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