This week's plan

Hello everyone,

We have been training in specific phase for the past two weeks. Our main focus was getting players to really work on hitting quality cross court that can keep opponent back behind the baseline as well and pulling them out towards the singles sideline. Building on the cross court shot, players will make decisions on whether they can change direction by going down the line or continue to play solid cross court. I think everyone did a great job during the last two weeks, everyone understand the concept and overall implementing it well into their game, but I think we need to continue to work on the quality of shots and be even more precise on our decision making.

For this and next week, we will stay on the same topic but come up with different drills and scenarios to push players on their quality and execution, and getting them to make much more precise decisions. We still want players to understand when is "Setting up the point" stage and what should we do or look for in order to move to "Taking control of the point" stage or even to "Finishing the point".

Beside the groundstroke topic, we will also work on a lot of serve this and next week. Serving in general for young players is more of a liability because they usually don't have a strong serve, and it can be inconsistent due to pressure or lack of volume and practice. Players often get put on a lot of pressure by the returners in their service game and can be quite stressful during a tournament match situation. So our goal is to get players to feel comfortable with their serve, and not to be afraid of going for their serve, understand how to apply right amount of spin in order to gain consistency, and understand how to self correct or make adjustment to maximize their chance of winning points on their serve and holding service games.

Let's have a great week and see you soon!

Peter Liu

ORC Tennis Bubble and Weather

Hi everyone,

Our tennis bubble is been worked on right now, by end of this week we will have one set of courts done so we need to expect to play outdoor starting next week.

Please make sure to dress according to the weather. Be prepared to have hat, long sleeves, pants, jacket, sun screen, etc. with you.

In case of rain, please check ORC Twitter channel for update and class cancellation. Or you can call the front desk directly. https://twitter.com/ontarioracquet

This week's plan

Hello everyone,

Last two weeks we had been training in general preparation phase. This was our time to get back to important fundamentals, building and developing technical skills, and really go through a lot of volume in order to help these skills solidify. We pushed our players physically and mentally during their training and I'm happy to report that everyone did a great job! Let's make sure we can all keep the intensity moving into the next training phase.

For the next two to three weeks we will be moving into Specific Training phase. In this phase we will be looking at specific tactics or shots, and the decision making skills that goes along with each tactics, we will also put these training into point play situations in order to make it more realistic for players.

To start off, our specific tactic is when to change direction from a quality cross court rally situation. We will be discussing the idea of three rallying stages. Setting up the point (quality cross court), Controlling the point (changing direction to down-the-line), finishing the point (anticipate to move forward based on the result and looking to finish the point).

Detail:
1. Hitting quality cross court rally ball (a ball that pulls opponent away laterally to singles sideline)

2. Change direction to down-the-line (based on the quality of cross court shot) and the decisions to help realizing when is the correct time to do so, also understand that this is a Controlling the point stage so rather than going for winners, players should focus on stay in control.

3. Decision on whether the two previous shots were successful and what players should anticipate in order to finish the point.

We have lots to cover for this and next week, so I'll keep you posted on how everyone does!

Peter Liu

This week's plan

Hi everyone,

Most of you knew that I was away to Calgary for the U12 Indoor Nationals, although I had a wonderful time there and Team Ontario did well, but I have to say it is nice to be back!

After last night's training. I felt that everyone looked great and overall engaged in practice with positive energy, but I do think few of the players need to work on their intensity, focus and bring more to the table. I will address this to everyone as a group and talk to individual player as needed.

We have been in competitive phase for about two to three weeks now, there has been a lot of participation in tournaments, so good for those players went out and being competitive! Having said that, it is time for us to step back to general preparation and training phase. So for next couple of weeks, we will be focusing on all the important fundamentals players need to have and help players further develop or maintain them. Things like:

1. Having the right grip
2. Be at the ball early and in position to have a good setup
3. Having a proper impact point and good timing at all time
4. Focus on having a long hitting zone with good racquet acceleration and body mechanics
5. Proper recovering after each ball
6. Split steps, good racquet preparation, explosive first step to the ball
7. Develop good rally rhythm and hit the ball on the top of the bounce
8. Couple of specific shots I would like to train are: swing volley, defensive lob (continental grip)

These are some of the key things we will be working on and we will be relentless on them, it is also a good time that we help some individual player with their technical red flags. There will be a lot of volume this week and I want to make sure all players come into the program focused and ready to work hard!

Let's have a great week!

Peter Liu

Article on developing GRIT.

Hi everyone,

This is an article shared by our director Yves Boulais. Talks about how to make sure and help kids develop GRIT. It's is a great article and I hope everyone find time to read it.

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2016/03/growth-mindset/

Peter Liu

Easter weekend. No class on Monday.

Almost forgot to mention this...

Easter weekend is coming up. There is no class next Monday. Class will resume on March 29th.

Good luck to anyone that's play a tournament this weekend.

GO ORC!!

Peter Liu

This week's plan

Hello everyone,

I'm sure everyone had a wonderful March break and we are all well rested!

We have quite a few players playing tournament this weekend, so we are extending the points play and prep-competition training phase. We are going to focus on proper pre-match warm up and things players should be focusing on that's going to help them play better going into their match, as well as things players should pay attention to their opponent during their warm up in order to better identify their opponent's level of play or perhaps weakness.

Our match objectives for everyone are:

1. Start the point with an idea in mind. Take time for serve, and be ready for return.
2. Have higher level of consistency by aiming for big targets and always fight to have early setup and good impact point in order to achieve great control of the ball
3. Pay attention to short balls or any rally that's less quality, play aggressively without going for broke and giving away points.
4. Try to use your strength as often as possible.

We will watch our players and encourage them to really focus on these objectives. On top of singles match, we will also play some doubles to keep things interesting!

Let's have a great week!

Peter Liu