Fred 17 - Fred 1st Nov 2009 (6 years 7 months)

[Derrick91231]

had a nice beat going on at 1:10

[FlOrin6660]

Good look nice!!!

[john27003]

nice bad for a kid.

[jnboult]

Hi JKC,

Good mix of hard and soft on FH. Great consistency on both wings. Backhand looks a bit low to high to hit through hard though.

I recon he could improve his FH serve fast/quickly just by standing rotated much more away from the table (like ~90 deg more) to create more space for the sidespin movements.

His BH serve has solid grounding. I love the hight he is throwing it. Lefty with high toss BH serves not many of them for opponents to practice against!

Good boy!

Thunder

[jamfreddie]

This was last month TB, he's way better than this now! He continues to amaze me.

I will try to get him a bit more sideways for serving, but it isn't really an area we have concentrated on as he isn't competing yet. He has just invented a new one using he BH side which spins the other way.

I think it might be quite difficult/uncomfortable for him to get right over his BH topspin at the moment because of his height, I'll have a good look at it today and see what is possible.

[THEBLOCTT]

he's a LEFTY!!

[jamfreddie]

Not much gets past you THEBLOCTT.

A few utensils and crayons passed into his left hand here and there and it's amazing what you can do. (Just joking of course - or am I?)

[soter5]

It is pleasant to see excellent result! The perspective sportsman!

[jamfreddie]

And what about young Ilya? Does he keep improving?

[Socialdogma]

Dad, at what age do you think he's going to be able to beat you? ;)

[jamfreddie]

If he continues playing, I think he will beat me occasionally by the time he is 9. He will beat me every time by the time he is 11.

[Socialdogma]

I hope he continues playing and you post his progress. Is there anyone his age that is at his level? I was like him in golf at that age but hated playing because it wasn't fun to play against kids my age because they weren't anywhere near as good.

[jamfreddie]

There will be a few around the world no doubt. In China, there may be hundreds of a similar standard (maybe one or two in every larger town?). They have a system and a culture that makes it very difficult for the rest of the world to compete when it comes to training youngsters. I don't think that Fred is doing anything that is really better than elsewhere or which will necessarily lead him to the top of the game, but it is interesting to watch his progress every couple of months or so.

[Nutriment6464]

wow, keep up the good work, he's going to be awesome (he already is haha)

[sam72998]

better then me