My Diary

Here an attempt to document my experience of training and matches.

The purpose is to focus on the right things and to get rid of thoughts hampering my progress.

Training in May, 29th

Switch from baseline training to match not easy. Stop thinking quite challenging. Think instead to hit through the ball. On the serve, think about trophy position.

Training in May, 28th

Markus is cheating on a drop shot saved by me. Hit more through the ball with confidence.

Training in May, 27th

Try to better hit through the ball, to be longer in contact with the ball, especially on the return of serve.

Training in May, 26th

My tennis is very sensitive to my state of mind.

Match in May, 24th

Difficulties to hit long balls, especially on the forehand side. Not turning enough sideways. Not pulling back the racket enough. Difficulties to read the short balls of my opponent. Difficulties to serve on one side due to the sun.

Lost clearly the first set 0:6 then managed to play evenly the second set, lost 6:7. Better hit balls too long during a period of time instead of being short and slaughtered. Aim more to the corners to make the push my opponent outside of his comfort zone.

Generally speaking, I should play a match like against Beat. Hit deep balls in the corners to avoid being under pressure by a response to my short balls. Better to take a risk. Older players can handle well the balls in their comfort zone.

Training in May, 23rd

Serve training. Still struggling with the toss. The solution might be to find the right rhythm for the first phase. Slightly closing the racket in the waiting position is ok. Focusing on a slow movement around the trophy position seems to help.

Training in May, 22nd

Tired by double training on May, 21st. Footwork not good enough.

Training in May, 21st

Solid baseline strokes. Won the baseline game despite lagging behind initially by hitting quality ground strokes with variation left – right.

Training in May, 19th

Doubles in Brugg . Relatively soft strokes to handle. Pay attention to the correct feet placement. Point the racket backwards and up on the forehand. That’s it.

Training in May, 18th

Great to play drive strokes on both forehand and backhand. The purpose is not to win the point but to keep the rally going and to get confident with the continental grip strokes, this to play later on with more feeling.

It is ok to point the racket backwards by stretching my right arm. In case I manage to turn my body well, I should adapt the spacing and move a bit laterally.

Great to avoid errors by over-hitting while attacking my opponents backhand.

Recorded a video of my serve. Keep the hand closer to my head for the trophy position. Let the racket drop by taking more time before accelerating in the final phase of the stroke.

Training in May, 16th

Struggling to relax. Focus on stretching my arm backwards during the forehand preparation and swing slowly through the ball without too much body movement. It helps me to neutralize the rally by avoiding being stressed by any difficult ball.

Driving balls with the forehand or backhand has potential.

Serve with toss slightly forward, high and imagine dropping the racket behind my head.

Training in May, 14th

First time I have won 3 games in a set against Beat. Before I have won 11:8 the second baseline game.

The key to win points against him is to prepare with a slow loop by stretching my arm backwards on the forehand. Accept to play long and loopy balls patiently back. Wait for the opportunity to hit harder. Do not force changing direction as he is moving well. Due to lacking technique on the forehand he will play a weak short ball that I can attack.

For the serve, it helps to hold the racket initially slightly opened up, then to toss forward and to focus on reaching a position where I can easily drop the racket.

Match in May, 10th

Excellent preparation. Excellent forehand, especially cross-court. Attempted to play slice/drive. Need first to implement in practice play. Toss higher for my serve.

Tried Crunch Time Coaching doubles tactics. Loopy balls cross-court and lobs. Promising on R7 level.

Training in May, 8th

Pointing the tip of ma racket slightly forward in the trophy position helps me to improve the percentage of serves in.

Commit early to the strike, down the line or cross, no matter if the opponent can read it.

Work on slicing/driving the ball has the potential to improve my game. Work on it during friendly matches.

Training in May, 7th

Holding the racket with the face slightly up during the serve preparation seems to help me.

Match in May, 3rd

Won the match thanks to fighting spirit.

Turn more sideways for my forehead.

Training in May, 1st

Focus on being relaxed.

Training in April, 30th

Practice playing short balls with forehand slice. Most important is that the ball does not skip high. Try to backscratch with the racket closer to my back for the serve.

Training in April, 29th

Almost winning the baseline game (lost 9:11) but clearly losing match play, although better serve. Need to anticipate good returns with deep balls bouncing high, sometimes far on my backhand. Play actively right-left but do not force it. Wait to be in a good position to hit down the line. Running down the short balls better and quicker, but need to switch to a continental grip sometimes.

Training in April, 28th

First time on clay in Brugg this year. Difficulty to hit my first serve well. Better not to think about technical details and to focus on tossing and hitting the ball high enough.

Training in April, 26th

Lift the ball for the toss with fingers 3 to 5.

Training in April, 23rd and 24th

Stop thinking about anything else than tactics as the match starts against Beat or Markus. Technical thoughts are hampering my game and turn me crazy.

Training in April, 9th

Keep my left arm up and stretch it to avoid stopping the tossing motion.

Prepare the racket with the strings slightly showing up for the serve.

Continue to train the split step, especially the timing.

Training in January, 13th

Not in good shape. Lots of short balls. Solution is to put my racket showing the back fence on the return. It seems that short balls are due to lack of unit turn.

Training in January, 11th

Gliding continuously with the left hand on the throat of the racket for the forehand preparation is ok.

Training in January, 9th

Bad mood of my partner…

Training in January, 8th

Pull the racket more behind me for the backhand. Build up continuous motion on the serve.

Training in January, 6th

Pay attention to stay sideways for the groundstrokes. Avoid to open up too soon and rotate.

Match in January, 5th

Demotivated as my tournament opponents are way too strong for me. Lost the second match although it was close in October against this opponent. Too busy with the new toss motion. Need to work on my backhand. Time for a tournament break.

Training in January, 4th

Followed John Craig’s advice to prefer the ice cream toss to the palm up toss. Looks promising!

Training in January, 3rd

Despite my will to hit with full swing, little acceleration and lacking length against M. The solution might be to aim to hit the ball earlier by moving a little bit more forward on both sides, forehand and backhand.

Served by keeping the palm of my hand facing down. Seems to go well. Turn a bit more sideways.

Training in December, 31st

Also write here what does not work for me. Stepping forward for the return of serve for example.

Training in December, 28th

Keep the tip of the racket up and slightly forward during preparation for optimal racket acceleration during forward swing.

Training in December, 27th

My volleys are ok. Hit while moving forward, then step, not the contrary.

Training in December, 26th

Good powerful, deep forehand strokes. Keep the ball in play with the backhand. Do not overhit the return of the first serve, look for placement if the speed and placement are not too challenging. Ask my tennis coach regarding hitting the forehand volleys.

Training in December, 24th

A few attempts to hit wide serves. Need to drop my racket more significantly.

Forehand speed stats: average SwingVision speed of 80km/h for 10 normal forehand strokes (measurement on impact would be 20% faster) compared to 70km/h earlier this year in June. Fastest forehand stroke in June was slower than average speed in November-December.

Training in December, 23rd

My forehand feels good. I should consider a return of a first serve without overhitting.

Training in December, 22nd

Good advice from my occasional female tennis partner. In case my opponent’s level is in reach or if I think to be better and should win, figure out it will be very difficult to win the match.

Much higher speed on the forehand, recorded by SwingVision. Frequently over 80km/h, quite a few over 90km/h.

Match in December, 21st

My opponent was not overwhelming good, playing level mid R7. Thinking about a chance to win put me under pressure. I was a bit nervous at the start, not hitting well.

Training in December, 20th

Serve training with focus on palm of the hand always showing forward, not upward. Move back a little on strong first serves. Glide left hand up the throat of the racket for the forehand and then back again. Keep moving back on high balls. Keep turning sideways with the body on the forehand.

Training in December, 19th

Avoid overhitting for the return of the first serve. Dropping the racket Djokovic style seems to improve my serve by finding better wide angles, also to avoid tossing the ball too far to my right. Gliding the left hand upward the handle seems to be better for me than lifting it and holding the grip again, kind of continuity in the preparation. Ask my trainer for forehand volley technique.

Training in December, 18th

Focus on my two-handed backhand. Small downward movement just before hitting seems to improve my swing.

Serve training. Toss location less to the right would improve it. Keep the face of the racket facing to the other side of the court would avoid waiter tray motion.

Training in December, 17th

Nice poaching. Good returns starting with relaxed grip in ready position. Much better sight. Coming early helps for my eyes to recover from the drive to the tennis center in the night.

Hold my left arm up longer seems to improve my serve.

Training in December, 16th

Played doubles on the backhand side. Turne more sideways to hit the forehand return cross-court.

Ball toss with hand straight seems to be more consistent.

Match in December, 15th

First match again good R6. Played good tennis. I was outplayed by his deuce serve to the forehand corner followed by a stroke on my backhand. Also by his tricky serve difficult to hit properly, especially on the backhand side as turning in my body.

My ball toss is still too low. Maybe I can stretch my arm to keep my wrist still and point the tip of my racket down. I really need to toss higher.

Very positive is the fact that all of the sudden I feel immediately well during the warm up.

Training in December, 13th

A bit tired due to insufficient sleep. Virtual visit of our holiday flat in Corsica hence no way to sleep after lunch.

Training in December, 11th

Done an exercise with a target location for long balls to the forehand side. Performed quite well, better than expected and one of the best in the Academy for this exercise of the week.

Training in December, 10th

A bid disappointing. Difficulties to track the incoming ball. Guess has to do with the lightning. Next time, I will arrive a bit earlier to get used to it. Not ideal to start playing at 9 p.m. after 20 minutes of driving through the night. But my team colleagues are very supportive.

Training in December, 9th

Played doubles on backend side. Rotate/turn more sideways with the body than on the forehand side.

Mellow the grip in the ready position for smooth returns.

Training in December, 8th

Best rallies with Christian ever.

Match in December, 7th

Excellent mindset. Good swing on the forehand. Good second serves. Need to get used to play 4 and more good strokes in a row. Stay low on the return of serve.

Training and Match in December, 6th

Amazing how frequently my partner plays high balls. Good opportunity to move back and hit in the comfort zone instead of sticking to the baseline and playing kind of half volleys.

Slight bend backwards during the serve setup seems to help me.

Training and Match in December, 5th

My partner plays quite low balls. It helps if I am lowering my whole body during the warm up in the small court. We had a record breaking long exchange of balls during the small court warm up.

There is some room for improvement to attack short balls, especially as I have to run around.

Training in December, 4th

My new Diadem Tour racket was ready. It will definitely help me a lot to swing on the forehand side.

A key objective of the training was to handle high returns of my first serve and high balls in general. It will help me to play against opponents neutralizing my first serve with a high and deep ball.

I have to move back on high balls to play them in my comfort zone instead of sticking to the baseline.

Match on December, 1st

Two matches in Buchs-Dättwil. My objective was to swing on the forehand and backhand side like in the training and to get rid of this pushing ball syndrom on the forehand. It is positive that I had the mindset to try to let it go. Good strokes during the second match, even if the opponent had no difficulties with it.

What happened is that after a good stroke, my mind was busy to process what happened instead of letting me recover and play another, then another ball with this quality.

Next time I should aim to play at least 3 quality balls in a row during an exchange.

My serve was not so good. The toss was quite erratic. I tried to focus on the orientation of my tossing arm towards the next, also on the way the racket dropped on my side, to keep the chin up and toss high enough. Too much for a match.

At the end of the match, I started to simply visualize my trophy position. It helped a lot.

On the positive side, apart some good strokes with the forehand, I see good backhand longline balls.

Training on November, 27th

I have tested a new racket, Diadem Tour v3. It is a 20g heavier racket than my current Head Boom. The advantage of this heavier racket is that it forces me to swing correctly, especially on the forehand side. As I am 6’5” tall with good strength, this is still a light racket for my standards.

Ball length is better. Same for the overall feeling. So, I decided to order one to start with.

We also worked on an alternance of short balls to be attacked and higher balls to be played back long enough.

What I noticed during this training is that after my serve, I should focus on shifting as quickly as possible to the ready position with my forehand grip, especially if my first serve is fast and good.