Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Things to Work on

Been making good progress the last couple weeks after not making much for awhile. This isn't a complete list of what I'm working on or need to work on. I'm fairly satisfied with my technique for forehand and backhand looping at the moment. They of course could be better, but I think my focus now is going to be on how to put together my game and win matches. Shot selection and making good adjustments in game are the primary focuses behind this. There is still a decent amount of technique that I need to work on.

Ready Position
  • Leaning forward and getting my butt lower. This will help with keeping my balance.
  • Better ready position. Part of this is as above, also need to keep my elbow in front of me instead of out to the side.
  • Return to ready position after every shot. Not sure how good or bad I am at this. Should work with the robot on this.
Pushing
  • Following through. I noticed recently that I have a tendancy of not following through the ball on my pushes and sometimes even stopping short of the ball. I should have a smooth stroke under the ball at a 45 degree angle.
Looping
  • Placement
  • Spin Variation
Flipping
  • Consistency. I'm getting pretty comfortable with flipping no spin and light spin balls. The biggestest mistake I still make is to open my raquet too much. I wonder if there's a problem with how I'm stepping in when this happens.
Serving
  • Use all different motions for forehand pendulum. Especially the three for top side spin. (1) Fake backspin and pull hand up. (2) Fake backspin, but rotate all the way around, so wrist is moving upwards. (3) Come down like a backspin pendulum, but flip hand over into windshield wiper serve.
  • Forehand pendulum without sidespin. Especially down the line backspin, making too many mistakes with this serve still.
  • A short no spin serve like Margit's that can't be killed, but could be flipped. This requires cushioning the ball a little.
  • Get more backspin on Tomahawk
  • Use reverse pendulum more and understand how to use it
Service Receive
  • Clear the brain and just react.
  • Good ready position