20141215: Practice Perfect

Another great day of tennis. I hoarded the winner side of the court in singles and lost just one game along with Srinath when we were playing doubles. I did lose my serve in the extended session but I was able to break back and hold my second serve game at 40-0. I think the serve drills that I do before going to the tennis court are helping a lot. I just need to work a bit more on the forehand and backhand from the baseline.

An interesting observation today was the wind. The wind was directly on our back. This meant that my first serve wasn't as effective as it usually is. Also our opponents were easily fetching all the lobs. I found a way out by playing longer points and following up the lob with a fast forehand passing shot or a volley at the body. It helped and the match was still on serve when I had to bail out.

20141114: Attacking kick serve

A great day of tennis after 2 mediocre days.. I was able to concentrate well in the practice sessions. Even though I wasn't able to land my first serve consistently - I was able to pick up good points with my topspin second serve. I did a single double fault in the entire session. Another good learning for the day was that I was able to consistently attack the best kick serves by taking the ball on the rise. I was initially just backhand-slicing the kick serve and it was giving my opponents an inordinate amount of time to play the ball. Taking the ball on the rise helped since I was able to cut the time that my opponent was getting.

After the play I practiced a bit with Manoj. And I learned a few things about him as well during this practice. First thing I learned was that Manoj is very balanced when taking the ball on the forehand and he is able to whip the ball to either side with relative ease. So far I wasn't able to figure out which direction the ball is going by just watching his stance and feet. He does like hitting the ball to opponent's backhand since he thinks that the backhand is generally a weaker side. Expecting the ball to land on backhand side allowed me to prepare better. The second thing I learned about my forehand was that I'm not able to engage my shoulder properly when the ball is very near to me or when I'm taking it on the rise. This is limited only to the forcing shots. The alternative is to just hit a normal top-spin forehand. This keeps the ball in play and I can happily wait for another ball that I can attack.

Catching the racket with the left hand is a good way of determining the flight of the racket.

When you've done the hard work about running around to get the ball, you must relax and try to place the ball. I'm noticing that I get a good running return in only to flop an easy volley later. This is especially useful when you're playing long rallies.

My backhand is working pretty well. I was able to handle both fast and deep forehands and backhands on my side properly.

Finally I started reading "The Inner Game Of Tennis" and learning new tricks about improving the mental game associated with Tennis.

20141108: Weekend Practice Log

Today was a great day of tennis. I woke up late since there was a late night phone call that I needed to take. I was at the court by 9. Was able to sneak in a couple of games with Salota. After he left I thought that it will be better to concentrate on drills.
And that is what I did for the next 2 boys or so. I did serve drills followed by forehand drills and finally the backhand drills. I was very surprised to learn that I have better backhand than forehand. So I did one additional forehand drill to wind up the practice session.
The main learning for the days were
1. The reason my serve was ending at the  net was because my head was doing early.
2. The other thing I need work at is to make sure that I get a consistent toss.
3. It is possible to toss even when the wind is blowing hard - the main thing to take care of is the direction of the wind and serve accordingly.
4. Sometimes my serve doesn't fall in our go out because I don't plant my foot or I move foot to accommodate an invalid toss. This is  by far the most imp problem that I have.
5. Need to dig deeper to play low balls. This is same for both forehand and backhand.
6. Have to catch the racket in the left hand after hitting the shot. This will also tell you how much topspin are you putting on the  ball
7. It is possible to take both the hands back, hit with the forehand and let the left hand catch the racket by throat.
8. Backhand is really easy since you don't have to catch the racket either. But you do have to take both the hands back, bend low and take the ball at correct height.
9. Forehand on the rise is very easy and very rewarding.  Similarly backhand on the rise seems very difficult but it is real easy on practice.
10. I have the kind of serve - regular fast, topspin winner and topspin stay in the game serve. Use them appropriately.