November 13, 2014

***NOTE - Due to technical problems all the formatting is getting lost in my blog, and the normal formatting tools in it don't work. This also means I can't up links right now. I had lots of segments ready for today, but I can't put them up without the links. So I'll only put up the regular blog entry. Hopefully this problem will be fixed quickly - I have someone working on it.

BACKHAND SATURATION TRAINING
I'm coaching a kid with a big forehand but a relatively weak backhand. He's also in the transition stage where he's learning to really topspin the backhand, i.e. loop it in rallies - but it's simply not as strong as his forehand. He's also pretty forehand oriented, and so he's often forcing forehand shots rather than take easier backhand ones - and since he's overplaying the forehand, that side keeps getting better while the backhand side doesn't.

Since he's aware of the problem - we've discussed it quite a bit - we've changed the focus of his training sessions. Overwhelmingly players start sessions by going forehand to forehand. We now start our sessions with backhand to backhand. He goes almost straight to looping the backhand; why re-enforce a flatter backhand when he's trying to learn to topspin it? We spend perhaps the first ten minutes going just backhand to backhand, where he loops and I block. This saturation training is dramatically improving his backhand. Not only is the backhand loop getting better, but it's getting him in the habit of actually using it in games rather than switching over to his normal forehand-oriented game.

I've also told him he should try winning some matches by focusing on backhand attacking, and not playing forehands except against balls going to his forehand and on obvious weak shots to his backhand. Eventually, when his backhand is strong, he may go back to playing more forehand - but for now, I want to turn his backhand into a weapon.

One of the big advantages of starting the session with the backhand is that we can come back to it. If you do too much of one shot you tire the muscles and even risk injury. So after the initial ten minutes of backhand looping, we do some forehand training, and then come back to the backhand. The second set of backhand training is multiball. Typically we'll do the following drills for his backhand:

1. I feed topspin to his backhand, hitting harder and harder as he backhand loops.
2. I feed topspin to his backhand, varying the pace as he backhand loops.
3. I feed topspin side to side, and he loops from both wings.
4. I feed topspin, alternating feeding to his wide backhand and middle backhand, and he moves side to side, looping his backhand.
5. I feed topspin randomly to his backhand, and he's forced to react and cover half the table with his backhand.
6. I feed backspin to his backhand and he backhand loops.
7. I feed backspin randomly to his backhand and he backhand loops, covering half the table with his backhand.
8. I alternate feeding backspin then topspin to his backhand, and he loops both.
9. I feed random topspin to the whole table, and he loops everything from both wings.

I am worried about over-training, since he's using the backhand muscles a lot more than usual. So I regularly check to make sure nothing's hurting. (Kids often won't tell you unless you ask.) If he looks tired I'll give him a ten-second break to allow the muscles to recover.

The payoff for all of this? As I pointed out to him yesterday, when I coach him I'm staying much lower than usual. Most coaches get a bit lazy and tend to stand up straighter during their many hours of coaching, but I'm so threatened by his stronger backhand that I'm subconsciously staying low so as to better react to the shot. As I also told him, at the higher levels a big forehand loops is often "a dime a dozen," since nearly everyone has a good forehand at that level, but if you have big shots from both wings - that's scary. In drills his backhand right now sort of alternates from being erratic to being scary, and when it's the latter, that's when you can see where he'll be perhaps next year. Scary.

PLAYING WITH THE OLD BAT
[Here's an old joke I'll stick in here since I can't do my normal links this morning.]
The kids challenged me and the mother-in-law to a doubles game. They'll never hear the last of it - we surprisingly won considering I was playing with an old bat. (Boo!!! Hiss!)
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