Confused for a few seconds, Aki tilted her head to think, before suddenly slightly blushing after she notices what she is doing.
What she doesn't notice is that she is much more open to people she plays against since that is the way they communicate in this household.
"Well since you now know you can do it, then let's just continue with this till you get used to it."
Not knowing why she can suddenly do this Aki just stop thinking about it and replied with a nod.
...
Chapter 9
They continued to talk till their break time is over with Uchika bringing the things they need for their next practice.
"Aki go and do your usual routine while I help Soji with his control."
Getting up, Aki goes to one of the rooms to do some training.
Curious by it, Soji decided to ask. "Um coach what is Aki gonna do in that room?"
" Just some wall training also I will also make you go in there after we finish here."
Uchika places a basket full of tennis balls near the net.
Pointing the racket she is holding at Soji she said. "Since you are so afraid of your shot going outside and I also notice you mostly use flat shots, I will have you train your forehand topspin."
"First I will instruct you on how to do it correctly since when you do it, it is not consistent."
Soji wanted to ask what is the point of this but, he keeps it in himself and just follows Uchika's directions.
"First I want you to hit the ball in the front instead of near the body like your flats so that you have a natural rising racket motion going upwards."
She tossed a ball to Soji, not use to hitting it early he hit it at the bottom making it go long and hit the wall on his left side.
"Okay try to change your wrist movement from a swatting motion to wiping or turning a doorknob motion."
She again tosses a ball to him, taking her advice Soji tried his best to do it.
He hits it as instructed but it still goes outside the line.
"That's nice," Uchika said while nodding.
"Now try to tilt the racket like this." She said while showing her hands, tilting it with her thumb going forward.
He tried to slowly turn it till Uchika stop him.
"Stop, do a few practice swings while keeping that angle and wrist motion in mind."
Doing a few reps maybe 20 or more he stops and looks at her.
"Since you have tried it now, can you feel where your ideal contact point is?"
"Yes," Soji answered.
"Okay then let's start."
Uchika tosses the balls where Soji can hit it easily using his newly acquired skill.
Hitting lots of balls, he became slightly comfortable hitting forehand topspin.
Knowing that Uchika stops.
"I will now use this racket to hit it in different directions with different speed and bounce. Try to hit them easily for you by trying different stances."
"Okay first try this." She proceeds to hit the ball to his right side of the court.
"Go back to the center and let us try this again with a different stance."
So they go through 3 baskets of a tennis ball, with Uchika hitting it on places with varying spins and speed.
But before they move on different places Uchika makes the same shot in the same place 10 times with the first half have a high bounce while the latter half has short bounce.
"It's almost lunchtime so we will now have a break."
Uchika walks toward the room where Aki enters to tell her to take a break and get ready for lunch.
Getting back to Soji Uchika says. "Well before we go to eat lunch how about we clean this mess first."
Seeing the mess of scattered balls he nods in agreement.