Prepping for a Warmup Tournament

Well my knees are holding up.  The left knee has been a bit angry with some fluids remaining after a battery of ibuprofins.  I wear my knee brace for play just in case the fluids in the knee make the joint a bit unstable.  In the meantime, I have continued the strength training even during the getaway over the long Labor Day weekend.  Upon returning Tuesday, I started with a new coach Frank working on drilling in a group.  I also started a lesson with Erick today that was very productive.  In both lessons my objective is to improve my judging, movement, and balance.  The movement and balance follows the judging.  Better judge of where the ball is going leads to better movement.  Better movement leads to better balance.  Better balance leads to stronger pace and more accurate shots.  Erick showed me where to watch for boast.  When the boast is struck low on the side wall, the ball will have faster pace and fall shorter.  That tells me to stay low and move forward.  The other corrections are:

• stay on my toes when moving from front to middle to back
• make space between me and the ball; work a little harder by making space and then taking that one final lung step to strike the ball.
• stay on my toes so I can move back to make space between the ball and my racquet.
• strike the ball in front of me

The lesson I learned from Frank contradicts the lesson from Erick.  Frank advocates I play my backhand with an open stance so I have more options for my shot.  With an open stance I can play down the line, cross, or boast.  Erick advocates hitting my backhand the same way as the forehand with a closed stance.  I have seen this difference in approach with other pros too.  For now I should try to hit with an open stance whenever possible and a closed stance when I have less time or when I want to take time away from my opponent.

I will be playing a warmup tournament this Friday to test out my conditioning and to take stock in my consistency.  I have one more drill session tomorrow before my first match.  I'm looking forward to putting myself through the test.