About Me

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Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
I have played for 25 years and coached for the last 17 years--certified United States Professional Tennis Association Professional One--worked for Punahou Schools-voted the #1 Sports School in the United States, as a Program Supervisor, in charge of coaching the High Performance Players as well as coordinating programs for K-12 and Tennis Pro Education.

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Thursday, October 30, 2008

How to Serve and Volley

Shh... the biggest secret to serving and volleying. Once you're in the service box, it's all the same. You're going to get a forehand, a backhand, a body shot, or a lob--YOU ignore the body shot and lob--because you have time on the lob, and you're going to react on the body shot. Now you set your forehand to a specific shot and your backhand also. And that's it. Running plays also helps.


Wednesday, October 29, 2008

How to Improve your Volley.

One of my best volleying student started out slowly like this. We worked on transferring weight into her hand, getting more body weight into the ball, and coming through the volley. BUT it starts with a simple hitting the ball in front.



One of the most important things to do as a coach is find out how your student learns--Visual, Audio, or physical. M was great when we placed her in position so she could feel it. BE AWARE of distance when working with female students--I straighten out one arm and place it on their nearest shoulder and I WILL NOT BREAK that distance--nor do you ever wrap your arms around your student--it's always at an angle--one arm length away.

Chemistry Homework: Second Semester Week One

EP 4--Read chapter 10.1 to 10.3, finish QuickLab--Mass Conversion and answer questions on page 286.

EP 5--Read Chapter 17.1-17.4. Finish Lab: Heat of Fusion of Ice--answer questions and complete lab report in notebook. Complete Worksheet 17.1

EP 6--Read Chapter 21 all. Prep for Lab on ElectroChemistry--voltaic cells. Complete worksheet 21.1.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Aiming Your Serve

I have played with Open players that can't do this, and with novices that can. Go Figure.



To me, it's one of the easiest things to do, but serving, ironically, has always been something I could do. Well, most of the time.

The key will be practice. A good drill that I used to do was just put cones up and go around the box knocking them down.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Angle Shots

This is my trademark shot. It's sort of what I'm known for.


The reason I learned to hit angles was when I was younger, I lacked the power to go through people so I learned to go around them. This particular shot I learned from a savvy lefty named Russ who would play this incredibly soft, touch angle game that was devastating because his normal partner was a banger that hit everything hard. Russ's excuse was it was easier to hit soft, it was funny to him, and not too many people expected it. I love this short angle backhand shot because it's all about angle of attack. If you mad rush the net, it won't matter, the angle is so bad for you, all you're going to do is pop it up. If you catch it in the air, you'll pop it up. The only solution is to get it before it drops over the net--pretty impossible, or change you angle of attack and meet the ball later--which is very difficult. Overall, it's a hard shot to defend and so cool to hit.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Textbook Doubles: Baseliner Responsibilities



It seems this is a very popular series so we're going to continue to breakdown the baseliner responsibilities.

College Recruitment Video



TO make a good college recruitment video you need to show your student hitting all the shots, plus some match play. The videos I've seen and the ones I've made, we try to incorporate all these elements along with some character points of the student.

Ironically, nowadays coaches want you to post it on Youtube since it's faster and easier than receiving a cd or dvd.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Sample Match: Student vs Coach



what is great about video is the ability to see where they are at, how they play, and what's going on. There are several strange shot selections, poor series where my student has the lead and double faults twice, and other things to talk about.

Use video to analyze where they are and to break down their playing styles. If it's good for the NFL it's good for us.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Textbook Doubles Practice

what really makes practice fun is to have the right personalities involved. You want people who are serious about getting better, but play hard and have fun. When you find that, you have to focus and stay with it. The biggest secret is to always look for ways to improve your strokes.

This doubles match is fun because we're playing hard, but we're also a mixed bag--we have a good junior player playing in with us, and the remaining three of us are really good friends.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Textbook Doubles and Coaching GIRLS

It's very difficult to get your girls to move in and volley. WHY? It's really simple, you have to look at it from their perspective. Most girls don't volley really well, but ALL girls hit flat. This is huge. A flat ball travels faster than a topspin ball. Add in the fact, that girls aren't used to playing baseball as a kid or even catch. You can get a guy up there because he is not going to be afraid of getting hit, has reflexes honed by playing games such as dodgeball, baseball, basketball, and football BUT you want to teach girls how to play doubles and be effective. THIS IS COACHING.

Figure out what a girl does well--does she have a big forehand, a great lob, whatever it may be and build around it. Team the volleyer with the digging baseliner, and organize plays--such as if she has a big forehand, her partner will close the net when she hits that big forehand. learn to break lob patterns by placing a player at the service line, thus negating the lobs.



This is simple doubles--a big forehand to end the point. The returner moving in off the return, net player seals off the middle, and end of point.



This is the classic point--you want to force the issue at the net, but on the lob, communicate who wants it. Then, fall back into your stronger positions. The baseliner is actually their normal second singles, so she's solid off the net. The net player is gearing up to kill the overhead, which is also what we want.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Beating the Dinker



this is a good drill how to do it.



here's a actual match--I like to combine coming to net to take away the opportunities, when I stretch them, I rush in and hit a putaway volley--also expect an overhead.

Swinging forehand Volley



this is a great drill, and we use it to improve the racquet speed on the return of serve.



this is a more formal explanation.

When to Poach

I like to go when I hear the sound of the ball being struck, and I'll commit to a cross whenever my opponent brings their racquet up to slice, but i will stop at the halfway point..sometimes.





also remember close to close and deep to deep. when you're in an offensive position, nail it to whomever is closest to you.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Where to Serve in Doubles.

In honor of baseball season, it's a good time to discuss where to serve because in essence, serving is like pitching. You can change the speed, the location of the ball in terms of height with spin, and location in relation to the returner. A kick serve comes up on a returner while a slice stays low. A flat serve will go right at them. You can serve to their backhand, their forehand, or right at them.



What I do is establish the flat serve first, then use spins to deliver a high percentage of first serves. That is one of the most important stats in any match is a high percentage of first serves in. The second item is to pound their weaker side. I go 80/20 with NO SERVES to their stronger side if it's a big point--what is the point of doing that. You go to their better side when you're ahead.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

The Importance of FUN in practice.

It's always important to realize that tennis is just a game and games are meant to be fun.



The interesting thing about this doubles match with my friends is that we are playing incredibly hard, yet we're having an incredibly fun time. It's good doubles, everyone is playing hard, and everyone is going full speed during the points, but we are being really loose between points and during changeovers.

Doubles Challenge



Last time I was here, some good friends and I got together to play some doubles. The teams on paper look really fair with Aaron (4.5) and Chris (3.5) vs me (5.0) and Jason(3.0). And the match is usually really close.

Yesterday was no exception. When I watch the match on video, I realize how much we laugh and really enjoy it. It's the kind of doubles a lot of people need to play. Just good fun, but a hard, tough match.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Backhand Slice



The key to a great slice is to have contact be square, use your whole arm, and come through the ball with a high to low to HIGH followthrough

Friday, October 10, 2008

The Forehand Volley

I just got too much time on my hands.



I like this one because it's simple and people like simple. You put the face of the racquet on the ball, transfer weight to your hand, and follow through, and you're good to go.

The Two-handed Backhand



this video is a good starter to learn the grip and a good visual is this video



I really like this backhand because it's so simple and easy to replicate over and over.

Forehand: Complex or Simple Over 35k downloads



I prefer the old school. the new school way works better for the faster courts, but it hurts after awhile for me.

Kick Serve Part 4 of 4: Gold Club 45k downloads



It's interesting to see what people like, and people like serves and forehands. In this video, I am showing the last element of the kick serve. The use of the back and legs into the shot are paramount to its success.

Forehand Loading: GOLD Club 60k downloads



This is a video of my star student Kevin Caufield from Honolulu, Hawaii USA #1 Boys 18's. We started working out together when he was 11 or so. He has evolved his forehand to this with a massive knee bend, great weight transfer, a pulling across the body forehand, and racquet speed.

Crosscourt Pattern--finish



Keep it crosscourt and work it, look for the down the line, when you nail the down the line, cover the cross, and look to finish.

Crosscourt games



This crosscourt game is perfect for doubles and can allow multiple people on the court at one time.

All Asians Debate: Opp Reply




What I liked about this speech is the use of very simple phrases and everyday comparisons. This student is very knowledgeable of world affairs, and he has a very deliberate way of speaking, so it goes well with the OPP whip.

A good debate team combines people of different styles. This team has a very good and dynamic first speaker, the second speaker is very deliberate and medium fiery, and the whip is pretty fiery so it builds up into a crescendo and concludes simply.

The reply was very well done--with clear examples and smoothly done.

All Asians Debate: Govt Reply



you can tell this speaker is in a jam. My boys have just unloaded a cohesive assault in the opposition whip and opp reply--using max time plus. She now has 4 minutes and 30 seconds to defend against 12 minutes. This is a tough situation, unless she can group the arguments and refute it as one, she will lose.

In All Asians, the negative block, whip and reply, is a huge block of time to defend against. A good team will vary their arguments and force a weak response. My boys jumped on this topic as we are the master of all topics that are clearly sexual in nature as I use these topics to get the boys into the club--we debate prostitution, drugs, more than one wife, pretty vs nice, etc.

In the end, the AC team prevailed.

Returning Serve Better




I didn't have an opportunity to video a good returner as I was playing at the time. Bummer, but these are everyday examples of things we all do. You really have to put the time and just practice--short swing, move forward, and being stable.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Debate All Asians Style

There's a big tournament coming up in Thailand for the high schools, it's the Third Annual Thailand National High school Championships. They debate in the All-asians style so as a favor to a friend, I'm putting up some model debates.

Changing your Forehand Grip in the Middle of the Point



This is a PBI thing, where you use your left hand to manipulate the grip and keep your swing normal. I never thought about this until we talked about it. It makes sense. For the low ball, a flatter grip like the continental is better than the Western or Semi. For the middle height ball, anything goes. For the high ball, the Western or semi rule. And for really slow balls, I like the Western.

BUT if the pace of the ball during the point is too high, this is moot.

my advice, stay with the semi 80% of the time.

If you have a request, just ask I'll do a Video

For tony from Cali,



He wanted to know what do with the high ball.

It opens up a whole new area, where I will reply to requests so feel free.

Ryan's Bar and Grill Ward Center

This place was out of control on this day. Wednesday is their live band night. We got there about 8, and it was jammed pack. Ryan's has a restaurant and a bar. I prefer to sit by the bar on one of the longer table on a barstool, but you can sit at a table also. There are about 15 tables by the bar area. The restaurant is located in the same area but dining is in the back with about 20 tables also. You actually have to wait sometimes if you sit for dinner so it's easier to sit at the bar.

FOOD: EXCELLENT
PRices--not so good.

They are known for their crab dip--which is now $13...wow. Beers run aroudn $5, and there are no happy hour specials. It is pretty much for the 25-35 crowd. An excellent place.

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