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.
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.