International Travelling Coach Previous Blogs

Mombasa to Nairobi by Air

Friday 11th February 2011

It was a bit of a hectic start to the day today, I couldn’t book our flights online as it was within 15 hours of travel so I had to get over to the travel agent at 8am to try and book some flights. The flight that I wanted to get in the early afternoon was a little expensive so I decided to go for the 11.10am which meant we’d have to leave the hotel by 9am – I was really hoping the girls were up and packed! Luckily they were and when I got back to the hotel at 8.40am they were having breakfast and all set to go.

Just before we left I wanted to go and find one of the street boys that we’ve been chatting to all week to give him something. We heard from one of the security guards at the club (who had seen him walking with us) that he got rushed to hospital yesterday as he was ill but fortunately he was ok and when we saw him yesterday evening I went into the supermarket and bought him some food and water (I think he wanted the money more but at least he had some good food!). I found him this morning outside the supermarket and gave him Beth’s broken racket. He was so happy and had such a genuine smile on his face. As I walked away I turned and saw him swinging the racket around in front of a friend having a laugh – something that we all take for granted has hopefully made his day. When I got back to the hotel and told the girls Devan raced straight back to them and gave the other boy her tennis shoes and said they were both over the moon with their new presents!

The flight to Nairobi was smooth and the highlight was definitely seeing the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro through the clouds:

The peak of Mount Kilimanjaro through the clouds

We got to The Nairobi Club around 2.30pm and this will be our tournament site as well as our hotel for the next week. It’s an amazing club built in 1901 and has Winston Churchill listed as a “Member’s Guest” in 1905. Unfortunately the courts look as though they haven’t been relayed since 1901 and they are kind of a mix of clay, soil and stones! As we arrived they were laying the lines of the court with the same machine that they paint the lines on the grass at Wimbledon. Some might not see a problem with that but when the clay moves or you slide across the line it gets rubbed out!! Could be some interesting line calls this week.

The Courts at The Nairobi Club

We trained for 1 hour and 45 minutes just to try and get the travelling out of our system and to get used to the courts as well as the altitude. It was eventful and we had a rule at the start of the session that the first one to fall over bought the drinks at dinner . . . that would be Beth then:

Unforced Error!

Devan was moved up into the main draw as the Special Exempts weren’t used so she now plays on Monday but Alicia Barnett, who won the doubles this morning in Mombasa, had to make sign in and now plays in qualies tomorrow.

We ended a tough day by having a great dinner on the veranda of the club cooked in front of us by the Head Chef:

Mombasa U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 8 – Singles 1/4 Final and Doubles Semi-Final

 Thursday 10th February 2011 

Tough day at the office today as the Team took 2 loses and didn’t perform as well as they have been all week. It was a real shame as this is the business end of the week and places in semi’s and finals were up for grabs.   

Matches started at 10am today so we warmed up from 8.40-9am, hit from 9 – 9.30am and then went through Dev’s pre-match talk before she took to the court. Her pre-match hit had been really good but when the match started she really struggled to get into a rhythm and tactically found it hard to move the girl off of the court enough before attacking the space. The Madagascan girl was tough, very solid and worked extremely hard during the rally and didn’t seem to have any interest in sitting in the shade at the change of ends (unlike everyone else in the tournament!!). Both sets were very similar with Devan trying to dictate the points but her opponent neutralised very well causing Devan to push even more resulting in too many errors. Devan continued to fight hard and broke back in the second at 2-4 but was immediately broken again before Andriamamanarivo took the match 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles was up next at 3pm with Beth and Devan taking on Alicia Barnett and Brigit Folland from the Bath International High Performance Centre. Beth and Devan started very well playing sharp aggressive doubles and really took it to their opponents taking the first set 6-2. In the second the Bath girls became more consistent and Beth and Devan had the same problem as the second set yesterday; they could break but just could hold and the unforced errors were starting to mount up. After breaking back at 4-5 to stay in the set they then gave up their serve and Alicia held to take the set 7-5. The match tie-break was again disappointing and a bad service point at 4-5 gave the Bath girls a big boost and they went on to take the set 10-4.

A disappointing day but it’s been a great week overall with all of the girls picking up points in both singles and doubles. Felix has been continually working hard and the time will come very soon when he gets his ranking on the board.

As Devan is still in the qualifying for Nairobi we will be leaving here tomorrow afternoon to take the one hour flight before signing in before 6pm. It’s at altitude next week so the balls could be flying – I’ll let you know how the first session goes on the clay tomorrow evening!

Mombasa U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 7 – Singles and Doubles

Wednesday 9th February 2011

Very tough day today, one of the hottest since we’ve been here and it was the day when everyone decided they were going to go to three sets!

It’s always hard to play a friend, let alone one that you’re currently sharing the same hotel room with but Devan and Beth were both very professional with their approach to the match. They warmed up on the same court as each other but Devan hit with Felix and Beth hit with Farah and by 8.30am they were both ready to do battle. I let the girls prepare by themselves, they filled out their pre-match sheets but because they were playing each other I didn’t go through pre-match talk, it was just down to them!

The match started with Beth playing the more solid tennis but the unforced errors were soon creeping in – unforced errors are ok as long as you are hitting the winners to balance them out but neither girl was. Beth took the first set 6-4 and in total their were 51 unforced errors and only 10 winners from both girls. In the second Devan continued the aggressive tennis she showed in the first set but this time she reduced her unforced errors by a third and that made a massive difference. Beth was trying to be aggressive in response but too many errors came and Devan took the set 6-3.

At this point is was anyone’s match, it was really down to the player who could step up, force the other player to miss or hit winners while controlling their emotions so that they didn’t get over excited and over hit. Devan did this the best and now she was hitting two thirds less unforced errors than she did in the first set while Beth’s errors had climbed considerably. In Dev’s first round match she was a little nervous and showed it but today she kept calm, stayed focussed and put in a very professional performance to close out the match 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

It was tough after the match as one player was very high while the other was very low so I had to two different hats on in the post match talks but the girls put the match behind them very quickly, had lunch together and starting preparing for the doubles.

The girls both started very well against the top seeds, confidence was very high and they raced to a 5-0 lead. Their opponents then fought back hard and showed why they are tops seeds by taking the next 4 games before Beth and Dev went back to basics, played simple doubles and took the set 6-4. Beth and Devan struggled in the second and the momentum was really shifting to Cuk & Ebada. There were numerous breaks of serve and Devan and Beth just couldn’t break and hold resulting in them losing the second set 6-4. So it was all down to the lottery that is the match tie-break – great for the spectators and players, a nightmare for the coaches! Beth and Devan made 3 unforced errors in the first 3 points and at 4-7 it wasn’t looking good, the girls however did what they did in the first set and just went back to basics – lost of 1st serves, every return made, loads of activity and movement at the net and played proper doubles. They took the next 6 points in a row to take the match 6-4, 4-6, 10-7. For some reason the referee has put Cuk & Ebada through on the draw sheet so that could be interesting tomorrow!

Beth and Devan teaming up after their tough singles

Farah was last up for the day and from the start her and her opponent didn’t really gel as a team. They came through their first round as their opponents were quite weak but this time they were up against a couple of tough young eastern Europeans who weren’t going to give them an inch. Farah tried hard to move and cross at the net to put their opponents under pressure but her partner was very static and it caused the team to be a little flat. Team work, energy and activity are what doubles is all about and this was lacking throughout the match. Even though the score doesn’t suggest it, the second was actually better doubles than the first but Farah and Michelle went down 6-3, 6-0.

While Devan stretched out Farah, Felix and Beth were back on court after until almost 7pm for a good basket drilling session to end a long tough day at the office.

Some notable performances today from the other Brits include Alicia Barnett winning her singles match in over 4 hrs, Scott Clayton going down 7-6 in the third and Isaac Stoute winning 7-6 in the third all in very hot, very tough conditions. Credit to Scott, who was really struggling to stand at the end of his singles, he came back on court later in the day to win his doubles quarter final.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Girls singles Quarter-Final:

Hariniony Andriamananarivo (MAD) vs Devan McCluskey (USA) – 1st on at 10am

Girls doubles Semi-Final:

Beth Askew (GBR) & Devan McCluskey (USA) vs Alicia Barnett (GBR) & Brigit Folland (GBR) – 3rd on after 10am

Mombasa U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 6 – Singles and Doubles

Tuesday 8th February 2011

The crows were flying low over head all day today and they were lucky to escape without getting hit by a couple of flying rackets (not in anger either!!)

We started the day with our standard eggs, bread, banana and random juice drink for breakfast before heading over to the courts to warm up and hit from 8.30 – 9.00am. Within a few minutes of hitting the first racket was flying . . . straight out of Beth’s sweaty hand from the Ad side past Farah, who was hitting with me, onto the next court! All good though and no broken frame. 15 minutes later Beth was warming up her smashes when it went again . . . BOOM! Straight into the floor and this time there was no recovery:

Cracked in 2 places . . . ouch!

Beth managed to complete the warm up without going through anymore frames and it wasn’t long before Farah was on for her singles.

The more experience players get the more they realise that at U18 ITF level the ranking of a player is only really a measure of how good they are once a player is inside the top 50. Outside of that anyone is beatable and today was a great example of that. Farah’s opponent was ranked 299 and Farah was easily capable of taking a win today but a slow start to the match and a poor 3 games in the third really cost her the match. After losing the first set 6-0 she came back with smart consistent tennis to take the second 6-3. She then played well to come back from 3-0 down to 3-2 before she finally lost the match 6-0, 3-6, 6-2. Interestingly the player ranked almost 1400 places higher in the rankings only hit 2 winners in the third set – play the player not the ranking.

Felix was next up and has been struggling with an illness that he’s had for a few days now, so much so that he decided to miss the pre-match warm up to try and conserve all of his energy for the match. He did a good job today, despite feeling bad, he fought hard and played some good tennis but Isaac Stoute (a fellow Kent boy!) played well throughout making sure that Felix was going to have to work very hard for every point. Felix came back in the second and had points to level the set at 4-5 but went down 6-2, 6-4.

In the doubles Beth and Devan used their “get out of jail free card” as they were a set down, 2-1 up when India Sanders had to retire due to difficulty breathing. She had the same issue in her singles match yesterday, it’s unfortunate and I hate to see another Brit having to pull out but Beth and Devan live to fight another battle!  

4th seeds Farah and Michelle cruised through their doubs 6-3, 6-0 but had an interesting moment at 6-3, 5-0 when a parent of another player decided to go up to Farah at the change of ends and try and arrange a practise match with her daughter for tomorrow – some people have no idea!! 

Felix was last on court  for his doubles with Rishi Shah and again despite feeling unwell he was one of the strongest players on the court but went down 6-3, 7-5 – I’ve never seen so many breaks of serve or returns down the line in a boys doubles match in my life (not from Felix I might add!!).

We trained again until 6.30pm and I’ve been very impressed with how much the four players have wanted to do at the end of each day. I love getting the players back on court so they can work on things from their matches when it’s fresh in their minds and these four have always jumped at the chance of more training. Many other players are looking for an early end to the day but it’s the ones that stay out there, work on things and go through their stretching and pre-hab that are going to be the best they can be.

Dinner was great this evening, lots of banter amongst the team after a tough day, Felix showed us some of his moves which Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson would have been proud of and we all had a little sing song to some classic cheese, well . . . maybe I was on my own there!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Devan McCluskey (USA) vs (8) Beth Askew (GBR) – 1st on at 9am

(1) Pia Cuk (SLO) & Yasmin Ebada vs Devan McCluskey (USA) & Beth Askew (GBR) – 3rd on after 9am

Kasandra Kozub (POL) & Anastasiya Shestakova (UKR) Vs (4) Farah Abdel-Aziz (GBR) & Michelle Onyancha (KEN) – 3rd on after 9am

Mombasa U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 5 – 1st Round Main Draw

Monday 7th February 2011

Great start to the tournament today with all 4 players taking a win in their opening matches.

Felix was up first and despite going 2-0 down in the first set he fought back very hard to win the next 5 games in a row and then close out the set 6-3. The second set didn’t go as well as the other boy stepped up his game and became a lot more aggressive than in the first hitting 13 winners and only 6 unforced errors to take the set 6-0. To his credit Felix kept fighting and with a strategic change of seating position from me (to directly behind the court beside his opponents coach!) he started to turn the tables. For a 14 year old Felix’s opponent was a strong boy physically but mentally he was weak and when his coach was prevented from coaching him (by me!) he didn’t know what to do. Felix regained his composure of the first set but this time didn’t give his opponent an inch taking the final set 6-0. Next up for him tomorrow is 3rd seed Isaac Stoute.

Farah started her match as Felix was going into his third set and both matches were almost over at the same time as Farah cruised past local wildcard Sonia Radia 6-0, 6-1. These kind of matches early in a tournament aren’t the best thing to have as, even though they are cheap points, it doesn’t prepare you the best for the next round. Farah however made sure that she developed her game during the match and even finished off match point with a serve and volley. Next up for her tomorrow is top seed Yasmin Ebada from Egypt.

Farah in 1st round action today

From Farah’s match it was straight to the practise court to join Devan and Beth warming up for their matches and it wasn’t long before Beth was on and off the court with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Ivy Nafula Rahedi from Kenya. Again it was one of the matches that you would prefer to be a little tougher but Beth did very well to improve her game throughout taking on every return of serve and finishing the match with 68% of quality 1st serves in (we’re not mentioning the match point are we Miss Askew?!!).

As Felix had gone to 3 sets and the next match had taken a while Devan was made to wait around for her court to become available. It’s always tough to judge meals when you’re scheduled on around lunch time and as Devan was about to get something to eat the Referee decided to move her match to Beth’s court! We had enough time to go through her warm up, do some reaction exercises and then she was on. Devan started a little erratically but soon was in full flow taking the first 9 games in a row against a young Russian who was not going to go away without a fight. After a couple of tight games at the end of the second Devan came through it 6-0, 6-2 to secure her first singles win in an ITF. Devan will now meet Beth in the last 16.

Devan taking on a backhand

Devan finished her match at 3.45pm and as I hadn’t eaten since breakfast at 7am we went to get some lunch. Unfortunately they had closed it all down so it was a Cheese and Tomato sandwich for me and a Salad Roll for Dev, which was actually some salad wrapped in a lettuce leaf!

I then went through the post match analysis with each player before we were back on the practise court until 6.30pm – 11 hours at the club – and tomorrow is going to be much the same but I love it!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Farah Abdel-Aziz (GBR) vs (1) Yasmin Ebada (EGY) – 2nd on after 9am

Felix Taube (SWE) vs (3) Isaac Stoute (GBR) – 2nd on after 9am

Devan McCluskey (USA) & Beth Askew (GBR) vs Emmanuelle De Beer (NED) & India Sanders (GBR) – 2nd on after 9am

(4) Farah Abdel-Aziz (GBR) & Michelle Onyancha (KEN) vs Ivy Nafula Rahedi (KEN) & Gloria Rotich (KEN) – 5th after 9am

Felix Taube (SWE) & Rishi Shah (GBR) vs Christain Barbera Martinez (ITA) & Isa Mammetgulyyev (TKM) – 5th after 9am

Mombasa U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 4 – Final Preparation

Sunday 6th February 2011

Today was our final day of preparation before main draw starts tomorrow so the players had a lie in until breakfast at 8.45am and we began our warm up at 10.15am. The plan for today was to play right in the middle of the day between 11am and 1pm to experience the midday heat in case anyone got that kind of match time. As it turned out 2 of them did!

We warmed up on the football pitches this morning as all of the tennis courts were busy and there was a match on the cricket field. We went through our standard dynamics and then I sharpened up the players with short sprints and fast feet through the ladder:

Tennis specific footwork through the ladder

We then trained on court from 11am until just after 1pm and today was really about the players making sure they were ready and happy with their levels before tomorrow. Apart from two drills at the start the players owned the session and by doing this it allowed them to work on areas that they feel they needed to. There’s no point in me setting up everything if it’s not helping the players preparation, all the hard work has been done at home and in the first 3 days training so now it’s time to just put the icing on the cake. The players responded really well, the ones that were struggling yesterday played much better and the ones that were confident yesterday just continued to stick to the same goals and they all ended the session when they felt they were ready for the tournament.

While we had lunch we watched the cricket match and then prepared mentally by going through some pre-tournament questionnaires and I explained how our pre and post match analysis sheets would be completed before and after they play tomorrow.

A local cricket match at the Mombasa Sports Club

 We managed to have a break from the club for just over an hour before coming back to sign in and have dinner while we waited for the draw to be done (4 times in the end before they got it right!). Dinner tonight was on the outfield of the cricket pitch while they showed “Transformers” on a projector against the cricket screens at the side of the pitch.

The Oven for my dinner tonight

Dinner under the stars

Draws: 

Felix Taube (SWE) (Unr) Vs Arnaud Koutentakis (BEL) (Unr) – 1st match at 9am

Farah Abdel-Aziz (GBR) (1745) Vs (WC) Sonia Radia (KEN) (Unr) – 2nd match after 9am

(8) Beth Askew (GBR) (872) Vs Ivy Nafula Rahedi (KEN) (Unr) – 4th match after 9am

Devan McCluskey (USA) (1745) Vs Mariya Luss (RUS) (Unr) – 4th match after 9am

Mombasa U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 3 – Training

Saturday 5th February 2011

Another great days training today as the temperature got hotter and the balls couldn’t handle the pressure!

We were up early again for a 7am breakfast which consisted of a banana, a slice of Watermelon, a slice of fresh mango, some scrambled eggs, two slices of toast and some very thin looking corn flakes. The girls were in a better mood too (which is always a bonus) except one of them said they struggled to sleep because the room was now too cold! I did explain that 17 degrees is pretty cold so they might want to turn it up a little.

We met Felix at the courts at 8.30am, went through some tough skipping followed by going through our dynamic stretching and finished the warm up off with 10 sets of sprints. Just before hitting we used a wall by the side of the court to really sharpen up the players reactions and then got stuck into the session. We trained for just over two hours with a few “friends” looking on;

Apparently not as scary as the one in the girls bathroom!

After the session we went through some band work, cooled down and had a thorough assisted stretching session for 20 minutes.

After lunch we were back on again and even though the wind has been picking up in the afternoon so has the temperature. The concrete courts haven’t been helping either but we’re here early to acclimatise and get used to the surroundings and all four players have been working hard to make sure they’ll be ready for Monday.

Warming up for the afternoon session with Team Bath

We teamed up again with Jim, Craig and the Bath players for points in the afternoon but due to there not being a qualifying event in either boys or girls (due to lack of numbers) there were a shortage of practise balls. Jim decided to buy some from a local sports store and despite them being pressurised in a standard “Wilson US Open” tin the balls just didn’t seem right:

Look ok so far!

They looked more like the kind of balls you get down at the beach rather than official Wilson balls and after literally 20 minutes this happened:

Was it the balls or Beth's huge forehand?!

The temperature really picked up and made training very tough but we stayed on the court for over two hours and everyone was happy (in the end!) with the quality of their hitting. We stretched out again and left the club at 5pm to get ready for a well earned dinner.

The day ended by watching Man U lose 2-1 to Wolves – Jim’s not going to be happy tomorrow and hopefully Chelsea can close the gap with Torres getting a couple against Liverpool.

If anyone has any questions about the trip or playing ITFs please drop me an email via the “contact me” page and I’ll get straight back to you or add the information into the blog.

Mombasa U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 2 – Training

Friday 4th February 2011

At a nice early 7am breakfast this morning I was greeted by 3 very tired and unhappy players! According to them the air conditioning in the room wasn’t working so the room was roasting all night and they hardly got any sleep. On checking the air conditioning it was working fine, the girls just forgot to put their key in the switch which operates the air con and just thought it would work on its own!

We got to the club at 8.30am and met Felix Taube who is the 4th member of our team for the week. Felix had already been in Mombasa since Wednesday but was unwell and unable to train yesterday so today was his first session on the courts. It took him a while to get used to them and even though the girls struggled yesterday with tiredness and travel the session we had meant that today was much better. We warmed up for 20 minutes and did some ladder and medicine ball work for another 20 mins which really got the players sharp and ready for the tennis session. We then trained for an hour and a half, again getting used to the courts, drilling 100’s of balls and getting used to the heat.

It’s was very hot this morning and the players went through almost 3 litres of water each. It was also so hot that the plastic Wilson ball cans were too hot to hold to put the balls in at the end of the session! We finished the morning with some core work and a run around the cricket field before stretching out and getting some lunch back at the hotel.

At lunch the girls had a chance to catch up with some sleep in a cold air conditioned room and I had a chance to go and buy a modem to connect to the internet as there is no WiFi at the club or the hotel (and I really struggle to go more than a day or two without internet!!).

The sun was out in full force this afternoon so everyone was pilling on the sunscreen, especially Beth who went a bit over the top with my Zinc Oxide:

We joined up with Jim Edgar and the Team Bath players for the afternoon session and we managed to get a great afternoon’s point play banked which made the players more aware of areas they need to focus on to get ready for their matches on Monday. Drilling is always very beneficial but it’s points where things are really highlighted so drilling in the morning followed by points in the afternoon is a great combination.

It’s great to have another British team out here and especially Bath. Barry Scollo is doing a great job down there and with Dave Sammel and Jim Edgar on board it’s one of the most experienced teams in the country.

ITC Team of Me, Farah, Beth, Devan and Felix with Jim and Team Bath

We finished the day with a cool down and a long stretch out on the cricket pitch whilst we watched Jim try and bowl the Kenyan players out in the nets! We then all met up in the evening for dinner and some good old banter!

Aims for tomorrow:

  • apply more sunscreen especially to shoulders and back of knees (girls!)
  • get through another 6/7 litres of water
  • survive the first tournament lunch and dinner buffet!

Mombasa U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 1 – Travel

Wednesday 2nd – Thursday 3rd February 2011

After meeting up with Beth Askew, Devan McCluskey and Farah Abdel-Aziz at 7pm at Heathrow airport we checked in and made our way through security without any hitches. Check In – Clear – Beth’s been a bit worried as she was told that U16’s don’t need a Visa for Kenya but everyone else had one so she was on edge the whole way! After a quick bite to eat we boarded our Virgin Flight to Nairobi. It’s always a nice to travel with one of the bigger airlines and even though Virgin’s not the best airline in the world it’s in my top 5 and it is British!

The flight was ok except we ended up getting dinner at around 10.30pm and then all the lights came back on at 4am as it was 7am local time and they wanted to feed us breakfast. We all managed a bit of sleep and I got to watch “127 hours” which I thought was pretty good, bit graphic in the middle when he’s chopping his arm off but all good!

We landed in Nairobi at 8.40am, luckily we all got through security and Beth did make it without having to pay despite having to wait twice as long in a separate queue! We got the bags and checked in for our internal flight to Mombasa. I was really looking forward to seeing Kenya from the air and despite not seeing any wildlife the views were pretty amazing (once the cloud had cleared!)

Kenya from the window of our Nairobi - Mombasa flight

We were met by Joe, a tennis coach from Nairobi whose car was covered in Arsenal flags, posters and cushions, and he took us on a direct but frantic drive across town to our Hotel. After checking in and sorting out the rooms we walked the short 5 minute walk to the club.The club was much nicer than expected with a huge cricket pitch and nice clubhouse, the courts however were pretty rough! They are very old, very slow and bouncy and are made in blocks so as they’ve got older the blocks have moved and now there are big cracks on almost every line – at least you know if it’s on the line! We trained for an hour and a half to try and get a bit of a feel for the courts, to get used to the 30+ degree heat and to try and get the long journey out of our system. The first session at a new venue is never going to be great and the girls did a good job of accepting their tiredness and working hard for the whole session even though it was still very hot and humid. It was then a good stretch out, a walk back to the hotel, dinner and an early night for a good nights sleep – well, for some of us anyway . . .

 

ABOUT I.t.c.

Since 2010 my aim has been to make it more affordable to travel to international tournaments with a coach. Over the past 20 years I have coached players at over 250 international tournaments ranging from U12 Tennis Europe events to a semi-finalist at a Grand Slam.

 

For more information please click here.

contact

Rob Smith

Tel: +44 (0) 7866 362251

Email: rob@itc-tennis.com

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