New Coach, New Form

Although I have not written for many months, I have been making some big and hard changes to my training.  I have a new coach, Erick.  He's been helping me improve my cardio and my power.  

I have a new stationary bike routine.  It's 15 minutes long with 3 segments.  1st segment is a 5 minute warm-up at 1 bar resistance and 100+ rpm.  2nd segment is 4 minutes at 2 bar resistance and 130+ rpm.  1 minute rest at 100+ rpm.  3rd segment is 4 minutes at 3 bars resistance adn 130+ rpm.  Finishing the 15 minute routine with 1 minute rest at 1 bar and 100+ rpm.

Erick taught me to widen my wingspan to cover more court.  That means I have to straighten my arm by extending my elbow out further.  With an open racket face I can hit with more power.  But, I have to take bigger steps and lunges to reach the ball.  All this takes more work and taxes my cardio much more.  The final tweak is a faster swing.   I've taken four lessons with Erick so far.  I acquire the skill pretty quickly each time, but I also forget it the next day.  So I return to using videos to check myself and reacquire the technique when I'm doing solo drills.

Along with these pretty big changes, Erick made other corrections to my form.  I learned that I have to bend my elbow to get leverage to give height to my lobs.  I certainly didn't realize that I needed a different swing to hit the lob effectively.  He also changed my target for the lob from the side wall to the deep corners.  Another lesson is alternating between soft and hard shots.  The last lesson I took focused on drops that are low above the tin and bounce in the nick, and deep cross volleys that were above the red lines.

So far I would say I'm still struggling to consolidate everything I've been taught.  Old habits die hard, but that makes me eager to take more lessons and train more frequently.