Subjective Observations Introduction into what subjective observations are and how it can improve performance Short Corners When I first started hockey, I was training against the first team, but mainly against a German international on the weekend. Because of this I had to face a much better quality of shooting and skill. Although I found it hard to save his flicks, the ones I did save gave me confidence, as he was almost 3 years older than me at the time and I had only been playing properly for the last 2 months or so.
Moving on to the present, I would far rather a short corner compared to a free hit outside the D because | have practiced this routine for so long, whereas a free hit could result in many different types of situations. I also know however that I need to put more time into working with my postmen and runners to make sure we all know what to do in each situation, if I have to run out, I would expect one defender to cover the goal in the middle, practicing this would mean that we would work faster and we move as a team.
Diving to the left Diving is one of the harder skills to get right for many reasons, but for me I know that my left foot is weaker and also my left hand is not as strong for me. The problem with diving is that you can’t change where you go once you push off, so you have to get it right first time, and you also have to make sure you give yourself time to dive, as you have to wind-up, because of this I’m slow on my left side.
I need to practice stepping one more time than normal as I have a habit of diving a step early which means it will take me longer to reach the corner, if I take one more step then I will have more power as I reach the corner, and I will also been in a controlled position. Saving/Diving to the right My right hand stick and glove is my strongest part of my kit, my coordination with my stick and glove is really strong, this means that I would prefer the shots coming to my right, I’m also right handed which means that my right foot and hand are naturally stronger than my left.
This also applies to short corners; I make more saves with my actual stick rather than with any glove. However that means that I need to work with my glove on the right hand because it is much more reliable than a defection off the stick. I should do some lifted shooting drills followed by some hand eye co-ordination drills to improve on this and make it faster and more reliable. Kicking My kicking a weaker part of my skill set, although I can kick the ball pretty hard at times, when I’m under pressure, I tend to kick it slowly which makes it a risky move, it also can lose quite a lot of accuracy which is key if I need to kick to a defender.
The problem I have is that I miss kick the ball and it hits either the top or bottom half of my foot, this causes it to lose a lot of power, and I lose more accuracy the low down the foot it hits. I need to work on foot drills in general so I can move my foot to the right position as efficiently as possible. To do this, I should practice putting balls around the goal, moving out to them kicking them to a box and then going back and resetting.
I also need to practice kicking from a shot (deflection), instead of just putting my foot in the way, I need to practice kicking into the shot to make sure that I clear it efficiently, by just getting in the way, I normally will have to recover and then go and clear it with another kick or stick hit. Tennis My forehand in tennis is one of my strongest shots, as you would expect for most players. I can manage to get a good amount of top spin on the ball as well as good lengths of shots. I am happy to rally with my opponent confidently and win the point just by hitting medium strength shots, but ones that have lots of depth and top spin.
I need to work on my shot consistency; I have a tendency to hit the ball towards the top of my racquet which causes me to lose power and accuracy, I need to make sure I get myself in the correct position before the balls bounces to make sure I’m not to open or squashed. By practicing footwork drills I can then work on taking my time with the shot and making sure it does what I want it to do. My backhand is one of my weaker shots. I’ve been trying to get it right, and I made the mistake of trying to go to two handed which made it worse because I had to start again and lost the little skill I had by playing a one handed shot.
Now I’m back to one handed shots, I tend to try to hit them flat, but it ends up with a bit of a slice. I need to practice keeping my racquet flat and not try and add to much top spin because I try to hard and hit the ball with the bottom of my racquet which sends it flying in any random direction. I should practice backhands from feeds. I would need someone to feed me a range of balls to my back hand and I should try to hit different parts of the court marked out by cones, as I progress the feeds should become harder until it is rallying with the feeder.
My serve is one of the better shots I have, it helps that I don’t have any pressure when taking it and I can take all the time I need. The problem I have is my tendonitis in my right shoulder which really limits any shots which are above shoulder height, if I put too much force into the serve then my shoulder starts to give and I begin to lose power and accuracy in my shots. Also I have to make sure I use the correct technique, the wrong method can lead to a lower quality of shots, and it causes more problems to my shoulder. I need to practice precision hitting, trying to the different parts of the service box to vary my serve style.
I also should try different types of serve including a spin and kick serve. As I improve | should practice against someone trying to return the shots to see how effective it is versus another player. The smash, like my serve is one of my key shots I need to get right, I can get good power on my smashes, but I tend to lack in accuracy. Along with the problem I have with my shoulder, they can be very varied and un-reliable at times. I need to put the shot towards the back of the court and make it bounce as high as possible to make it a difficult shot to return.
To improve my smash I should get a player to feed my high lobs or just high returns and practice trying to hit them into the corners of the court. Once I get the consistency on each shot, I can then work on adding more power to them. The last shot is my volley at the net. This is probably my weakest shot; I have a tendency to hit it wide, or just a really weak shot to their forehand. This is probably because I’m standing to close to the net and not giving myself space to attack the ball or time to react to the shot. I need to check when I move to the net that I have a strong grip with the racquet -99
