TENNIS
Introduction: Tennis is a sport I play for exercise and fun. I also enjoy joining tennis trainings and competitions to further improve my skills and knowledge of this sport.
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L.O.'s:
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LO1 - I had to acknowledge my strengths and weaknesses in tennis to be able to improve. During sessions, I could propose activities for everyone to participate in that I thought would be both fun and good for training.
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LO2 - I joined different tournaments to challenge myself and play with players who were of higher level than me. This allowed me to reflect on my weaknesses so I can work on them to improve for next time.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
I had my first tennis training in school today, and it was fun and challenging. We were able to practice a wider variety of skills because of the availability of courts. Today, I’ve learnt that the courts here are different as to where I used to play, and that the balls bounce slower. Furthermore, I noticed that the shots I play aren’t as strong because of the change in my environment. My goals for next week is to play in a steadier manner and try to put the shot in the court; what’s important is that all of my shots should go over the net, because that’s better practice than trying to hit hard with the ball hitting the net instead. Next lesson, I will start off with light shots, then gradually get stronger as I get more used to the court and balls given at me.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Our training today consists of practicing our serves and our return of serves. The coaches told me tactics on how to return the serves by hitting the ball cross-court or dropping it in the net so that the opponent has to run to be able to catch up with the ball. Coach said that I needed to work on my consistencies when serving because half of the time, my service doesn’t go in. Next lesson, when we practice service again, I will make sure all my second serves go in before practicing my first serves as it is important to make sure the ball goes in if it doesn't on the first serve.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Today’s main goal was to practice our volleys in our tennis training today. Warm up was stretching and jogging two rounds of two courts. Coach taught us to as much as possible hit the ball as far back as possible, as this will make the opponent be on defense. Whereas if you drop the ball near the net, your opponent will have the chance to hit back strongly as staying up front is the attacking section. Halfway in the lesson, we started practicing our volleys in pairs and this was quite challenging for me, as it is quite difficult to return a shot when the person volleying drops it at the net and I’m standing at the back of the court. We continued practicing and then played a doubles game in a ‘tie-breaker’ game. We lost track of time and went over training time by the end of our game.My goal for next week is to try running up front and playing the volleys when we play doubles again next time to practice my volleys under pressure.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Warm-up in tennis today was really fun and tiring. We had a ladder-rope thing laid on the grass where we do high-knees and then at the end of the rope we had to sprint to the end where a tennis ball is dropped by the coach and to catch the ball before it bounces twice. I thought that was really exciting, as we really had to sprint as fast as we can to catch the ball. After that, I just rallied for the next half an hour with someone, which I thought was nice because we were able to rally properly together.
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
We had a tiring training today, as we worked on our speed and footwork on the court. We had to hit the ball on the right side of the court, then shuffle back to the middle, run to the side to hit the ball again and so on for 10 shots per turn. After that, we hit the balls given on the left of the court. Then, we practiced volleys and overhead smashes. At the end of the session, we practiced our serves. I hope this training does improve my overall speed when I play games against opponents in the future.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Coach told us to play the game with both power from your arms and legs during tennis today. We need to have a momentum, a flow of the body, when we hit the ball. This means that when we are hitting a ball, we shouldn't just run towards it, stop, and hit the ball; we are supposed to take an extra step after hitting so that the weight of our body helps put power when hitting the ball across the net. We did this for both forehand and backhand shots as practice. I hope to remember continuing this for as long as I can and apply this to when I play games.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
I focused on my footsteps today and to always be prepared for a shot either in front or the back of me. My feet has to always be moving to be ready for an attack, not just standing in one position. Towards the end of the lesson, I practiced my services.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Because ISTA tournament is coming up, we decided to dedicate this tennis session in practicing our doubles with the partners we will have during the tournament. My partner, Gaby and I, played against two other players and we talked to each other our strategy, such as finding each opponent’s weak spot to hit the balls towards.
TERM 2
Monday, January 11, 2016
Here’s what we worked on in our tennis training today:
-Footwork: quick movements to be able to hit balls near or far from us and not get “off balanced”
-Service: try to make first serves go in using upper arm strength; ensure all second serves go in
-Playing ‘King of the Court’: take turns hitting with the ‘king’ and win 2 points in a row to become next king- to make sure ball stays in court and we prolong the game; to play game under pressure
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
We practiced our consistency on returning shots within the opponent’s court. We did the exercise where 22 balls will be feed to us and we have to count how many shots were successfully returned (forehand and backhand alternating). My highest was returning 19/22 balls.
Monday, February 29, 2016
What we did today:
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Announced that we (U18 Girls) won bronze overall on our ISTA tournament
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Discussed to everyone why we lost our last game (semifinal game) and analyzed the stronger opponent’s shots (e.g. she kept lobbing the ball to baseline)
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Paired up and played doubles, putting tactics similar to our analyzed opponents
TERM 3
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
We focused on our singles during tennis today, as coach will be putting us into more competitions wherein only singles are being played. We played against each other by category, in my case, girls U18, at a tiebreaker until 10 points. Afterwards, we had to analyze our opponents to their strengths and weaknesses. I’ve learnt that I have to work on my consistency and aim of my shots.
Monday, May 2, 2016
During tennis today, we practiced on speed and footwork. We did this exercise where the ball would be placed on the very corner, and we’d have to sprint from the middle of the court to the corner to hit the ball. This was done for both backhand and forehand. Later, we played “Touch the Fence” game with everyone as a cool down.
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August 22, 2016
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as a warm up from summer holidays, we played doubles game with different opponents for the entire session.
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Improvement: work on serves and make sure second serve goes in; work on my drop shots to not be too high otherwise opponent can easily smash and win the point.
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September 19, 2016​
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conditioning as warm up e.g. high knees, jumping jacks etc.
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then we played mini-tennis with partner as next warm up
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played ‘touch the fence’ to practice consistency and speed
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played doubles to practice playing with our real partners for upcoming tournament ISTA
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November 7, 2016
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We won first place for upper school girls 'League of Southern Manila Schools' last Saturday.
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Today I worked on my singles game to prepare myself for an ISTA game this Saturday.
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What I had to work on: lobbing the balls; being able to return drop shots; keeping the ball inside the court.
