Thursday 24th May 2012

With just two days to go until the second men’s $10k event here in Mersin we started to taper down the volume of training while maintaining the match intensity and focus so that we’re 100% prepared for the qualifying on Saturday.

To guarantee a full practice court to play sets on we once again had to be up early before all of the other players arrived which meant breakfast when it opened at 6.30am. Dave then went through his normal physical warm up from 7.30am until 8am when we went on court with Jamie. Like yesterday the intensity of the training was very high from the start and after a 20 minute warm up Dave and Jamie decided to go straight into playing a couple of sets.

Dave started very well and took a 4-1 lead while only making 1 unforced error but the momentum shifted at that stage as Jamie played a good game to break and then he held well to make it *4-3. Dave responded well and held serve but Jamie was now finding a better level and he won the next 2 games in a row to level the set at 5-5. When Dave was 4-1 up the stats read: Unforced Errors: 1 vs 13, Winners: 3 vs 5. By 5-5 they had completely shifted the other way: Unforced Errors: 11 vs 14, Winners: 7 vs 13. Jamie continued his aggressive play while hardly missing to take the next two games and the first set 7-5. The quality of play had been very high and both players had to really work hard to earn every point.

The second set was a little more one-sided as Jamie continued to improve his level while Dave’s dropped off slightly. Dave broke in the first game of the set and then he broke again at 1-3* but Jamie played very well in the other 6 games of the set to take it 6-2. Despite losing both sets Dave continued to improve the areas of his game that we’ve been working hard on all week so by the end of the session at 10am we were both very pleased with how it had gone.

Once again it was straight off the court and into the gym (much to the annoyance of the gym staff who made all of us wear covers on our shoes so we didn’t drop any clay on the floor!). As the volume of Dave’s tennis training tapers down to his match day so does the volume of his strength and conditioning programme and today he was faced with a core programme which lasted around 50 minutes. Even though the volume has decreased it was still a tough session but, as the lower back / abdominals of any tennis player are one of the most important areas of the body to keep injury free, it’s very important that we always maintain its strength and flexibility.

After another good lunch at the club we watched some of the matches before relaxing for the afternoon. Dave had a massage at the hotel to help his recovery and reduce any tightness that has been building up while training on the clay while I caught up on some scheduling for the next few months.

After dinner we had a couple of games of bowling where I managed to finally get the ball turning a little and then we had a set of pool before we returned to the hotel.

Tomorrow is our last day of preparation so we intent to put the finishing touches to a very good training week.

Wednesday 23rd May 2012

Today’s been another great training day and our last heavy day before we start tapering down tomorrow before the qualifying of the next event starts on Saturday.

Like yesterday we were up early and at breakfast by 6.30am so that we could warm up and be ready to play by 8am. This morning we were joined by fellow Brit Jamie Feaver and Dave and I both knew that it was going to be a good session as Jamie is not only a good player but he’s also one of the hardest working and most professional players I know.

Dave and Jamie had a very high quality drilling session for the first hour before the second hour was spent playing out a set. Dave worked very hard throughout the session and even though the intensity of the first hour took a lot out of him he still put in a good performance in the set but one break of serve in the first game and the last game of the set resulted in Dave going down 6-3.

After two hours on court we went back to the hotel to relax before going back to the club at midday to get some lunch and watch some of the main draw matches. At 3.30pm we were back on court for our second session of the day but this time it was more about a few specific areas of Dave’s game rather than point play. We continued with the work we’d been doing all week on the development of Dave’s net game and after working on it for a solid hour we came off court at 4.30pm and went straight into the gym for his strength and conditioning session. Today it was a weights session which lasted about 45 minutes and involved both upper and lower body exercises in the same ‘super-set’ format as Dave did on Monday.

By 5.30pm we were still not done and it was outside to the swimming pool so that Dave could go through a recovery session in the water. He was only scheduled to do 2 sets of 5 different exercises but it was the first time Dave had gone through this programme and as he was really feeling the benefits of it with each exercise he did he actually ended up doing 6 sets!

Tuesday 22nd May 2012

It was another really good day’s training today in Mersin as the main draw started but a strange decision from the referee meant that practice time for everyone was very limited.

When we checked the practice schedule yesterday we noticed that the referee had decided to use courts 1, 3 and 4 for the matches which meant the only court available for practise throughout the day was court 6 (as you can’t practise next to the match courts). The main draw players always have priority for practice and, as there was singles and doubles today, court 6 was fully booked for the whole day which meant we needed to get all of our training in before the matches started. That meant that Dave and I were up early for breakfast at 6.30am and then we were at the club by 7.30am to warm up for an 8am start.

We had scheduled a practice session this morning with Artur Completo who some of you might remember from the Kenyan and Nottingham ITFs last year. Artur is the same age as Dave and last year increased his U18 ITF ranking to 140 – when we first met in Kenya last February he was unranked so he’s done very well in the last 12 months. After a 20 minute warm up we decided to play two sets and make them as much like match play as possible. Dave started a little slowly and Artur made the most of his chances to take a 3-0 lead before Dave fought hard and played some of the best tennis I’ve seen from him to win the next 6 games in a row to take the set 6-3. The standard of tennis was very high throughout the first set so it was then a challenge for Dave to see if he could maintain that level during the second set.

Artur again started well and took a 2-0 lead but Dave was mentally very good and kept working on his game which resulted in him winning the next 3 games in a row to lead 3-2. The set then went with serve until Dave broke at 4-3* and then held to take the second set 6-3. Overall it was 2 of the best sets I’ve seen from Dave; mentally he was very good and tactically he was always switched on not only to what his opponent was doing but also to what areas in his own game he wanted to develop throughout in each game.

After signing in as a Lucky Loser for the singles (always worth a go even though Dave lost early in qualifying) and as an Alternate for the doubles we returned to the hotel and went straight into the gym. Today’s session was ‘circuits’ and the work / rest ratio was 15 seconds on / 15 seconds off which doesn’t give you a lot of time to recover from the previous exercise before you’re going again on the next one.

After 2 sets of 4 circuits the session was completed and after showering and changing we were back to the club for some well earned lunch.

We spent a lot of the afternoon watching the main draw matches which included fellow Brit Jamie Feaver who lost a tight match to the same guy that beat Dave in qualifying and Sam Barry from Ireland who played a superb first set but eventually went down in three sets to former world number 5 junior Robin Kern.

At 5pm we went back into the gym to go through a 20 minute recovery session on the bike and then Dave did a thorough stretch out to finish the day.

It’s been our standard evening’s entertainment to venture next door to the bowling alley to either play Pool, darts or go bowling and this evening was no different. Despite beating Dave at Pool during the week I’d been struggling at the bowling and tonight was no different as Dave was on fire producing an unbelievable 205 in the first game!

After that I decided to take on the advice of the pro bowlers who were training on the lanes next to us and they were happy to give both of us a bit of a lesson on how to bowl properly! After about 20 minutes of intense practise I finally managed to get the ball to turn like the pros but I think it’s going to take a bit more practise before I’m scoring 300!

Monday 21st May 2012

It’s been a good training day today; we’ve managed 2 on court sessions totalling over three hours plus we both did a one hour strength and conditioning session and then we finished the day with a cool down and injury prevention work. I think I’m going to be feeling it in the morning though!

I’m not sure Dave is an early riser but he was up and at breakfast at 6.45am this morning before we headed the short 300 metre walk to the tennis club at 8am to warm up. We’d not arranged anyone to train with Dave this morning as we wanted to do a lot of work of his volleys in preparation for the doubles – unfortunately they didn’t get in as their priority was one of the lowest but it was still great practise for Dave as he looks to expand the variety in his game. It was a tough session and the legs took a bit of a pounding as so much was based around getting low and moving forwards onto the volley but Dave got a lot out of it. By 10am the players who were competing today started to arrive so we had to make way for them.

There was no resting for us though as we walked straight back to the hotel and down into the gym for a weights session. Dave had some tough super-set exercises whereby he would do two sets of dynamic exercises (e.g. pull ups) either side of a weighed exercise (e.g. lat pull downs) and then during his 1 minute 30 seconds rest he’d also have band work to do. He had 4 sets to do like that and then had another 4 sets of 2 different super-set exercises to do afterwards – it was a hard session but one of the biggest areas players neglect when on the road is strength and conditioning. Players tend to just concentrate on the tennis side of things but once you’re out of the singles event you should be getting back in the gym to make sure the hard work you’re doing during your training blocks is not deteriorating too much when you move into a competition block. It’s all about educating the players and getting them to buy into how important physical conditioning is – if they start doing it at a young age they’ll continue when they get older.

After the session we had a good lunch at the club while watching the last round of qualifying matches before having another few games of Pool and then relaxing at the hotel.

At 3.30pm Dave was warming up again for a point play session with Canadian Antoine Richard who had also lost in qualifying yesterday. Luckily they managed to get a full court to themselves for almost an hour and a half so they were able to get two good sets in which is exactly what we want to do each day this week to get Dave to the best possible level before next weekend. After the session we were back in the gym to cool down, stretch out and go through Dave’s injury prevention work before finishing a solid day’s training.

When we played Pool at lunchtime I managed to take the 4th set so as soon as we’d finished dinner we were back at the bowling alley to finish off our match!! After the best set we’d both played I managed to sneak the win to take the match 2-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 – a very proud moment for me 🙂

It’s going to be an even earlier start in the morning as we’re playing sets at 8am with Artur Completo so it’ll be a 6.30am breakfast followed by a 7.30am warm up – time for an early night then!!

Sunday 20th May 2012

Despite Chelsea being the underdogs in the Champions League final they were able to overcome their Germany opponents but unfortunately Dave wasn’t able to do the same today as he lost against German 3rd seed Daniel Uhlig.

It was quite a relaxed start to the day today; Dave wasn’t due on court for his match until 11am so we met for breakfast at 8am and then made our way over to the club to warm up at 9.30am. Dave still wasn’t feeling 100% but he had a good 30 minute hit with one of the other qualifying players and when he came off court at 10.30am he was feeling good and looking forward to his match. During the next 30 minutes Dave changed, made up his drinks for his match and made sure everything was as it should be before his match. We then had a good pre-match chat where we talked a lot about the way Dave had been training all week and the most effective parts of his game before we went through the specific goals that we were looking to achieve during the match.

At 11am the digital temperature gauge next to the courts was reading 27°C and it was time to get going. Like Dave, his opponent had a Bye in the first round so we hadn’t had a chance to watch him play, it was therefore very important that Dave worked out his gamestyle during the warm up and the first couple of games of the match. Unfortunately Daniel Uhlig started very well going 4-0 up by playing very aggressive and consistent tennis from the back of the court. Dave had to make some changes to how he was constructing the points as his opponent was too strong from the baseline and as he started moving forwards more he started to earn more points. Dave held serve at *0-4 and then played a good game to break but Uhlig increased his level again to take the next two games and the first set 6-2.

Dave was playing some good clay court tennis but his older opponent was obviously much more experienced and more at home on the surface. Uhlig continued his high level of play throughout the second set; he went on to take the set 6-1 and in doing so hit 13 winners to only 2 unforced errors. Dave was disappointed with the loss but he was pleased with his performance and knows that if he can continue to develop his clay court game over the next week he’s got a great chance of qualifying next weekend.

After the match we went into the gym to cool down and stretch out before getting some food and going through the specific details from the match. The plan for the rest of the week is now to try and get into the doubles but also play as many practise sets as possible against the other main draw players in preparation for qualifying for the next event on Saturday.

For the rest of the afternoon we had a walk along the sea front and then had a walk around the local shopping centre before returning to the hotel for dinner. After dinner we had a quick game of bowling (which I lost again but am getting closer!) before continuing our best of 5 sets Pool game – as it stands at the moment I’m 2 sets to 1 down but 4-0 up in the 4th set – looks like it’s going to be a big deciding 5th set!

Due to Dave being out of the qualifying, plus the fact that there are only 6 courts at the club means that we’re going to have to train around the peak times so that we’re able to get a full court to play some sets. That means that tomorrow we’re going to be on court bright and early at 8.30am and then again at 4pm with a gym session in the middle. I hope Dave likes early mornings!!

Saturday 19th May 2012

It’s been a fantastic day today; on the court Dave maintained the high level of training that he’s been producing all week and off the court Chelsea won the Champions League!!

Due to Dave not feeling 100% we decided to just do one session today so that he can save his energy for his qualifying match tomorrow. After a good sleep we met for breakfast at 9.30am and I have to say that the selection they have is the best I’ve ever seen in any hotel. Dave was also in his element and unlike me he doesn’t have to watch the volume of food he’s consuming as he’s burning most of it off each day!

After breakfast Dave still wasn’t feeling too good so we decided to pass on the speed work we had planned and just go straight into the normal warm up at 11.30am. He then hit with Gerard Junyent from Spain for just over an hour which included around 30 minutes of warming up and drilling and then points for the remaining of the session. Dave quickly found the level that he’d been training at all week and then maintained it throughout the games to end the session ready to compete tomorrow. I’ve said in previous Blogs that it’s not the volume of training that’s important when it comes close to the match day but it’s how the player feels about they way they are playing and moving that counts. Some players take an hour or even two hours before they feel as though every shot is how it should be, others can hit the shot once or twice and feel as though it’s at the level they need for their match. It’s very personal and as such it can only be determined by the player – the coach will have their input but it always comes down to how the player feels and what the player wants to do before they compete.

At 1.30pm we returned to the hotel to cool down and stretch out in the gym and then had a good lunch before chilling out for the rest of the afternoon. When it comes to “down time” I like to watch a bit of TV, go on the internet and mainly catch up with any work I need to do. Dave is very similar and after our recent tournament in Bournemouth I’ve got him back into watching “The Inbetweeners” so he’s spending most of his time off watching that and then telling me all about it at dinner!

We ate dinner this evening at the hotel where they had a great Pasta Buffet which included a pasta bar where the chef made Linguine from scratch and then added whatever sauce / ingredients you wanted. I wanted to get a picture to show you but I was too busy eating all of the amazing Italian food!

After dinner we had a few games of Pool (I’m now 5-3 down in the third!) before we settled in to watch Chelsea take on Bayern Munich in the Champions League Final. Dave did his best to keep me calm during the first half before he headed off to bed but I was there until the end; just me and a 5 metre projection screen in the middle of the hotel bar. Nerves were very much jangling at the end but what a match and what a way for Chelsea to secure their very first Champions League title!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(3) Daniel Uhlig (GER) (1078) vs Dave Hodgetts (GBR) (UNR) – 1st match at 11am

Friday 18th May 2012

We had planned on today being Dave’s final day of preparation ahead of the start of the qualifying tomorrow but a Bye in the first round has meant that he will now play his first match on Sunday.

We’ve had two very good training days on Wednesday and Thursday this week so we’d decided to taper down today with just one on court session and some speed training to make sure that Dave was fully recovered and very sharp for his 1st round match. We had a later than normal start today as we had to pack up all of our bag to move to the official hotel next door to the club so we warmed up at 10am and then went through 30 minutes of speed training from 10.30am until 11am. At this stage the temperatures on court had already hit 29 degrees and it was looking like it was going to be another very hot day.

At 11am we went on court with Can Altiner from Turkey and the plan for the session was to warm up for 15 / 20 minutes and then go straight into playing one set to recreate the conditions for tomorrow. As both players were fresh from the start the quality of the tennis was very good but it was Dave who was playing more aggressive and more consistent and he went on to take the set 6-2. We were both very happy with the level especially Dave’s serve and weight of shot from the back of the court which we have worked hard on all week. All in all it was a superb way to end our preparation for this week’s event and we were very much looking forward to him competing tomorrow.

After the session Dave cooled down and then we had some lunch at the club before moving our bags over to the hotel to check in and relax for the afternoon.

At 7pm we had dinner in the hotel and then we went back over to the club to check out the draw. We were a little disappointed that Dave didn’t have a match tomorrow but it does mean that we can have another day of making sure everything is as it should be before he takes on the qualifying 3rd seed on Sunday.

We then had a few quick games of Pool in which I managed to take the 2nd set 6-2 to level the match before we headed back to the hotel for an early night.

Thursday 17th May 2012

It was another great training day today as we got through two tough on court sessions as well as a core session in temperatures pushing past 30 degrees.

After getting used to the conditions yesterday and recovering from the long travelling day on Tuesday we wanted to make sure we put in a full training day on court today to prepare well for qualifying on Saturday. We met for breakfast at 8am this morning and then were courtside by 9.30am warming up for a 10am start. During the morning session we spent a lot of time working on Dave’s 1st and 2nd serve to make sure they were not only up to the consistency that he needs for his match but also that the serve is as effective as it needs to be. That means that his 1st serve needs to be harder and more accurate than it was in Israel so that it doesn’t enter into his opponents hitting zone and his 2nd serve needs to be more effective by getting up and away from his opponent to ensure it doesn’t get attacked. The majority of the rest of the session was focussed around effectiveness of Dave’s groundstrokes and his sharpness at the net when he moves in to finish the point. By 11.45pm we were both thoroughly exhausted (!!) but more importantly we were both extremely happy with the level of training Dave had put in.

We then had a good lunch at the club and relaxed for an hour before it was time to warm up again to prepare for the afternoon session at 2pm. Dale joined us again on court which gave Dave a chance to play some practise sets which the type of player who he’s going to meet in the qualifying draw on Saturday. Dave started a little slowly in the set but after a quick chat he raised his level and probably found the best mental application I’ve ever seen from him. He won the first set 6-1 but more impressively he maintained every aspect of the first set level throughout the second set to also take that set 6-1 too. By 3pm the temperature on court had risen to 32 degrees and even though we’re right next to the coast there wasn’t a single breath of wind which made conditions pretty tough.

After the session Dave went straight into his scheduled core exercises for the day and then when he had finished we went though his stretching programme to end a great days training. It was then off to the supermarket to stock up on some food before returning to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

We decided to walk to dinner this evening to check out the local harbour and the sea front and it was a shame I don’t like fish as the quality of the meals on some of the floating restaurants looked amazing. Saying that I was quite happy with my “Penne Arabiatta with chicken” and Dave was more than happy with his “eat as much as you want” buffet!!

Now after getting a bit of a pasting at Pool yesterday I was up for a bit of revenge but Dave through a curve ball in there by suggesting we go bowling. I was definitely up for that but performed horrendously in both games scoring around 154 in the first to Dave’s 176 and then in the second game Dave had a shocker but I couldn’t find a single strike or spare when I needed one and I lost that as well even though both of us scored under 100! I did manage a bit of revenge on the Pool table though; after losing the first set 6-1 I should have taken a 3-0 lead in the second but it currently stands at 3-2 to me with it all to play for tomorrow night. This could end up being an Isner vs Mahut marathon!!

Wednesday 16th May 2012

After a tough journey from Tel Aviv yesterday we had our first day in Mersin today and despite our expectations being quite low due to Dave being very tired we actually had a very positive and productive day.

Even though we didn’t get into the hotel until 12.30am this morning we had to be up to have breakfast before it closed at 10am so we decided to meet at 9.45am. We were both pretty tired and the Turkish buffet breakfast wasn’t quite our cup of tea so it was just down to seeing how many bowls of Corn Flakes and warm milk we could handle!

After getting everything ready we visited the local supermarket to stock up on water before getting a taxi to the tennis club. We’re currently staying at the 2nd official hotel but hope to move to the 1st hotel on the list by the weekend as it is directly next door to the tennis centre and it also has a very good gym. We arrived at the club just before midday and were greeted by the tournament director who went out of his way to help us out today. Some clubs can be a little funny if you turn up more than a day before the tournament starts and they often charge you to use the courts but they were very accommodating today and even took our bookings for the rest of the week!

After a long physical warm up Dave went on court with Dale Sutherland from Australia who is also preparing for qualifying this weekend. We had a really good hour and a half training session in quite hot conditions which was perfect to get over the long journey yesterday and to get a good feel for the red clay courts. Immediately after the session we decided to go through Dave’s speed and agility training which is part of his conditioning programme. The session only actually involved 3 sets of 10 different sprints but it took over half an hour to complete due to the work / rest ratio needed when doing speed training. By 2.15pm we were both pretty exhausted and in need to a good lunch – after being spoilt by an amazing restaurant at the club last week this one had a lot to live up to but I think it might have actually equalled it (no Focaccia bread though to Dave’s disappointment!!).

Following lunch we went back to the hotel to relax for the afternoon, we had planned on going for a walk on the sea front and along to the local harbour but the heavens opened and it rained for most of the day so that plan went out the window.

We decided to have dinner at the other hotel this evening and I think it was definitely the right choice. Not only did we have a nice view of the Mediterranean Sea but there was also a huge buffet to choose from. After dinner we went next door to the bowling alley where I managed to sneak a win at the darts but Dave firmly put me in my place by taking a 5-1 lead in the Pool – watch this space though, I’ll be fighting back tomorrow!