A short while ago, I posted my video that came in 2nd in the New York City History Competition on March 1, 2020. I posted it because the New York State History Competition in April 2020 was cancelled because of the Covoid-19 Virus National Crisis. But now I found out that that competition might happen. The Nation History Competition sent out a survey to the New York Contestants seeing if we want to have a virtual contest. I would sure like to compete. Because of that, I took down my prior post and my video from YouTube. Stay tuned. I hope I can compete. Best, Nicholas V.
M Wins L2 14 And Under Tournament on March 2, 2019
Here is a short celebratory video of M’s victory in a recent tournament. Stay tuned for more!
M Wins A Round at 14 and Under L2 Tournmanet
Crazy Day on June 23, 2018 — 2 Championships, A Hawk and a Pigeon
On June 23, 2018, Nicholas had a crazy sports day. In the morning, he played an L2 14 and under tournament at Fordham University. It was very windy but he won both matches 6-1, 6-0 and won the tournament. Then in the afternoon, his Junior League baseball team was in the playoffs. In the semi-finals game, the game was delayed as a hawk landed on the cage with his lunch, a pigeon. He ate it over the home plate and the feathers from the pigeon cascaded down on the umpire, hitter and catcher. The game was delayed for almost 1/2 hour until the hawk fished his lunch. Nicholas’ team won the first game, and Nicholas hit a double with 2 RBIs and then he scored after stealing 3rd. It broke the game open. In the championship game, the pitching was too strong and his team lost 7-6. Here is a video of the highlights from that crazy day.
Nicholas and His Partner Win A Doubles Tournament at the Mayor's Cup Tournament on June 9, 2018 and the Festivities!
Back on June 9, 2018, Nicholas and his partner Jake played and won a doubles tournament at Cary Leeds Tennis Center in the Bronx. It was part of the Mayor’s Cup Tennis Tournament hosted by the non-profit entity NYJTL. There were festivities and various ceremonies for all the different winners for the various divisions. Nicholas and his partner represented their school in the Middle School Division. It was a lot of fun. Here is a video from that day. Enjoy.
Practicing On the Run Passing Shots and Kick Serves With Power Shots
Here is the latest video from our MandNTennis channel on Youtube. Here, N, practices with his coach passing shots while running from one side of the court to the other side. The point is when you are defending against some great angle shots you can then hit a passing shot. It is really hard and you work hard to run back and forth. Then, N practices his kick serve to the backhand of the opponent, and then coming in and hitting a power shot. If you have a good kick serve to the backhand, a power shot could then be a winning shot.
Practicing Backhand Slice and Backhand Volley
Having good slice shots is very important. A lot of juniors learn to make topspin shots from the baseline. But it is important to eventually learn how to make slice shots. That is because by mixing up your shots, topspin shots and then slices, you can confuse your opponent and also some juniors may not be able to handle going from hitting topspin shots to slices. Also slice shots are a great way to play defense. If you have a two-hand backhand, when you hit a backhand slice, you use just one hand, and then you can reach farther then if you had a two-hand, backhand shot. Overall knowing how to slice is very important. Plus, here is a bonus: the backhand slice is very similar to making a backhand volley, and also a backhand drop shot.
Here is M today with her coach practicing backhand slices and backhand volley slices.
First YouTube Video
This is our first video shot on April 23, 2018 as we practiced tennis. We plan to post more videos on YouTube.