I played with another La Salle boy called Gary Yam( Absolutely, some may know him as he is Hong Kong's player). I know that guy, we were friends now. Sometimes, I saw him praticing in the Hong Kong Tennis Centre. I lost the match as the previous one. I was leading 4-2( if I remembered it right..), but I lost 4-6 AGAIN! I was doomed. I can't believe it and I nearly sobbed after the match. I'm elder than the two La Salle boys.. I was leading...but I lost all the two match. At the end, I only got the 3rd runner-up of the competitioin. This is the last year of the inter-school single competition..

Going back to wahyan, my teammates didn't blame me, also the coach. They were proud of me, as I was prized. However, I was not feeling good as I can't believe the truth. I regret myself, if I win two more games in 4-2 at the semi-final, I would go to the final and may be the champion(but, it was just an assumption, you know, the winner of the match was Martin Sayer, a powerful server!).

Chris, what I want to tell you is we can't win all the time, even the ranked no.1 Federer. He lost to Nadal at the clay court. What we can do in the adverse circumstances is to hit all the ball in the court. If we return the ball to the court, we can stay longer in the court and hope that our opponents will hit an unforced error. But if we can't return the ball to the court, we would lose a point, a game and of course a match.

Work hard Chris and have more pratice. Play more games so you would be experienced to face the difficulties in the court. We can learnt from Nadal: he seldoms hits winner shot, but he can put all the balls to the court---he waits his enemy to hit an error.

Playing against Ernest and Joseph was tough, but we can learnt a lot.
One thing, we seldoms play with two net game players in doubles. You know, in division 2, not too many students like approach to the net or stay at the service box for volleys. Boys, work hard on the volleys, it would a benefit if we had good volley player in the team. Like Simon said last thursday, volley is important in the doubles. I think Simon had an extremely crispy volley, which the boys should learn from him.

Lastly, I had the third match. Marco and I, Chris and Matthew.
I'm sorry to say that you two have too much unforced errors. Marco and I was not really good as he didn't play for a very long time. We didn't hit too much winner shots, but we can put the balls in the court. What we do is to wait Matthew and Chris to hit the ball to the net and outside the court. Consistency is important.

Playing in Division 2 is not the same as Division 1.
Not many powerful server, volley-killer, forehand passing shot hitter in D2. If you can be consistent, you would win points. Don't try to hit some winner shots( you know, you may hit the ball to the NET!).

Be consistent and work hard!

2-JUNE-2007

2007-06-03T15:44:00.000+08:00

Only three boys, Boris, Calvin and Louve(who was late).
Too many old boys came(Covan, Sam, Raymond, Simon...)
Surprised!

At first, Boris and Calvin warmed up. At about nine thirty, we started to do some drills about approach. The approach is not only hard for the boys, also our left-handed old boy, Raymond. We believed that the player found it difficult is that they seldom approach to the net, especially approach by using backhand.

First, we started by the forehand approach, the easiest. The boys did well, but they sometimes hit the ball out. Hitting the ball out or to the net is common error of the appoach, you know, they have to hit the ball when it bounces high. If the ball bounces low, you can't make it as an approach shot and lastly is very difficult for you to move to the net. That's why the ball have to be high enough to hit an approach shot. Later, the drill becomed hard. They have to hit a cross-court fore hand approach. Not easy for them, but they did it.

What's more, we started the backhand appoach. Backhand approach, I advised to use a slice single-handed backhand to approach. Three boys were not good at slice backhand, they used their double handed "powerful" backhand instead of a slice. It's okay, but the fact is they can't control the ball.

Lastly, we did the in-side-out and in-side-in approach. They were good at the in-side-out forehand, maybe they have practised so much their forehand in-side-out at the adv court! However, the in-side-in approach is hard for them at first. They hit the ball to the net. They did well at last and have a very powerful forehand approach.

I would like to comment on the boys volleys.
The boys tried their best in the net, they had the sense of playing volley. Sadly, their volleys are too weak, they just return the ball to the court. We should or we must focus more on their volleys, too weak and without power. I hope, one day, they will have a crispy volley...Fortunately, I think Calvin had improved his net game.

26-May-2007 WahYan

2007-05-29T23:42:00.000+08:00

The boys were really excited when playing tennis. Sam came to the court and played with the boys. I saw one of the old boys was teaching the volleys with the new intermediate boys, you know, their volleys are awful!

Calvin, Louva, Tommy( I only remember these three boys' name). They worked very hard but are really a new beginer at the NET. I think some boys had improve on their net game. One thing I noticed is that some do not feel fear at net now! It's a good news!

Some common error they made at the NET:
1/no steps and lazy legs
2/too much back swings
3/the grips
4/no ready position
5/no intercept!!

I focus on the backhand with Chris, Sam and Frankie. Frankie's backhand is not strong and not consistant. By the way, Chris is really good at backhand, especially, the cross court. Maybe, both of the boys have to focus more on the net instead of their backhand.

The drill I used:
Few backhand cross court with the coach, a slice backhand to move to the net. Then, some volleys and a smash.The drill is really like the old one. Actually, I don't know how to work hard on the boys backhand. However, I think this drill is good for the players to work on their cross court backhand.Not fresh..

Focusing on the serve and receive

2007-05-20T22:16:00.000+08:00

19/5/2007

Boys were late, I arrived at 9:00am. There were only eight boys, some F1 boys were absented. At the first half hours, they warmed-up and rallied. Some were good and could maintain their consistency.

Then, Frankie told me that they wanted to pratice their serve. Raymond and I thought that the serve is their weakness and have to be focused. First, I focused on Frankie, Boris and Barry. Of course, Barry had good serve and nothing rectified. But, Frankie and Boris had to work hard on their serve. Frankie couldn't throw the ball at the right position, you know, he threw the ball too forward which may land in front of the baseline. In the case, he may hit the ball at front, the racquet face then face to the net. Lastly, he always hits to the net.

In terms of Boris, he is tall but he doesn't take this advantage. His serve is weak and not powerful, most importantly, not consistent. The reason is that he had a bended arm. When he hit the ball, his right arm was bended. He cannot use whole arm to hit a powerful serve. I told him that he should reach the ball at the highest position and should have a straight arm. I hope he can learn and accustome.

Next, I shared the mistakes the boys made with other players at Raymond's court. I found that the boys made the same mistake:
1: the ball they throw is not high enough,
2: not hit the ball at the highest position,
3: some hit the ball with bended arm,
4: some throw the ball too "front"
5: the position of their feet

That's all for the serve of the boys. One young boy had a good serve as he could hit a topspin serve. He's good becasue he neither makes the mistakes I mentioned above. It surprised me. I hope the boy can influence others. But, actually, I forgot his name, I hope Raymond know his name.

The next thing we focus is the receive. I had the drill for them which was used once in talenT Group. I serve and the boys have to receive cross court and rally few. Next, they have to reach a backhand slice to move to the net. Finally, some volleys and an overhead. The drill is suitable for the intermediate, some beginner or the new intermediate may few hard as they can not rally to cross court. The hardest shot maybe the slice backhand, you know, some boys even have an awful double handed backhand. The boys in this situation found it difficult. After some balls, I afraid that the drill is not suitable for them. But, I was wrong! Calvin did good receive and the backhand is okay. Though he didn't had a slice backhand, his volleys and overhead impressed me. Some boys were okay and they tried their best.

It is true that practice makes almost perfect.
I believe, if they work hard, they will have an improvement.

Another drill we used was some "match demo". We demostrated the net player to intercept the ball the receiver returned. This is to train them to hit the ball cross court, preventing the net player to intercept. At the begining, they did badly, maybe they lacked cross court practice. One even hit a down the line shot...Later, they did well and the net player of the ball intercepted and be "braved". This is unexpected. I think Joseph to be the net player of my side and he did a good job, just like the D1 school player. However, I think they should have more baseline drills in terms of down the line and cross court, instead, they should be consistent and not to make unforced error.

We have too much to focus on: volleys, serve, rally...
Which is the most important?

Boys, work hard and be tough!
WAH YAN!!!

New blog about WYK tennis

2007-05-17T13:54:00.000+08:00

Here I will write some words about the wahyan tennis team, maybe i shall work hard on to work with the old boys to help the players.

Want to know more about the school team? Stick on this site!