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My lesson with Richard today started with rotating drives. He then randomly added boasts and I lob cross court back to him. The last change was a drive from a boast to alternate from forehand to backhand.

The boast is an obvious technique I need to work on. I was probably getting 1 out of 3 in and 1 out of 8 well into the back corner.  On the drives, the backhand was tighter than the forehand, but the forehand could get more pace.  Richard's remarked that my backhand is good and he had no issue with it.  He still wants me to straighten out my forehand. He says I'm not squaring off enough to the side wall to get that tight and straight. Nevertheless, I had some really tight shots too. I was probably hitting a couple of good consecutive tight shots on the forehand before letting loose one.  Another remark Richard made was about my moving foreward and attacking with volleys. While I thought the reason why I stayed back was because I hit short shots, he said my shots became short because I didn't move forward and aggressively attacked with volleys.  In the end Richard thought when I played well I was volleying as much as he was. He said the game should be a contest of aggressive back and forth volleys. 

I was able to see and feel the difference when I'm calm versus when I'm jerky and panicky.  When I'm calm, I don't feel fear and I take that backswing with confidence.  I have a long follow through and I can keep my eyes on the ball longer at the moment of contact.

When I'm jerky and panicky, I don't have a back swing or I start the backswing late, I start to hit the ball too early and I start moving my feet before I complete my backswing. I also look away from the ball before the racquet contact is complete.

I played well with Richard today also.  We played 3 games and I played well during the first half of the first game, last half of the second game, and all of the third game.  I didn't feel the need to hold back so I have enough reserve to last. I put out all of my efforts with the confidence I had more energy and power to stay with Richard's volleys and change of directions when I needed it. And I did!  Playing point a rally to 11, I won 1 out of 3 with the other two games going up to 6 and 8 points to 11.