Santa Shunilina: a rising star
Last week I was very fortunate to have a few training sessions with 15 year old Santa Shumilina from
The fresh under 16’s champion of
Santa has very good hands combined with simple and efficient technique. We had some beautiful rallies with over 50 hits at maximum speed.
She has the precious ability to take the ball early combined with a great physical resistance that enables her to be very consistent.
She also had a very sound technique on the volleys.
This girl has got a lot of qualities and she is on her way up to the top of the WTA rankings. She has one big thing to work on in order to get there fast: her serve.
As we saw with Maria Sharapova in
The main problem she has on her serve is that she is trying to force it instead of focusing on rhythm and flexibility.
On her serves she has to check two things: her wrist has to be loose and her body has to be nicely balanced on her left foot.
As you can see on the picture of Tim Henman’s serve, Santa has to learn to snap her wrist. A loose wrist and good balance on the serve gives precision, speed, spin and power.
I would advise Santa to go out to the practice courts and hit a lot of serves thinking about being relaxed and focusing on precision. In a year from now, she should be able to hit topspin, slice and flat serves with the same ball toss so that the opponent cannot guess what is coming at her. This will help her win a lot of free points which is extremely precious when you are on your way up and facing new situations.
Good luck to you Santa!!
Santa Shumilina: a rising star
Kamil Patel
Managing Director
Kamil Sports Management Ltd.
Tel: +230 7289343
www.advantage.mu
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