so Ema now that you're going back on tour are you going to play singles too or just
doubles I mean doubles for sure it's going to be your focus right yeah I'll see how I
feel physically and then I will you know if I'm at the tournament and I have an opportunity to play
singles too I I might as well play it but you're going to play full schedule the whole year
um I have to come up with a calendar my plan was to train at least like two months like hardcore
yeah see how I feel how my body handles it and I'm starting to look at the tournaments trying
to figure out the schedule and the calendar and I was thinking about starting maybe July August
okay and then and then going from there so you're giving yourself a lot of buffer room to get in
shape and then yeah go and play yeah you know that's smart good I want to feel confident like
mentally I'm good okay physically I really need to get stronger I mean I might look fit
but on the court you know I really have to go a little bit faster then I would like to
clean clean up my technique because six years of just coaching and just kind of like you
know hitting the ball back I haven't been really working on my strokes and I know there is a lot
to like I mean the small things to fix and then to focus on that and then if I combine it all I
think it's going to be a great package yeah the teaching can really mess up your Strokes can put
some kinks in there you know you start pushing the ball more and you stop trusting your Shots
Out of all those shots like what's the shot that you feel the least comfortable with right now
the serves because you probably like yeah serving at all right yes and I mean I would
come and I would like probably in practice it would it would look fine like I can make
the serves and I'm relaxed but I'm going into a match like getting more tight it's a second
serve second serve yeah um then I mean I think my I mean everything everything forehand forehand
slice everything all of them okay all right let's just let's just go through your whole
game and we'll we'll take it one step at a time okay yeah exactly I just go ahead hit back to
me in the baseline okay now one thing I want to ask you do you like when you're when we're training do
you want to focus on doubles specific training or do you want to focus on singles specific training
so you want to play something you might think so singles singles for now and then
probably before tournaments that translates that translates really well into WTA doubles
anyway right singles because they play more on the Baseline right exactly okay
I know you told me that you're not happy with your forehand but I don't really see any
technical deficiencies on your forehand and when I'm rallying with you when I'm
observing you you make very little mistakes with the forehand the only
time you do spray it a little bit if you get like one of those High ones half court
maybe just because you haven't practiced them that much but from the Baseline you're very
consistent however I do see more mistakes on the two-handed backhand like you do have a lot
less spin on that side and you do miss long and in to the net more compared to your forehand I
always felt that like your finish is a little bit shallow here it's very dominant with the left side
so if you can try to equalize both sides and use the right side of the body a little bit more and
finish a little bit higher here let's try that and see what happens okay because you often when
you slow-mo your two-handed backhand this elbow is very close to the body very often which is okay if
you're playing a higher ball no problem but when the ball is like between the waist and somewhere
around your mid torso this is when where this backhand is sub-optimal because you don't get the same
amount of range of motion it would be beneficial to look to go a little bit more here and you might
be able to get a little bit more torso rotation as well so let's try that okay here's the crazy
thing though even though you hit it like that the ball still yeah catapults off the Racket and
I do think you have more power on your backhand compared to your forehand really don't think so
sometimes when I like the ball come maybe because it's more
so flatter than the forehand so this is the crazy thing that if you can make it a little
bit better it could be a really incredible weapon Yeah but I just wanted to ask you about my forehand. Go ahead
here go more out here and shortening up that's what I would like to work on So You Think
You go too far behind the body like this that part or no no you think it's too high
you can shorten that yeah you can play around what are the benefits of that shortening that because
um you know like yeah like obviously it's gonna take less time
because I don't know when I see the girls now like they're mostly like raducanus forehand
there's a lot of them now who play more let's call it like ATP style forehand it's more now
however there's still a lot of the old school forehands there too you know yeah so the thing
with your forehand is that I'm suspecting you can correct me if I'm wrong that nobody taught
you to go like this correct nobody said Emma I want you on the forehand to put your racket
back here this is something that happened by itself right so it's just a natural
thing that happened to your forehand based on your genetics and also nobody probably taught you to
go here either that high this is something that just kind of yeah this kind of developed on its own
so these are important factors to consider because that's what comes most natural to you because you
develop it completely on its own probably not even conscious of it okay now here's the big
question do you feel like you have timing issues on your forehand do you feel like the forehand is
compromised in any way because you have a little bit longer preparation sometimes you do feel that
sometimes in higher the purpose on higher deeper balls and even faster deeper okay how about your
forehand return do you think that's a weakness or do you think it's a strength your forehand return
is served but there I feel like I shortened up okay but see that's your that's your answer so
when you when you have a longer backswing it's not never really a an issue to shorten
it up when you need to you can do that you can definitely shorten your prep phase depending on
what type of ball you're getting okay now the big question is should you have a short
prep and let's say more ATP Style on all your forehands it doesn't hurt to try it out you
can see if it feels good to you and it's what happens to a lot of players is even though they
try really hard to change their style and let's say let's call it be ATP it's almost impossible to
change because when they play without thought the muscle memory kicks in the genetics kicks
in the instinct kicks in and the forehand comes naturally back to the old way yeah yeah so you
might be making some like cosmetic changes to your forehand where you might be changing the way the
racket goes back where you're more cognisant of that but then once the forehand accelerates fast
it goes right back to the old way yeah yeah so just know that that happens very often Okay so
like I said I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with your forehand there's some
situations where it's missing a little bit but generally it's very consistent I will say though
I did I do think that you have some potential for power still there there's some potential
for for more aggressive forehands for more body involvement and to to be able to unload
on the ball a little bit more see one thing with your forehand that I don't really see
is that you have a preparation where your upper body is down which is good I like that but
sometimes unfortunately you kind of remain in this position you don't really straighten violently
enough you don't have a lot of vertical lift and you don't get airborne that often on the forehand
you know so I would like you to that we maybe work on getting a little bit more lift and and
utilizing the body in that way okay okay but first let's check the backhand Emma I want you to take
it down the line okay and what I'd like you to focus on is getting the right elbow a little bit
higher on your finish take back and everything everything's the same you just go a little bit
higher there yeah just when you finish both elbows needs to be up okay come down the line there you
okay let's try one more thing go ahead and go in your setup go go right here go right here
go set up on your backhand can you try to turn your shoulders a little bit more like this like
turn your shoulder blade towards incoming ball so instead of going here try to turn a little
bit more like like a little bit extra turn more turn than you normally would so that when you
look at the ball you have your chin over your right shoulder you're looking like look like
this instead of this you go more like this you get a little bit more turn okay so you feel a
stretch in your shoulder blades so we load the body a little bit more aggressive as well okay
both ends you need to turn a little more so we get a little bit more rotation and then we need
to finish a little bit cleaner also your so used to like kind of staying down which is okay
when the ball is really low but when balls are a little bit higher on you don't be afraid to
like to just lift here lift you know you don't need to stay down you need to accommodate the
swing path the racket's going up have your body go up too again the caveat is like on
a low ball of course going to be tough to do that so on Low ball you stay low on anything else
it's okay for you to lift up I've just heard a lot in my career yeah get low stay low and
I feel like I'm just like and I'm pretty tall yeah you know and I feel like it's just so and I'm like
trying to stay alone and I'm scared to remember like this coach would always tell me like not to
go up because I'm popping up so then I'm like you know it's this habit that you have from it's not a
mistake to stay low on the in the in the correct circumstance let's say you play somebody who's
rifling balls that you feet super deep and flat you got to stay low yeah okay but what if you play
somebody that plays a little bit more Spin and the ball is higher why would you stay low there yeah
because you want to be taking the ball a little bit higher so it's counterintuitive to stay low
on those shots now remember that the like the super super high Elite level they're Airborne on
most of their shots right they're in the air yeah so they're not hot did they staying low right and
that applies to the women as well some like let's say like a Kerber or a raducanu when they play
very close to the Baseline and when they're taking balls very early they will be lower so again the
circumstance is important to understand it's not wrong to do that under the right circumstance yeah
you know what I'm saying but just like you'll feel it when it's when it's the right time to stay low
you'll feel it's very natural the ball comes hard and deep you're going to just go be like this you
know when the ball comes a little bit higher with time you go like bam right here this way
so I want you to when you go through your hitting next week I want you to kind of
think about this a little bit okay like set up stronger turn turn more finish a little
bit different and and don't be scared to like you don't always have to stay low
you know be accommodate the swing path Okay so another thing I noticed was that
your slice sometimes like when I give you like a little shank and you come in and you're slicing
I feel like the slice even though you might not use it that much maybe the technique can
be a little bit better so let me see a few slices here okay go down the line
more time one slice I would like you to start higher and finish a little
bit higher so when you take it when you take your racket back hold the racket
your hand at the level of your of your shoulder here your hand is like down here okay
okay so when you start higher and you go down on the ball you'll get more underspin okay at
the same time on this side you bring it a little bit higher okay so it should look like this look
you go you go here this here and then on this side like this so just when you set up just raise your
hand raise your hand up a little bit yeah and you can take it back you could don't have to
change anything regarding your take back come on get your hand up a little bit higher up up up up
come again Bend in the legs more you're bending with the upper body too much I want you to go a
little bit more here on the slice not so much here okay Bend more from the legs the slice is
lifting too much come on take it a little bit later that's better straighten the arm earlier
there's too much of this here here hold on here so you're going high hold the racket hold you
want you to straighten prior to the contact here don't go don't straighten in here straighten prior
and then go so the arm goes straight here like this watch me this come in here straighten and
then go like this you straighten a little bit early because you're like you're slicing like
this almost with the forearm okay so the you can start bent but straighten prior to the contact
Best Slice you hit so far do it again
best slice you hit so far come again come again
one more time come
okay one more go down the line
one more time Bend from your legs come on Bend from your legs and my legs like legs
okay I feel like when I do it then when I don't you know when I
like when I start showing up sooner because like you said I would just do it here listen
I know that you do on slice but think of all the scenarios where you slicing because
you have to yeah so that's you have to possess all the all the all the shots you have to have
a full repertoire even though you might not use a shot that much okay good first session
yeah next time I see you we're gonna do forehand and serve okay okay all right