Lesson #21 with Eldon
7/13/09  Monday  9:30A.M.
Chico Racquet Club
 
In today’s lesson Eldon and I went over my backhand, forehand and my return of serve.
 
Backhand
 
1.  It’s important for me to maintain some kind of loop in my take away.
2.  The racquet head should be lower than my hands at impact.
3.  On shots wide from the corner I [...]

Lesson #19 with Eldon
6/8/09  Monday 9:00A.M.
Chico Racquet Club
 
In today’s lesson Eldon and I worked on my forehand follow-through, high short balls and moving forward to volley.
 
The Forehand Follow-Through
 
Let the wrist and forearm complete the circular motion that is begun with the take away preparation loop of the forehand drive.  In this image the palm:   1) [...]

Lesson #18 with Eldon
6/1/09  Monday  9:30 A.M.
Chico Racquet Club
 
Today Eldon and I had time to take a look at the progress of my new forehand and backhand and then work on the return of a dink serve looking to follow into the net to take a volley for a winner.
 
Here’s what evolved:
 
The Forehand Drive
 
I started [...]

Lesson #17 with Eldon
5/18/09  Monday 10:00A.M.
Chico Racquet Club
 
In today’s lesson I wanted to work on my forehand and backhand drives and also short balls on both sides just inside the baseline.  Eldon went along with this after we talked a little about some of my last few matches.
 
Forehand drive
 
1.         Step into the ball with knees [...]

Lesson# 16 with Eldon
5/11/09  Monday  10:00A.M.
Chico Racquet Club
 
 
Today we talked strategy, hit some backhands drives, worked on backhand slice technique, hit some forehand drives and hit some short balls trying to advance to the net for a volley.
 
1.         Coming forward on short balls it is absolutely imperative to stay down through the shot and take [...]

Lesson #15 with Eldon
4/29/09  Wednesday  10:00A.M.
Chico Racquet Club
 
We began today’s lesson by discussing what had taken place in my last match with Marty, a match which Eldon had watched for a short while.  The main thing in the discussion was the fact that I had gotten to the net probably 30 times, but had not [...]

Lesson #14 with Eldon
4/24/09 Friday 10:00A. M.
Chico Racquet Club
 
Today turned out to be a beautiful day.  It was a little cool in the morning and a little breezy, but almost perfect weather for a lesson.  Eldon and I hadn’t worked together for about a couple of weeks so we had a number of things to [...]

Lesson #13 with Eldon
4/6/09  Monday  1:00P.M.
Chico Racquet Club
 
Eldon wanted to work on my forehand drive and some short balls today.  We also talked strategy throughout the lesson.
 
 
1.         Forehand Drive  Keep the knees flexed throughout the stroke.   Stay low even when the ball is high.  You can always adjust if the ball arrives high.  Staying low [...]

12th Lesson with Eldon
3/30/09  Monday  10:00A.M.
Chico Racquet Club
 
The wind was starting to kick up some, but Eldon and I decided that we would try to get the lesson in before it got worse.  In today’s lesson we specifically wanted to work on getting more pop and penetration on my forehand drive.  To start out I [...]

Lesson #11 with Eldon
2/25/09  10:00A.M.
Chico Racquet Club
 
Eldon wanted to look at the progress of my forehand stroke and also work on my forehand volley in this lesson.  We warmed up with some mini-tennis, hit some forehand strokes, played a five point game incorporating strategies and finally worked on the forehand volley.
 
The following are the [...]