One of the things that I have learnt (the hard way) over the last few months is that it is very difficult to make changes and changes do not happen overnight!! It takes hours and hours of practice for the players to reach the level they do!!
One of the simplest examples is my movement to the back corners of the court from the centre of the court. My coach has been telling me to shorten my grip while moving to handle the tight balls in the forehand and the backhand corner. I try and do that during the practice - but the moment I get down to playing games, all that seems to vanish!!
Another example is watching the ball till the end. Now while receiving the serves - especially in the backhand corner - if the serve is dipping and falling near me, the moment it goes below my knees, I lose sight of the ball and end up hitting the return either short on the front court or in the tin. During practice, I have reminded myself tens of times about bending the knees properly to ensure that I do get below the ball and watch the ball till last moment and the wrist is cocked properly to send the return high, close to the side wall and in the direction that i want!! All that seems to be getting lost the moment I get into playing games.
However, a lot of things are going well too!! I am moving a lot better and can retrieve a lot more balls of the front court than I could do earlier!! I have become a lot better also at running across the court and controlling the rallies. I now try moving the players across the court and up and down the court - with mixed degrees of success.
