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