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“Every player (especially young player’s) should read”

Dear Tennis Player,

Congratulations on picking the greatest individual sport you can play. 

You are going to have an amazing journey as you learn about this great game, but more importantly about yourself and those around you.

Tennis and training for tennis can teach you some valuable life lessons if you let it......

I wanted to give you some advice as you endeavor to be the best version of yourself. This comes from a place of experience and honesty, maybe these are things you need to hear.

I promise you, you will encounter these situations and feelings, so read on and take on the following 8 things (you may not want to hear the truth, but I can guarantee it can help change the way you think)

1. Losing– You are going to lose a lot of matches. That is the reality. Prepare for it and learn what you can from each loss. This is what we call turning a negative into a positive. Do not fall into the trap...

We all see so much of what people do physically in their tennis training. I still find it surprising, when I tell somebody I do tennis mental training people often laugh and say something like 

“You are nuts” or "I don't believe in that stuff"

I always encourage people to try it, before they judge it.

Have you ever done a mental training session? “Why would you do that?”

In short, so you can play your best more often despite tough feelings and pressure. So you have strong routines, strong positive body language, have better tennis conditioning, are more aware of your thoughts and have the capacity to let go quickly, so you can select the right options and have a clear mind.

So, how do you practice mental training? You can start with the following exercises. Do 2-3 minutes of each one every day, the whole routine should only take 10 minutes, it is often best at night when your mind is more receptive (You can set a reminder alarm in your phone to prompt...

Tips to Improve Training Intensity – Are you getting this right?

This blog is for the serious player or coach that wants to produce high level players. 

The intensity that an athlete trains at dictates the level they will condition their bodies to play at. Simply put, if you train at a 6 out of 10, how can you expect your body to perform at an 8, 9, or 10 out of 10.

This simple principle is one of our key “Court Movement Principles”. In all reality it does not matter what drill or tennis exercise you do, if you do not have the capacity to train at a high intensity your improvements and results will be limited.

How can I get my player to improve their intensity?
This is the most common question we get asked each week.

Having seen many top athletes train, practice and play. One thing stands out. When they are tennis training off court, they push harder than they would on court, in a match.
Lleyton Hewitt, Sam Stosur and Martina Navratilova come to mind...

If you have been a coach or trainer for a while, you would have heard this question a few times “So do they have a chance of making it”. It is always a tough question to answer.

We believe tennis is definitely the most challenging and complexed sport globally to reach the top in. So many factors to consider! However, I believe there is one factor that stands alone and gives me a good indication on whether a player has the desire to “Make it”

If a player does not have the willingness to do “whatever it takes” they are a zero chance.

I honestly believe that.

Any high-level sports person somewhere along their journey has gone to places few others will, pushing themselves, sacrificing time – money – relationships and never giving up.

Some stay there for years and succeed more than others. 

I want to tell you a story about a young kid. It will give you, a sense of what I believe as a tennis trainer, coach, and parent we should be...

In the year 2000, I was lucky enough to get the job as Physical director at the Sanchez Casal Tennis Academy in Barcelona, Spain. It was a huge responsibility for me at the time as I was young for the role, in such a world renown premier club.

It started me on a journey that has led to many many highlights in my life. But I am not here to talk about myself! I am here to talk about building relationships.

How when you communicate effectively, have mutual respect and care for each other, friendships are forged, results come and as you will see opportunities arise.

As a parent, coach or player, if you are not focused on these areas, there will be plenty of dead end relationships and no one wants to waste time and energy right?

I want to tell you about an experience I had with a player I worked with starting back in 2000.

Carlos Cuadrado was a young Spanish prodigy when I laid eyes on him, he was already labelled a top 10 player at the age of 16. He was on the rise and it was my job to...

There’s a heap on confusion in and around sport specific training this day in age….. How do we know what's right for us and our sport specific needs, when we are bombarded with information everywhere we look. 

Social media, fitspo influencers and the so called ‘gurus’ can all lead us down the path of no return and away from the tennis result's we seek. 

I myself have been guilty of heading down this road from time to time, and while yes it's definitely fun watching someone standing on a Swiss Ball Juggling Dumbbells, there's a few questions I should be asking myself…. 

Who is the exercise for?

What is this exercise supposed to do?

Is there transfer? Transfer to a specific sport, movement or just to make our reflection in the mirror slightly more flattering?   

These three import questions are what I like to call the ‘WHY’…..

Why is it important to ask these 3 question's you ask? Simple because its vital we...

Can you imagine something as silly as doing the same thing all the time and expecting the result to be different! Silly silly silly…..

I have found myself doing this in the past with my training, strapped for time I would go to what I’d always done, what I was comfortable doing, did it work? Yeah sort of, could have I done better? Heck yeah!

I’ve long regarded having a “Periodised Tennis Training Plan” just as important as the actual tennis exercises within the plan. Here is some information on why I think that way.

Our bodies have extremely complexed components and systems. We are also highly adaptable. Which means if we are exposed to a stimulus, resistance or repetition our bodies over time will adapt as needed to perform what needs to be done, get it?

Whether it is the neuromuscular system, nervous system, cardiovascular system or a combination of them, the body is highly adaptable!

The body is also highly prone to burnout, over-use injuries,...

Most, if not every tennis player will develop some form of tennis training injury during their careers. Some injuries cannot be prevented, but you will be surprised how many of the below injuries you can be prevented from doing one thing.

We will tell you more about that later on.

Most common injuries in tennis we see on a daily basis are, often the overuse injuries.

Overuse injuries often develop slowly and can start out as a mild discomfort that gradually increases and becomes painful. Some common overuse injuries are:

1. Tennis Elbow – A very common cause of elbow pain due to the chronic irritation of the tendons on the outside of the elbow.

2. Wrist Tendonitis – Caused by irritation and inflammation around the wrist joint. Usually, this will occur from a number of reasons from equipment (new racket, heavy / wet tennis balls, court surface), bad technique, or mainly overuse. This can be prevented with some simple yet effective good strengthening tennis exercises...

Having yourself physically and mentally ready can be just the start of a good preparation for practice, a match or tournament season.

Read on to find out how to get athletes ready to go........

We've helped 100s of players prepare for tennis matches, junior tournaments through to grand slams. In our opinion, the preparation should be no different for a junior to a pro athlete.

Learning to get things right at a young age is very important and creating the habits of being organised, punctual and responsible will have long-term positive results for anyone.

The other day I had a young player I train tell me they felt dizzy, I asked him when he ate last he said, 1.15pm, and it was 5.30pm. His blood sugar levels were obviously low, I said to him you need to eat at least 1.5hrs before coming to training, he turned and looked at his mum and said, "mum you need to remember that!" His mum said ok, so what should he eat before coming.

I said wait a moment, his 14, fit and able, he can prepare...

Whether it be tennis, fitness, football or any other sports we all remember those hard tennis coaches that worked us to the bone. Everyone that is 30 or older, will have stories to tell about some of the hard and intense tennis fitness training we were put through in our youth.

By today's standards it could even be classified as a little brutal, but we talk to the kids we train about how different it was back in our day and how tough and challenging the kids tennis training was.

Fast forward to today and those hard tennis fitness training days are hardly recognizable.

I remember a drill that a coach used to put us through growing up. He used to stand at the net with his basket of balls and have us stand on the service line at the other end with our rackets up looking to defend for our lives.

What would soon follow was ten tenaciously struck balls hit at us with the purpose of teaching you to hold your ground and defend yourself at the net, the coach felt he was the victor if he...