Things to Work on Progress

Stripping down what I need to work on to the most important things. I've been playing somewhat badly recently and I think it's because I'm trying to incorporate too many things into my game. All these things require different footwork to support them and it's gotten too complicated to correct easily. I should strip what I'm working on to a very narrow range for a bit and focus on linking my shots together.

I've been working on backhand looping, placing pushes, opening smash, repeatedly smashing, looping forehands cross court from backhand side, and flipping.

My backhand looping is coming along. I feel comfortable enough with it that I don't feel that my backhand is a weakness anymore. I need to be careful that I don't try and hit my backhands too hard and just go for consistency.

My pushing is getting better. I'm able to read the spin on the ball and not pop up as many balls, but it's far from automatic. I also need to learn to control my pushes against pushes against my serves. I don't understand what to do with the sidespin that's coming back to me if I can't loop it. Placement and pace on my pushes are also a concern, but not as much as maintaining consistency and making the adjustments for spin more automatic.

I'm also trying to smash a little more rather than looping. This is still and experiment in progress. After I start smashing I need to work on keeping that pressure on. I'm missing too many of the smashes against fishing/lobbing. This is mostly a footwork, concentration problem. I also need to work on waiting for the ball to fall if it's too high.

I'm still missing too many of those cross court inside out forehands from the backhand corner. Some of this is that I'm trying to loop more of these cross court instead of down the line then before. I think for these shots I need to take a weaker shot and work on consistency.

Flipping is so difficult. My form is still very unstable and I need to work on it every week against the robot if I intend to keep flipping in matches. It's a very subtle change in angle to adjust from flipping backspin vs topspin.

For the next couple weeks, I want to narrow list down. I want to try a very specific sequence of serving, pushing, slow looping, and then smash. This covers many of the above in technique and will serve to improve my footwork for these shots too. Only work on flipping against weak opponent serves.

Note: My forehand backhand switching needs work too.