Happy holiday and things

Hello everyone!

We had a great wrap up this week before heading into Christmas and New Year. We focused on transition game this week, a lot of short balls were received inside the baseline and created movement towards net, players were pushed to take tons of volleys and smashes! Energy was high and it was great to see everyone having fun and be creative.

I want to take this time to thank and congratulate every single player for their hard work, effort and commitment during last 12 weeks of training. I think everyone did a great job and we have made lots of improvement in a very short period of time. I'm really excited to see what everyone will bring in the new year.

Holiday season is right around the corner, I hope everyone get to rest or take a vacation somewhere, spend time with family, friends and enjoy good food. Oh! Don't forget to go watch STAR WARS!! =)

I am sure some players are sticking around and would like to setup some private lessons. I would suggest contact Brad, Kyle or Rouba to see if one of them are available. Of course if you are already working with a coach and have setup some lessons for next couple of weeks. Great job to you!!

I would also encourage anyone who is not traveling away to think about playing a tournament. We have our own George Carter junior tournament at ORC in January and there will be tons of tournaments happening around the city in next few weeks. Have a look on the OTA website!

That would be all everyone! I want to wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I will see you in January 2016!

Peter Liu

Week 11

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and maybe getting started with your Christmas shopping!

For close to two weeks we had been focusing on competing, which was done in some type of situation points play or match play. Over all, I would say players did a good job, but I would still like to share some of my thoughts.

I thought some players competed really well, even though they know this is just training matches, they still took it seriously and played with good intensity and focus. They understand how to perform under pressure or under the restrictions I had given them. They managed mistakes well and most importantly, they were also able to play while maintaining the skills we worked on for the last 10 weeks.

I felt the biggest difference between players that did well and some that needed improvement really came down to the lack of match play, tournament experience, and mostly that "fire", "intensity", "edge", or that strong "competitive mindset". Of course there are other factors too such as over all consistency, technical skills, physical abilities, etc... but even some players had all those skills, it was still very clear to see who had been out there playing and was the "Veteran"... tougher, resilient, knows how to manage mistakes, and strong determination. Or who were the "greenhorn"... inconsistency, breaks easily, gave up a bit too quickly, poor body language after mistakes (sometime just after ONE mistake!) and suffer performance drop quickly due to nervousness which were not able to bounce back...

Now I am not suggesting that we should push players into competition right away and start to toughen them up, after all this path does take time to build... but I do think that some healthy amount of tournament play and match experience needs to happen sooner than later for some players. They need to see what's out there in order to be inspired to get better, they need to go through some tough situations in order to be resilient and build stronger characters. It's not going to be easy and there will be tears, but so is LIFE!... Just remember this. Tennis is a game, and game is meant to be played. So I encourage everyone to get out there and play tennis!

---------------------

Back to our plan. This week we will be working on generating topspin as well as finding ways to create more racquet head acceleration. We will explore the techniques in order to make this work and use it to open up the court with sharp angle cross court forehand or backhand. It is a important shot in tennis and I believe it will also help some players loosing up their wrist and arm during their swing.

That's see how it goes. I'll keep you posted!

Peter Liu

Upcoming tournaments

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update on some upcoming tournaments and players that are planning on entering (as far as I know of). It would be great if players from our U12 program can join up and attend some of these tournaments together!

I also know some of players have not been very active on playing tournaments for the last couple of months. I would recommend you to check out the rookie or transition tour tournaments below and see if you can make it.

Good luck and have fun to everyone that is out there competing! We are proud of you!

-----------------------------------

ACE U12 Provincial Circuit *** (3 Stars) 

December 11th-13th

ACE Burlington

OTA Entry Link

ACE U12 Rogers Rookie Tour December 13th

December 13th

ACE Burlington

OTA Entry link

ACE U12 Provincial Circuit *** (3 star) 

December 18th-20th

ACE Burlington

OTA Entry Link

Blackmore U12, U16 Transition Tour **

December 18th-20th

Blackmore Tennis Club, Richmond Hill

OTA Entry Link

*** Daniel Cancilla from our U12 program is signed up ***

Thornhill U12 Rogers Rookie Tour with Green Dot ball

December 26th-27th

Thornhill Park Tennis Club

OTA Entry Link

ACE Super Series U12 **** (4 Star) 

December 26th-December 31st

ACE Burlington

OTA Entry Link

Aviva U12 Transition Tour Holiday Classic **

December 27th-30th

Aviva Centre, Toronto

OTA Entry Link

*** Jackson Podolsky from our U12 program is signed up ***

Peter Liu

Tournament result: 2015 TDC Cup

Congratulations to ORC Team #1 on winning the 2015 TDC Cup at Aviva Centre this weekend!!

Our team #1 consisted of 4 players and they were Matthew Yang, Even Van DerStarren, Bailey Muller, and Ola Andrea Irla-Bartyzel. Our players competed extremely well and also shown great support to each other. I am proud of what they did and I'm sure all players learned a lot from this experience. 

Our team #2 had to withdraw from the tournament due to illness on couple of our players. It is unfortunate, but we can only move forward as I know there will be other opportunities in the near future.

Special shout out goes to Claire Podolsky. Claire played for Veneto Tennis Club this past weekend. She did a great job and shown great sportsmanship on and off the court. I'm sure Team Veneto was happy and thankful for you being part of their team. Well done Claire!

Big thanks to all the parents for bring players to tournament on time and supporting, cheering for our players. I hope you all had a great time watching your child compete, learned and gained valuable information from this event.

If you have any photos to share. Please email them to me so I can post them here and in our newsletter. 

Go ORC Go!

Peter Liu 

Tournament result - Congrats to Stefan and Jackson

Hi everyone, 

Just a quick update on tournament results for pasted couple of weeks.

Congratulation to Stefan on winning his Hamilton Rosedale Rookie Tournament. Stefan was actually playing with fracture fingers on his left hand. What a tough guy huh? I give him lots of credit for going out in his condition and he must have been a real fighter out there. Great job!

We also have Jackson went down to U.S. again for his last U10 tournament EVER as he will be age out to U12 in few days. It was a tough fight for Jackson in the final against his opponent as he was losing 1-4 and managed to come back and win the match 6-4! I'm sure he was focused, kept working hard and never gave up! Great job on your win again Jackson!

That's all for now. It's great to see our players getting out there and compete. Please feel free to send me any tournament updates, results and pictures. Thanks!

Peter Liu

Week #9

Hi everyone,

This week's plan is simple and straight forward! Every class we will start with physical warm-up follow by 20 minutes of good tennis warm-up, then we will jump right into match play and see how players play and if they are able to ultilize what they worked on for the past few weeks.

Our main focus during the match play week will be helping players with their game plan, develop basic routines, feel comfortable with game play, rules, counting score, change end, dealing with line call, etc... This should be a great week for all players to experience different levels of competition and hopefully inspire them to get better moving forward.

See you on court!

Peter Liu

Understanding OTA Junior Tournaments - Part 1

Hi everyone,

There are a lot of questions around the types of tournaments, different tiers, what your child should participate in and when to move up to more challenging tournaments. This can be a complicated subject and it can be quite personal depending on your child's age, level of competitiveness, and over all playing skill level... I really don't have a short and simple answer for everyone, but I will try to explain as much as I can and direct you to some reading materials. so hopefully give you give you some ideas on how to move forward.

This is part 1 where I talk about the U8, U9, U10 group.

--------------------------

Junior tournaments basically breaks into two big groups.

You have everything under the age of 10, which plays in Kids Tennis format that consist of:
U8 Red ball on 1/2 court
U9 Orange ball on 3/4 court
U10 Green dot ball on full court

Then you have under 12 and older, which plays in regular ball, full court:
U12 Regular ball on full court
U14 Regular ball on full court
U16 ...
U18 ...
Etc...

In the U10 or younger stages, there are generally two types of tournaments. Rogers Rookie Tour and Future Stars Tour.

Rogers Rookie Tour
-Designed for entry-level juniors who is getting into tournament for the first time
-Player get minimum of three matches
-No ranking points been tracked
-Does not need to be a registered OTA tournament player

More info:
Rogers Rookie Tour page
Rogers Rookie Tour Handbook
Tournament schedule and summery

Future Stars Tour
-For more advanced U9/U10 junior tennis player
-Ranking points tracked
-OTA tournament player membership required

More info:
Future Stars Tour page (handbook)
Tournament schedule and summery

Besides these two tours, there are other special event such as Future Stars Championship Series, or individual club hosted tournaments in singles, doubles, or team format. Some are open to sign up, some are by invitation only.

I would highly recommend everyone to go to the website listed to read up these materials. It will provide you more information in terms of tournament format, rules, ranking points system (if applicable).

Please feel free to comment below if you have more information to share!

Peter Liu

Understanding OTA Junior Tournaments - Part 2

Hi everyone,

In part 2, we will be talking about the group of U12, U14, U16, etc...

Once player get into the U12 or older group. All tournaments are played in regular ball full court, some time with modified scoring system, but usually best out of three sets format. Tournament can break into many different tiers, and of course there are other specially singles, doubles, team events.

Rogers Rookie Tour
-You will still find them, but there are very few and I believe rookie tour only up to U12 not beyond
-Designed for entry-level juniors who is getting into tournament for the first time
-Player get minimum of three matches
-No ranking points been tracked
-Does not need to be a registered OTA tournament player

More info:
Rogers Rookie Tour page
Rogers Rookie Tour Handbook

Transition Tour★★

This circuit is the “next stage” of competition beyond the Rogers Rookie Tour. Players can now attain Ranking Points in a tournament format at a two star value guaranteeing two matches with modified scoring. The rating for these events is set such that the winner receives points equal to a quarter finalist of a Provincial Circuit (three star) event.

Provincial Circuit ★★★

These tournaments are oriented towards more competitive and experienced players looking to enter the ranks of the top 30 in Ontario. The three star provincial circuit is standard scoring, best of three sets. At this level, competitors are only guaranteed one match; however, consolation rounds may be offered at some events. All events are offered at a 3 star value. The rating for these events is set such that the winner receives points equal to a player who reaches the round of 16 at a selection event.

Provincial Circuit ★★★+ (new in 2015)

This level is for players looking to transition into the Provincial & National Selection levels. The three star provincial circuit + is standard scoring, best of three sets. At this level, competitors are guaranteed two matches; and will be provided with a main draw and doubles or main draw and consolation. All events are offered at a 3 star+ value. The rating for these events is set such that the winner receives points equal to a player who reaches the quarterfinals of a selection event.

Provincial Selection Events

This is the road to the Nationals along with playing the Provincial Championships. Each player can accumulate selection points through these tournaments. There are 2 indoor and 2 outdoor selection events offered each season per category at a 4 star value. All National Selection events will offer a qualifying or feed up event as well as a consolation in which all will award ranking points. Note: 2 other 4 star tournaments may be offered during the calendar year. These events will not be involved in the Team Ontario Selection process.Consistent with the rest of the country, the selection events are rated at 60% of the Provincial Championships.

Ontario Provincial Championships

There are 2 Junior Closed Provincial Championships held each year at a 5 star value (1 indoor & 1 outdoor). Each Provincial Championship will offer a qualifying event as well as a feed-in consolation event in which all will award ranking points. Boys Provincial Championships are rated at 0.524 as compared to the National Championships. Girls Provincial Championships are rated at 0.69.

As you can see, there are many different levels of tournaments a player can participate in. Of course what tournament to enter really depending on the player's level of play, my suggestion is to start with the easiest one and work your way up. A simple way to determine whether a player should move up or not, you should look to see if he/she can achieve a 3:1 win/lose match ratio in that tier, this way you can ensure the player is playing tournament at the correct skill level.

Examples:

-If John played many rookie tournaments and wins every match. Move up.

-If John played two Transitional ★★ tournaments and ratio is 3:1. Move up.

-If John played two Provincial Circuit ★★★ tournaments and ratio is 1:1 or 2:1. Keep playing, but try to participate in some Transitional tournaments as well. 

-If John played two Provincial Circuit ★★★ tournaments and ratio is 1:3 or always lose in first round. This is not the correct skill level and over all not a good environment for the player.

I would highly recommend everyone to go to the below websiteto read up these materials. It will provide you more information in terms of tournament format, rules, ranking points system.

Roges Ranking homepage
On the homepage, go to "Junior Ranking" and click on "About Rankings".

I would recommend you to read:
-Key concepts
-Rating and Points Awards
-Ranked Events

That's all for now. Please let me know if you have more questions or post comments to share your thoughts.

Peter Liu

Week #8

Hello everyone,

We spent great deal of time in last few week's lesson on preparation, setup, impact point and timing. Learning how to judge the incoming ball better and earlier, so we can quickly move into proper position in order to produce the best shot on consistent level. 

Starting this week we will focus on our projection skills. We will explore what it takes to control the direction of the ball and how to hit the ball away from the center part of the court. Tactically, Players will be working on hitting lots of cross court this week, which is so important when it comes to moving opponents away from the center, creating open space for the down-the-line shot, challenging opponent's impact point and timing. We will also look at the difference on foot work, setup, and recovery position depending on the type of projection players able to produce. 

Players will also train in some situational play so everyone can feel confident in executing good direction and tactics.

See you on court!

Peter Liu

Aviva U12 Transition Tour Holiday Classic

Hi everyone,

If you've been reading comments in the "Parents Meeting" post, you will see that Jackson from our U12 group is planning on playing in this transition** two star tournament (one level higher than rookies).
Let's see if we can get few more players to join Jackson. Here is the link with full detail.

http://ota.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=0C661E7D-A406-4F83-B43F-278CB29897B5

Please don't hesitate to ask me for advice and see if this would be a good tournament for your child. For anyone just starting out or quite new to competition, I would still recommend you play a few rookie tour tournaments before you jump into this though.

Please comment to let us know you are going. Thanks!

Peter Liu

How to sign up and become a tournament player.

Hi everyone,

Great meeting last night, lots of good questions and I hope Yves and I were able to answer most if not all of them.

Here is a quick information on how you can sign up your child to become an Ontario Tennis Association tournament member, this will then allow your child to be eligible for OTA tournaments.

First you will need to go to https://www.tennisontario.com/

On the main navigation bar, you will see "Players" link and then you need to go to "Member Registration & Renewal" to register. The website will walk you through all the necessary steps.

Under the same "Players" link, you will also see "Tournament Calendar". This is where you will find all the tournaments.

For example, if you set the dates to Nov 12, 2015 to Nov 30, 2015. You should see a list of all tournaments including different age groups, what type of tournament is it, and which club is hosting it. You can then use the "Online Entry" button to enter the tournament.

This is basically the process you need to take in order to get your child to start playing tournaments. If you have any questions and need more information, please contact OTA directly.

If I missed anything or you have experience with this process. Please post in the comments below so we can help each other figure things out.

Thanks!

Peter Liu

Parents Meeting tonight at 7:00pm

Hello everyone,

Just a quick reminder that we are having our parents and coaches meeting tonight starting at 7:00pm.

I hope to see everyone there!

Peter Liu

ORC Newsletter sign up

Hi everyone,

Have you sign up to our ORC newsletter yet? It contains latests news around our club, events, socials, tournament results, program information such as notice or cancellation, and much much more!

Please take a moment and sign up to ORC newsletter if you haven't done so.

Here is the link. http://eepurl.com/bEgKiL

Peter Liu

Tournament result - Congrats to Jackson

Big congratulations to Jackson on winning the USTA, Southeast Michigan District Level 4, Boys 10 and under “Wimbledon Halloween Open”. 

In semi final, Jackson fought hard against the number one seed player Aaron Demerritt. After losing the first set 2-6, Jackson came back and won the second set 6-3, he continued to pressure his opponent and won the super tiebreaker in third 10-5 to advanced into the final, which he then claimed his well deserved title. 

Congrats to Jackson for well done!

Peter Liu

Holloween pictures

Hi everyone,

Just couple of pictures of our Holloween monsters! Sorry I forgot to take a picture of U12B... No one dressed up and I was too busy giving candies at the end.

Week #6

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone had a great weekend and lots of candies to share.

Last week we worked on ball judgement reception skill, specifically judging the incoming height of the ball, its trajectory, when and how we should react to it, and of course how we should move in order to have the best position and ideal impact point. I think everyone did a great job focus on the task, making good decisions, working really hard to get into position.

This week, we will continue to emphasize and demand proper impact point from all players. We will be looking at judging speed of the ball (together with height), when and how to react, and the decision of movement a player should have. Again, this is going to demand players to really focus and challenge their reception skills!

*** I will be away for my Coach 3 program starting this Thursday for 4 days. There will be another coach to cover my Thursday classes ***

That's all for now, see you on court!

Peter Liu

Read: Sports parenting in 10 sentences

Hi everyone,

Just a good short read for you. Topic is "Sports parenting in 10 sentences".

I hope you enjoy it.

Sports parenting in 10 sentences

Peter Liu

Week #5

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Last two weeks we focused on preparation and setup during volley and groundstrokes. Getting racquet and arm prepared with good shoulder/body rotation while getting into a good position before the incoming ball bounces. I'm really happy to see all players pushing themselves and I believe all players have improved on these topics! For the next couple of weeks we will be focusing on Impact point and a lot of work on reception skills.

Having a consistent and proper impact point enables you to play with higher consistency and maximize your chance of hitting and controlling the ball. It also helps players develop better spatial awareness which eventually leads into a more consistent, effortless strokes.

While having good technique does not guarantee having a good impact point, so we will need to train our players' eyes to read the incoming ball early which allows them to prepare and move to proper impact position sooner. We will be demanding and push hard on all players this week. They will need to focus in order to judge the incoming balls well and they will be moving a lot as well in order to get setup early and achieve proper impact point at all time.

See you on court!

Peter Liu

Video: good setup

Hi everyone,

Just thought I look up some video on Youtube and give everyone a sense what a good setup would look like.

Pay attention to some of the key elements I mentioned on previous posts and check out these videos.

- good wide base with neutral stance.
- racquet prepared around shoulder height with good comfort, not over stretched or too far back.
- good body unit turn with shoulder, chest, hip.

Grigor Dimitrov in Super Slow Motion - Forehand

Novak Djokovic - Slow Motion Backhands

Roger Federer Volley
Few things to note about this video. Federer has incredible feel with his racquet, hand and timing. It seems he is doing a lot of things with his racquet during volley, but these skills takes years to practice and perfect. Young players now a days does way too much then they should with volley and the results are poor fundamentals, miss timing, and weak posture, etc. Young players should avoid making volley way to complicated. Focus on good posture, preparation and solid contact with the ball is the key. What we can learn from this video is how quick and agile Federer moves his feet and how quickly he prepares his racquet for the incoming ball.

Enjoy!

Peter Liu

Week #4

Hi everyone, 

Last week our training was focused on early preparation during volley and groundstroke. We talked about racquet preparation, body unit turn (especially shoulder and chest) together with good use of the non-dominant hand. The idea is to really get players to recognize where the incoming ball is (to forehand or backhand) and start their preparation while moving. This is crucial to our topic this week which is Setup.  

Often we think about tennis as a sport of projection (sending the ball somewhere). As important as it is, the real challenge for players is how well they can receive the ball and maximize they success during projection. This week we will be reviewing player's preparation and help them link it to their setup, what it should look like, how and when they should position it, and prepare for impact.

3 Key elements are:

Body

- shoulders, trunk, and hips need to be set sideways

Racquet

- racquet should be prepared about shoulder height and on the same side as the body, not to bring racquet way to far back creating time issues during swing and impact.

Feet

- having good balance and focus on neutral stance as much as possible 

Of course, a good setup has to be done on time. We will demand players getting setup before the incoming ball bounce on their side, so they will need to be very focused, quick and explosive with their movements.

See you on court! 

Peter Liu

The key to success? Grit

Hi everyone, 

Take a look at these videos from Angela Lee Duckworth. I'm sure you will find them interesting and get you to think about how to develop Grit with your child.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is Grit?

Grit is defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.”

Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn’t the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of “grit” as a predictor of success.

The key to success? Grit (6mins)
What Is Grit and How Can You Learn It? (30mins)

Peter Liu

Week #3

Hello everyone,

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving long weekend. Time to get back out there and play some tennis!

Last couple of weeks we got to see everyone's overall fundamentals and focused a lot on rally consistency whether is cooperatively or competitively. We also did some volley work to make sure players are developing important volley skills (blocking/catching feel) and feel comfortable at the net. Of course we went over proper warm-up routines as well, I'm sure by this week, all players know what to do when they arrive to the training session.

For this week's plan. We will have our players really focus on their preparation and setup. We will also be addressing where a correct impact point should be so players can prepare early, setup properly, and have consistent impact point in order to maintain control of the ball. We will be exploring these topics on volley, groundstrokes, and serve.

There will be more feeding this week so everyone can really focus on the details and get feedbacks from the coaches.

See you out there!

Peter Liu

Welcome to U12 Performance

Hello everyone!  Welcome to the 2015/16 ORC tennis academy.  I am Peter Liu, the leader of the U12 Performance program.  I hope everyone had a wonderful summer, took some time off, did some traveling, and most importantly, played lots of tennis!  I am very excited about this year's academy program.  Not only that we have quite few familiar faces returning, there are also a large number of new players joining us!  I'm sure there is a fun, positive, and engaging season ahead of us.

For this week's plan.  We will be focusing on proper warm-up routine, assessing everyone's fundamentals and overall play level, learn to co-operate during rally, and finally, give everyone a chance to serve and play some points.  The key for this and next week is to really setup the right tone and a performance environment for everyone in the program.

Just a couple of important things: 

1) The first two weeks of academy are always a bit crazy. There will be players still going through assessments or trying out programs.  Some existing players might need to switch programs based on their skill level.  Please bear with me during this time, and do not hesitate to speak to or contact me if you have any questions or concerns. 

2) For the players, please remember to bring a water bottle to class, and dress sporty with proper footwear.  Weather can change drastically too, so don't forget your long sleeves and pants. 

Once again, I'm very excited to start a new season, and am looking forward to seeing everyone!

Peter Liu