I worked out on Tuesday despite feeling a little tired. We (with my car pooling friends) arrived a little late into our Wednesday’s Badminton. I didn’t really have a lot of energy and missed some routine shots. Though I won most of the matches, they are closer than to my liking. All the time I am trying to warm up so to speak and get my energy back. Eventually I did towards later part of the session and shots were flowing more freely. I stayed till 10 pm (closing time) before heading home. Realizing my low energy levels I decided to give myself Thursday off.
On Friday, we had a semi private session with a pro. A semi private lesson is essentially a shared instruction. My friend and I signed up for this session as we felt we could use some professional help. My original goal going into this session was to get some help on Backhand and some technique on hitting a TWIST serve.
The session was enlightening from couple of different aspects. I can say that there are probably a dozen things I got some tips on. It is almost not practical to absorb every bit of information. My key points are
1) Backhand Technique: My chronic problem. The instructor essentially showed me the right technique on my one hander and offered technical improvements for the two handed backhand. I used to hit the backhand like that before unaware that it is the right away. Clearly neither (one hander or two hander) are natural for me and I just need to work myself to have a respectable shot. For now, due to lack of confidence in 2HBH, I will go with One handed backhand (1HBH). However that technique with 1HBH, though offers lots of topspin and margin, takes a lot to hit with power and conviction. I will focus on 2HBH from January.
2) Recovery: I often struggled with the question that why I am late to reaching the ball. A big aspect of hitting a powerful shot is being in position to hit the shot. The instructor showed me the right technique. I have decent foot speed and decent anticipation. Its just that my recovery position is not optimal and I often stay at the same position looking at my shot instead of starting the recovery and be ready for next shot. As the instructor indicated, the ideal recovery position is to be a few feet side of away from centre line, where opponent would hit a cross court shot.
3) Serve : Unfortunately the instructor didn’t offer much on serve other than indicating a contact position of hitting a slice serve. This is something I knew since long time so not much of use. I didn’t get any tips on hitting a Twist serve. I guess I have to learn it on my own or wait for another lesson. Looking at it positively, may be my serve technique is adequate for my level for play and doesnt have any glaring bad traits and hence the instructor didnt offer much.
4) Forehand: The instructed indicated that my forehand flow is ok in general and I need to improve on it to make it more smooth and controlled. I need to focus on my racquet take back and finish. Also I seem to often get out of position/balance after hit a heavy forehand and I got a few tips to prevent it.
In order to implement above tips and reinforce them effectively, I shouldn’t be afraid to lose few matches as it will take some time for these changes to be grooved in and during that period results will be less than one would like. I am glad that I did this session. I probably wouldn’t have done this with out my friend. I guess we both are feeding off of each other to play better tennis.
I made it to the 7 PM ladder due to my results from last week’s tennis session. So tonight is my time at the Show courts. Just like from previous week, I want to go with a simple attitude of just enjoying the game. I will try to implement the tips from above as it is better to work on them now while the instruction is still fresh in my mind (strike while the Iron is still hot!).
Tonight I will be playing some tough opponents. One of them I played before (opponent #3 from Oct 24) and rest I haven’t played them. Since these players are playing steady at 7 Pm for quite sometime, they are generally good and strong players .It will be a tough task to come out with a winning record. Statistically I play well against players I have played before a few times. So things are not looking good from that perspective either. I did lot of weights past two days to compensate for me missing weight sessions past 10 days (big Mistake!). My muscles are sore.
But my plan is go there and enjoy the game. A few inside in forehand winners, a few aces, along with some implementation of above tips , I will be a happy bunch.
There is only 1 session left after todays before I go on my vacation. When I come back I will be starting at the bottom of 0830 ladder anyways as I won’t be able to carry my points while I am on vacation. So if I play well enough, I will stay at 7 pm for next week. If not I will drop to top of 0830 Ladder for next week. Either way I will finish the first part of the season on a high note.
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