Friday 22^nd April 2011

It was back to training on hard today to prepare Dave for his next tournament in Malta which he flies to tomorrow.

As we had a late evening last night we had a later start this morning getting to the club for 8.30am to warm up and start our session at 9am. We started off with a movement session for 25 minutes including ladder work and tennis specific footwork exercises. We then made good use of the 3kg medicine ball that I always travel with to work on a leg strength circuit until just before 10am when Dave had a short 5 minutes break to recover before working on his 1^st and 2^nd serves. From the singles and doubles matches this week we’ve made notes on areas of Dave’s serve that need improvement and we’ve also continued working on the goals that his coaches have set from back in England. This all came together really well in the training this morning; the 1st serve was much cleaner and more accurate and the 2^nd serve was stronger and kicking better. The big question was would it hold up under pressure?

We’d already arranged to play a practise set with Jorge Wilton at 11.30am which was just what Dave needed to keep pushing his level and make sure that he’s achieving his goals when there is something on the line. To make it even more interesting (and to add a little pressure) I asked the boys if they were up for the loser buying the winner lunch. They both considered it for a few seconds (as they checked if they had enough money on them!) and then agreed – game on!

It was a good set and both players competed hard; Dave played the best he had done all week and ticked all the boxes of the goals that we had set in the morning. Dave ended up coming out on top and served really well but before we finished for lunch we all did a couple of Fan Drill sprints and I’ve got to mention that I came out quickest there!!

After lunch we watched some of the main draw matches before coming back to the hotel to rest for the afternoon. Often players will want to do more and more training in the lead up to the next event but I believe it’s very important that once you’ve found a good level and worked hard during a session it’s important to let that feeling sink in, mentally give yourself a boost and also give your body time to rest before going to the next tournament.

We had a brief walk around town in the afternoon and then met up with Jorge, Chris, Samm and his dad to have dinner together in the evening. It was a much nicer meal than the last one we had in the centre of town but we couldn’t help but let the local cats enjoy it with us!!

Today is our last day in Mostar, tomorrow we get the train back to Sarajevo and then Dave moves onto Malta and I go back to England. It’s been a good trip, not necessarily in terms of results but there have been much more positives than negatives and Dave’s all set to go for next week.

Here’s one I’ve been meaning to take all week, there are sign’s in town saying “Never forget” and “Remember 1993 ” but there are also more shocking sights like this one of someones home still covered in bullet holes:

Next up for me is 3 weeks in Florida with Devan McCluskey for 3 U18 ITF Grade 4 events starting in Daytona Beach leaving next Thursday – bring it on!

Thursday 21^st April 2011

It was a long day at the club today which included 2 training sessions, 2 meals and a tight doubles match!

To be able to get a full court to play a practise set we had to get up early and get to the centre before the main draw players turned up. So we were up at 6am, warming up at 6.40am and started the session at 7am. Dave played a set with his doubles partner Samm Butler and worked hard on his goals but found it difficult to find the balance between pace and weight of shot. After the session we walked back to the hotel for breakfast and reflected on the set planning goals for the next on court session at 11.30am.

We went back over to the club at 10.30am and watched the first set of Chris Throm-Jones before getting back on court with Samm and Jorge Wilton for a very good hour and a half doubles session. Everyone worked very hard and Dave found a much better level than he had earlier in the day which was exactly what he needed before the doubles match. After the session we congratulated Chris on a hard fought 3 set win, had some lunch and returned to the hotel to relax for a couple of hours – it’s always good to try not to spend too much time onsite when you have a late match otherwise you can get very tired from doing nothing but sitting in the sun watching other people compete.

Originally the match was scheduled for 6^th round on which was supposed to be 2^nd on after 1.30pm but, even though the match before Dave and Samm’s was moved, they didn’t end up getting on court until after 6pm.

Dave and Samm were taking on Stjepan Cagalj & Tomislav Draganja from Croatia and they started well breaking at 2-1 and maintaining the break until they took the set 6-3. In the second they broke early to lead 2-1 but lost their concentration and the Croatians started to gain momentum. At 3-4 Dave was broken and Cagalj held to take the set 6-3. It was quite a turnaround as the Croatians were very erratic for the first set and a half but instead of finishing them off when they were down Dave and Samm just waited for their opponents to miss. Unfortunately the opposite happened; the Croatians found their volleys and returns and increased their level again in the match tie-break. Dave and Samm went 5-0 down, got a couple of mini breaks back but soon found themselves 9-2 down. They then fought very hard to get back to 9-8 but Cagalj found a big first serve to take the match 3-6, 6-3, 10-8. Very disappointing but there were a lot of positives to take from it:

1)      Dave’s level from the back of the court was superb

2)      The boys only missed 7 1^st serve returns between them and only 3 2^nd serve returns in the whole match

3)      Both of their 1^st serve percentages increased as the match went on

By the time they were finished it was after 8pm so after a debrief we sat down with Samm, Chris and Jorge for dinner at the clubs restaurant.

It was a long day with a tough result at the end but the most important thing is that Dave achieved his goals for the day and put in 2 training sessions as well as a match. We’ll back up the learning points tomorrow with more on court work including a practise set on the hard court with Jorge to prepare Dave for his tournament in Malta next week.

Wednesday 20^th April 2011

Dave took a tough loss today but responded very professionally and ended the day on a positive note.

It was another early start today, Dave was playing first match on at 8.30am so we had breakfast at 6.20am and then started are pre-match warm up at 7.10am at the club. The physical warm up for some players is often non existent but I think it’s very important and it’s worth getting up that bit earlier to make sure your body is ready to train as soon as you step on the court. Dave’s warm up included some skipping, a light jog, his dynamic stretches followed by his injury prevention band work and then some movement exercises to make sure he is sharp as soon as he hits the first ball. He hit this morning with his doubles partner; Samm Butler, who was also playing first on and they had a solid hit for 30 minutes until 8am. Dave then got ready before we went through the plan for the match and set some pre-match goals.

The match didn’t start well as Zvonimir Podvinski from Croatia broke Dave in the first game and then again at 3-1 to go on to take the set 6-2. Dave hadn’t really got going and it looked as though he didn’t have a clear plan for each point he played. At the end of the set he took a toilet break and it seemed to refocus him as he came out fighting harder and more prepared to stay in the point. The second set went with serve until 4-3 when Dave got the break and played a great service game to take the set 6-3. The third followed a similar pattern to the first as Dave sat back a little more waiting for Podvinski to miss but the opposite happened and he actually hit more winners in the first 3 games of the third than he did in the whole of the second set! After 25 mins Dave found himself 5-1 but he wasn’t about to give up yet! He fought hard and Podvinski started to get a little nervous as his normally solid game started to desert him – up until 6-2, 3-6, 5-1 up Podvinski had hit 28 unforced errors but in the next 5 games he managed to hit 22! He also missed out on 4 match points at 5-2! Dave had also stepped up more but the 22 errors in the five games meant that Dave was now serving for the match at 6-5. The next game took over ten minutes and despite saving 5 break points Dave lost his serve so it was onto a tie-break. Dave went 3-0 up but then a poor choice to hit a drop volley cost him and he then went 3-4 down. It was then close until Dave double faulted at 4-5 gifting Podvinski another match point. Dave saved the first one but a huge serve down the T from Podvinski gave him the match 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(5) in just over 2 hours 30 mins.

As you can imagine Dave was very disappointed but we went back to the hotel, he showered, stretched, went through the match in detail and then we returned to the club for some lunch.

I believe the quote is “It’s not what happens to you in life but it’s how you react to it that matters” and Dave’s response to today’s match was very professional. Once our lunch had been digested we were out running around the streets of Mostar at a pretty quick pace (thanks Dave, I’m going to feel that tomorrow!!) for 30 minutes before going into the park to do some core and fitness until 5pm. It showed real character for Dave to be up for training so soon after his loss and I was up for it too, we pushed each other and got a lot out of the training to finish the day on a positive note.

We met up with Samm and his Dad for dinner this evening by the Old Bridge, the company was great but the food was not – most of it ended up being fed to the local cats!! We then had a walk back to the club to find the girls still competing at 8.30pm!

An even earlier started tomorrow as Dave and Samm are going to play a practise set in the morning but due to matches starting at 8.30am we’re going to have to get to the club for 6.40am to warm up and be ready to start hitting at 7am.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(4) David Hodgetts (GBR) & Samm Butler (GBR) vs Stjepan Cagalj (CRO) & Tomislav Draganja (CRO) – 6^th round on after 8.30am

Tuesday 19^th April 2011

Three good sessions banked today and an early start gave us some time this afternoon to learn a little more about Mostar as we explored the town.

The club here in Mostar is really nice but as it only has 4 outdoor clay courts the matches start at 8.30am which means if you want to train you either have to get up early or use the two indoor clay courts. We went for the early option to give us a chance to hit for an hour on the match courts so our day started with a quick bite to eat at 6.30am, warm up at 7.10am and then training 7.30am – 8.30am with fellow Brit Samm Butler. As it was Dave’s first time hitting at the club we spent the whole hour getting a feel for the balls and the courts and just did a lot of drilling from the back of the court. Once the matches started we moved onto the hard court to hit some serves for half an hour which completed a very productive morning. We then went back to the hotel to eat a proper breakfast!

We then had around an hour to relax before we made our way back to the club for our second session of the day between 11am – 12pm. As we had drilled so much this morning we planned for this session to just be point based and it gave Dave a chance to work more on his serve and return as well as working on building the points and staying patient. The session went well and we covered all the areas we wanted to so by 12pm Dave felt good to go.

After Lunch we did some fitness on court including a bit of basketball and worked on some movement exercises before taking on the Polish team at a bit of tennis football. Needless to say we won but some points did get very tight! We then hit some more serves and returns before finishing for the day at around 2.30pm.

As we had sometime before sign-in we decided to explore the town and learn a little more about the history. It’s an amazing place that was horrendously bombed by first the Serbs in 1992 and then the Croatians between 1993 and 1995. During the war the whole town was pretty much destroyed including the jewel of Mostar; The Old Bridge.

The Old Bridge was originally built in 1566 and immediately became a landmark for the town but it was damaged in 1992 and then completely destroyed in November 1993. In 1997 the reconstruction started, the bridge was formally opened in 2004 and on the 17^th July 2005 the bridge and the town was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. 

Today we saw some pictures of what the town looked like during the war and it’s amazing to see how it looks now – it’s truly an amazing place but everywhere you look there are many reminders of what had happened back in the 90’s.

We made our way back to the club to sign-in, have dinner with the other British players and wait for the draw to be done. After helping the referee sort out the errors he had made with the girls draw we booked practise courts and came back to the hotel to get prepared for tomorrow.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(5) Dave Hodgetts (GBR) (568) vs Zvonimir Podvinski (CRO) (770) – 1^st on at 8.30am

Monday 18th April 2011

It’s been a long day today with over 11 and a half hours of travel which included 2 trains, 2 flights, 2 taxi’s and a crazy but spectacular bus journey!

It was an early start this morning as I had to get a 5.52am train to London before getting another train to Gatwick airport to meet up with Dave Hodgetts for the flight to Bosnia. Our first flight was to Ljubljana on a pencil like plane and it was amazing that the plane stayed in one piece when we landed as the pilot hit the ground with such a force that half the passengers came out of their seats! We only had a 30 minute wait before the next flight to Sarajevo which was much smoother and had some amazing views over the snow covered mountains:

Once we got to Sarajevo we were straight into a taxi to the bus station where we caught a bus for the 2 and a half journey to Mostar. I’d read that the journey was one of the best in Europe and it didn’t let us down as we wound through the mountains and around glacial lakes. The driver didn’t hang around though and some of his overtaking manoeuvres were a little hair-raising to say the least!!

Once we got to Mostar we quickly found our hotel and then had a walk to the club where we had our dinner. We’ve been told the town was on the front line of the war back in 1995 and you can still see numerous buildings with hundreds of bullet holes in them. I’m looking forward to learning a bit about the town this week so I’ll give you an update as I learn a bit more about it.

We’ve got two tennis sessions booked in tomorrow and sign-in is at 6pm – I’ll let you know how it went and who Dave’s got in the draw tomorrow evening.