says
Spin and more spin.
says
Spin and more spin.
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What you need to understand is that there are soooooo many ways to make a drill standardized enough to make it about stroke technique and form while still having some kind of random element to it.
When Edmund was helping me fix my forehand, he was training with Damien Provost who is really a master of wrinkling in a random element into something simple enough for you to keep your form.
Here are some of the ways of training that Edmund used to keep a random element in the training while getting me to continue working on forearm snap.
1) When he returned my shots he would make some softer, some stronger, some slower, some faster, some with more topspin, some with less topspin, some a little shorter so I needed to adjust in a little, some a little deeper so I needed to adjust out just a little, and he would move the ball around within 4-10 inch landing area so I had to adjust a little laterally to each ball, but not much.
2) As I got better the area in which he would move me around got bigger so I had to footwork a little more.
3) As I got better he started mixing the spin and adding dead blocks and backspin blocks and I had to see these and adjust. There really is a point where adding different versions of junk balls in will really be valuable for your development. Edmond used to also try to catch the net to force me to adjust to the net ball. I still can hear his voice saying: "get it, get it!" rooting for me and laughing at the same time.
4) He also would work with me from the BH side where the moving was a little random and I always had a choice to turn to my FH from there or to keep on the BH. And he would move me around but watch that he would move me around an amount where I could keep form. If I started losing form he would instantly, in the drill just make it so I could read what was coming better and make it less random till I regained form.
Those were examples of how Edmund would make me continually be working on some form of the random element while still working on the form and technique of the stroke.
Now, here are some drills that are part way random, that are also useful for a different reason.
1) 2 BH, 2 to FH but the FH could be mid-line or wide and you have to watch for which one it will be.
2) a) 2 or 3 BH and then 1 FH middle. b) Same drill with FH wide.
3) Player 1: Serves backspin; Player: 2 pushes long to FH: option 1: play out point (completely random), option two, go down the line looping, option 3 go cross court looping. Once the point is over or the looping causes a miss, go back to the beginning.
4) #3 with push long to BH corner. a) open with FH, b) open with BH, then same options as #3.
5) Player 1: Serve Backspin; Player 2 pushes long anywhere, you adjust to the 3rd ball and attack deciding if you should use FH or BH on opening depending on your choice and the ball. (like I am fond of opening with my FH from deep on my BH side as long as I can get the angle to the wide BH.)
6) a) Player 1: Short serve, player 2 short push to FH, and play out point. Player 1: Short serve, Player: 2 short push to BH, and play out point. c) Player 1: Short serve, player 2 short push to anywhere, and play out point.
7) two point drill but the distance, the pace of the ball and the kind of ball, topspin, junk, backspin changes a little. As you get better it can change more. As the random element increases, space between the balls in the two point ball drill can vary.
8) Ball to BH and then to FH. Ball can go from BH to FH after 1, 2, 3 or 4 BHs but you have to watch.
9) two point drill where backspin gets slipped in randomly.
With a drill that is completely random, I have found that it is useful to slow things down and slowly speed them up. But there are really sooooooooooo many ways to add some form of random element to any drill.
The image in the block vs random video from Train Ugly of the guys shooting the basketball and just continually shooting from slightly different areas is a good one. It is like that. If the random element is one you can adjust two put one that keeps you needing to have your mind active, you will still be able to continue developing the new form of the FH with the forearm in it.
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