20141206: Super Serve Saturday

Had an awesome tennis session today. My serve was working like a charm even when I wasn't going full throttle. I was serving in the T on the forehand side and the opponents were having trouble dealing with a fast serve on their backhand. On the backhand side, I was serving to the far corner and opponents were feeling it on their body though I think it could've been attempted on the backhand. When I wasn't getting the first serve, I was getting the second serve around the T and getting aces since the opponents were expecting it in the  corner. I won a lot of serve games.

Forehand still need a bit of work since I wasn't able to be aggressive there. I'll work on forehand and serve tomorrow.

20141115: Weekend log

Was a great day today. I was able to apply the ideas of past few days. Was able to serve without a lot of double faults and win big points.

I and Praveen from N block played against Manoj and Nithin. We won 6-4. The most important idea of the day is to watch the opponent's racket head to learn where exactly is he planning to hit the ball. I was able to predict the ball direction and speed and that helped my game.

I served mostly top spin serves today. The first serve was a bit aggressive while the second serve had more kick to it. In between I was sneaking in flat fast serve when we were ahead. I like this strategy though I need to have more consistent first serve too.

The weekend has set the context for another awesome week ahead.

20141108: Serve Toss issues

Had an ok day of tennis. I was able to hold my serve in first 2 games and list of in the third game. And started losing it consistently in the next couple of games until Suri mentioned that the racket s just coming flat. That helped me do some correction and I able to have some decent games. I got tired towards end of session and Susan and Tilla were able to win both games out of the two played.
The good part was understanding that I was planting the foot but accommodating bad tosses. Once I made that change folks weren't able to even return serves that I thought were not that fast. I'll work on this.

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.