International Travelling Coach Previous Blogs

Solihull U14 TE Grade 3, Day 6

Wednesday 13th July 2011

It was just down to doubles for Mia today which meant we were back into a full training day.

There wasn’t much court availability this morning but we were still able to secure a practise court as she was still a main draw player. We trained early at 8am and then it was straight into the gym to complete Mia’s strength and conditioning programme. All week she’s been very professional with her training on and off the court and the off court training is something that too many juniors ignore; if good habits can be formed when players are young it makes it so much easier for them to continue as they get older.

After training it was around 10.45am and time for some lunch. We then watched the main draw matches for a couple of hours and then due to the absence of practise courts at the club we headed back over to David Lloyd Cranmore to train on court for another hour and a half.

We were originally given a not before time of 2pm and after the referee decided to move lots of different matches around Mia finally got on court just after 5.30pm!! This week Mia partnered up with Croatian Klara Radovcic – finding a doubles partner is sometimes a little tricky, especially as Mia’s been training abroad and hasn’t had much communication with the other British girls. Unfortunately Klara wasn’t the strongest or most confident of players and Alex Herd and Chloe Lant took full advantage. Despite the difference in levels Mia and Klara did well to compete throughout the whole match and eventually went down 6-3, 6-4.

I always view doubles as a great chance to improve areas of your singles game and, especially for the girls, it’s a chance to develop your volleys. Mia had specific goals for the match notably approach on every 2nd serve return and cross 10 times per set. In the first set she had a perfect record of approaching off the return but she failed to cross at all, this changed completely in the second as she crossed a total of 9 times including 3 times in one point! I was therefore very pleased with the second set and even though she lost the match she improved a huge amount.

The girls finished just after 7pm so there was just time for Mia to cool down, stretch out and shower before we hit the road back to Kent. It’s been a long 6 days as we’ve had a lot of time hanging around but all in all it’s been a positive tournament. Mia has improved every area of her game and I’m very confident that next week in Bournemouth she’ll go at least one step further than this week and last week.

I’m now taking a break as my first baby is due this weekend but I’ll be back on the road again in a few weeks as British Nationals start.

Solihull U14 TE Grade 3, Day 5

Tuesday 12th July 2011 – My Birthday!!

Even though it’s my birthday today there was no lie in (or breakfast in bed!) and I was up and out running at 6am. I’ve been following a training programme on Adidas micoach to prepare myself for my 10th Great North Run in September (watch this space to sponsor me and support Make-A-Wish Foundation) and today was some tough red intervals for 48 minutes! After that we had breakfast at 7am and then headed over to the club at 7.45am.

We completed our normal warm up on and off the court and by 9am we were ready to go. Mia was 3rd on today taking on 15th seed Anna Popescu from England and after the groundsman managed to flood the court while watering it we had a short delay but finally got on court around 12.30pm.

Mia started the match very well, she was aggressive on every ball and achieving most of the goals we set within the first few games. After a being broken early Mia maintained her professionalism to break straight back and then broke again to take a 4-2 lead. Anna then upped her performance and used her experience to really test Mia in every game; she broke back, held and then broke again to serve for the set at 5-4. In the past this is where Mia would get frustrated but she kept focused and won the next 3 games to take the opening set 7-5.

Anna fought hard at the start of the second set and that, combined with Mia slightly losing her way, resulted in Anna taking a 3-2 lead with a break of serve. Mia never recovered that break and was broken again at 2-4 which left Anna serving for the second set. Mia’s unforced errors had been starting to climb during the second set and 4 in the last game gifted Anna the second set 6-2.

After going 2-0 down in the third (losing 5 games in-a-row) Mia cut out some of the errors and kept being aggressive to take the next 3 games to lead 3-2. From there it went with serve until 4-4 when, from 40-15 up serving, Mia hit 4 unforced errors and gave the game to Anna who then served out the match 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in just over 3 hours. It was a really tough result to take especially as Mia didn’t convert her chances in the third set – out of the 10 games she played she had game points in 8 of them!! It was still a great learning experience for Mia and it won’t be long before she’s coming through these type of matches with the win.

After the match we had a de-brief and, once Mia had cooled down, stretched and showered we left site to drive into Birmingham where we are staying tonight.

Mia’s incentive this week was that if she qualified and won a round in the main draw we would go to dinner at Wagamama’s. She didn’t quite do that (the walkover doesn’t count!) but as she played well and improved in so many areas, plus the fact it was my birthday, we decided to go anyway so here was my birthday meal:

Schedule for tomorrow:

Alexandra Herd (GBR) & Chloe Lant (GBR) vs Mia Smith (GBR) & Klara Radovcic (CRO) – 6th match on after 9.30am

Solihull U14 TE Grade 3, Day 4

Monday 11th July 2011

It was a disappointing day today at the Solihull International Tennis Europe event but not due to any players performing poorly or losing, it was actually because we weren’t able to compete or train much on court!

It was always going to be a long day today as Mia was scheduled to be 5th round of matches on and we were only able to practise on the clay before 9am. As usual we were at the club at 8am going through our physical warm up and then on the court from 8.30 – 9am to complete our pre-match warm – it was a great session; Mia was very intense and the training we had done yesterday was showing. As Mia had a “Not Before” time of 3pm we decided we would train in the morning and then relax after lunch so we went straight in the gym to complete Mia’s strength & stabilisation programme. After that it was onto the bike for 20mins and then a stretch, shower and change before we left site for lunch.

The sign in for the two Lucky Loser spaces ended at 11.30am and much to my astonishment when I called up at 12pm I was told not a single player had signed in. I was annoyed at this for a few reasons, mainly because I want Mia to compete and earn her place in the next round rather than just get a walkover but also because I’m starting to see a similar pattern in the girl’s draws in international events in Britain that needs to be addressed.

This year I was in Bolton for Teen Tennis which is one of the strongest events in the U14 calendar and has players like Kim Clijsters as a previous winner. It’s Britain’s only Tennis Europe Grade 1 event and yet there were still 3 byes in the girl’s qualies draw (0 in the boys). In March Britain had an U16 Tennis Europe grade 3 event at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton again the girl’s qualies draw was not full with a total of 16 byes (half the draw), the boys draw was full. The next junior international in Britain was the U18 ITF in Nottingham in April; week 1 had 9 byes in the girl’s qualies (2 in the boys) and week 2 had 14 byes in the girls draw (0 in the boys) – see a pattern immerging? Last week in Edinburgh there were 14 byes in the girls U14 TE qualies (6 in the boys) and 7 byes in the U18 ITF girls qualies (0 in the boys). This week there were 14 byes in the U14 TE girls’ qualies here in Solihull (0 in the boys) and 12 byes in the U18 ITF girls’ qualies in Newcastle (1 in the boys).

The rankings of our top end senior girls have progressed well in the last few years so why are we struggling to fill these draws? Surely questions have to be asked of the IHPCs / HPCs and performance centres as to why there are players training in their centres who are directly and indirectly receiving funding from the LTA are not turning up to compete in the international events on their doorstep in Great Britain. If they’re not willing to travel to places like London, Nottingham and Birmingham are they really committed to playing internationally? I think questions have to also be asked of the coaches working with the players this week who did not advise the 8 British players to sign in as a Lucky Loser – 2 would have got in and even if they had lost they still would have been able to compete in the consolation draw against other main draw players.

Back to our day!! We got back onsite at 3pm to try and train on the clay courts after the TE matches had finished but due to some matches over running there was a bit of a wait. We didn’t sit back and relax though; we were straight onto the field to go through Mia’s acceleration & agility programme before again having a thorough stretch out.

Mia working hard during her movement session

We then waited again to see if the clay would be available but at 5pm we were told that the U12 tournament was running behind so they would be using the clay to catch up with matches. I tried to phone around to get courts elsewhere but everywhere was busy so we decided to have an early dinner and prepare for tomorrow’s match. Many players were waiting around all day getting tired and bored but we managed to still have a very productive day.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(15) Anna Popescu (GBR) (726) vs (q) Mia Smith (GBR) (UNR) – 3rd round on after 9am

Solihull U14 TE Grade 3, Day 3

Sunday 10th July 2011

It was a good start to the Solihull TE for Mia today as she won through qualifying for the second week in a row.

Last night we stayed at a B&B on a farm which was a nice change from the Travelodge as it gave us more of a family home feel and it was also nice to have breakfast cooked for you rather than having cereal in your room!!

We warmed up between 8.30am – 9.30am and then Mia prepared for her match by completing her pre-match sheet. As she was doing hers I went off and completed one myself to see if she would come up with the same goals and tactics as I would after we both watched her opponent play yesterday. Mia’s sheet was almost identical to mine and I think we were both pleased that we were on the same wavelength but we were both also happy to admit that the other person had one or two things that we missed. As we spoke through the sheets Mia had a clear understanding of what we needed her to do to not only qualify but most importantly to improve her level following Edinburgh last week. Winning is great but it’s not normally the players that win at U14 level that go on to win at a senior level. The players that develop at this age and continue to develop through U18 ITFs are the ones that go on to make an impact at Future and Challenger levels.

After a 20 minute delay due to the court being watered Mia took to the court at 12pm to take on fellow Kent girl Florence Abbott. Mia started very well and put into practise everything we had planned; she was aggressive from the back of the court, executed her serve well and continued to improve in every game. She took a 2-0 lead, then she was broken but responded very professionally and won the next 4 games to take the set 6-1. In the first set Mia hit 14 winners and 12 unforced errors to finish with a positive aggressive balance for the first time this summer – we were both very pleased with that! The second set was a little tougher as Florence upped her game and reduced her errors quite considerably forcing Mia to up her game. The scores remained close and despite Mia serving for the match at 5-4 Florence kept fighting and managed to get it back level before Mia broke and served it out to take the match 6-1, 7-5. Mia played a great first set and stuck in there in the second when things got a little shaky to earn her place in the main draw tomorrow.

The day was far from done though and after lunch we were back on court training with another main draw player before going in the gym to complete Mia’s fitness programme. It was then a thorough cool down and stretch out before showering and changing at the club so we could go straight out for an early dinner at ASK.

We were back at the Travelodge tonight and just to throw a spanner in the works our Sat Nav decided to take us to a completely different place instead of the one it took us to before so we had a detour around Birmingham! At least we found a Fun Fair that’s just around the corner so we might have to give that a visit one evening.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(q) Mia Smith (GBR) (UNR) vs Lucky Loser (To Be Confirmed tomorrow) – 5th round on after 9am, Not Before 3pm

Solihull U14 TE Grade 3, Day 2

Saturday 9th July 2011

It was the start of the Qualifying today with Milo taking on Alastair Gray but due to the lack to entries in the girls draw Mia had a bye so she will not play until tomorrow.

It was an early start today; we were one of the first at the club as we warmed up at 7.30am before getting on court for our scheduled practise at 8am. As always the players dictated their pre-mach warm up and as Milo was very thorough with his warm up we were on court for around 45 minutes. Milo then had some time to get some food and complete his pre-match goal sheet before relaxing and waiting for the match before him to finish. We actually warmed up and prepared to go on when the match was in the middle of the 2nd set but then it went to a set all so he had to do it all over again before he played!

Eventually Milo got on and to begin with he was competing well; the boys exchanged breaks early in the first set but at 2-3 serving Milo began to get frustrated with his level and the match started to turn. From 2-3 Milo lost the next 5 games in a row, not due to his opponent upping his level but just because he wasn’t thinking clearly about what he needed to do during each point. This changed at 6-2, 2-0 down when Milo played a great game to keep the score close but Alastair responded well and took the next 3 games to lead 6-2, 5-1. Milo then dug deep, changed his thoughts from being angry to being calm and professional and the result was that he played his best tennis of the match to break, hold and break again to put the pressure back on Alastair to serve it out. Alastair did just that with a solid service game but it gave a positive end to the match for Milo who will hopefully realise that his best tennis is produced when he’s calm and thinking clearly.

After Milo’s match we got some lunch and once he completed his post match sheet we talked through the match together and discussed the areas in which he needs to focus on before his next event. We then planned to get on court later in the afternoon to put some of the areas we had talked about into practise but there weren’t any courts available at the club or at a local centre and the David Lloyd we used yesterday didn’t have anything until the evening.

As we were unable to train it gave Mia the perfect opportunity to watch her opponents play and start to work out a game plan to beat the winner. Milo left with his parents to go back to Kent at around 4pm and not long after the mini orange tournament finished so I was able to train with Mia for just over an hour working on her serve, drilling her groundstrokes and talking about tactics to take into her match tomorrow.

By the time we finished it was around 6pm so we showered and changed and went straight from the club to dinner in Solihull. After dinner we drove out to our accommodation for this evening which was at a B&B on a farm – quite a nice place with my room being a converted old barn – hopefully there won’t be any cockerels waking us up at 5am!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Mia Smith (GBR) (UNR) vs Florence Abbott (GBR) (UNR) – 2nd round on after 9.30am

Solihull U14 TE Grade 3, Day 1

Friday 8th July 2011

What should have been a straight forward day of travelling to a tournament, training and signing in turned out to be a little more eventful than we all imagined!

I met up with Mia Smith and Milo Bargeron at 9.20am this morning and started the 2 and a half hour journey from Kent to Solihull. The weather was terrible the whole way so I started making calls on the way up as to the state of the clay courts at the tournament site and on hearing they were out of play due to the rain I started contacting some local indoor centres to try and book some court time. Billesley Indoor Tennis Centre seemed like the best bet and so after visiting the Solihull Arden Club to confirm the courts were unplayable we made our way over there.

At first the staff at the centre were more than happy to take our money and book our court but this soon changed as they didn’t seem happy with us going through our physical warm up on the outside courts before our session started indoors. The manager, Keith Hill, demanded that we stopped and said that we would have to pay for the court if we wanted to use it. When I explained we were just warming up he then said that we couldn’t use the court, I wouldn’t be able to coach the players on court and we’d have to get a refund. I asked if the players could go on the court themselves and I’ll wait on the balcony but he said I’d still be coaching and he wouldn’t allow it. It was absolutely ridiculous and I can’t believe that a centre that is funded by the LTA could not use some common sense and allow 2 players to train with their coach when they are competing in an international event down the road.

I then called the David Lloyd at Cranmore and explained that I was a member at Dartford and the situation that we were in and they were more than happy to help. They allowed us all to train at the centre, use all of the facilities and even the other tennis coaches were welcoming. We spent around 45 minutes completing some movement and speed work and then an hour and a half on court before going into the gym to cool down and stretch out. Mia and Milo worked very hard and found a very good training level together so at the end of the day everyone was happy.

We then went back to the club to sign in and after checking in at our hotel we drove back into Solihull for dinner at Pizza Express. It was then back to the club after dinner to check the draw and arrange practise for tomorrow.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Alastair Gray (GBR) (UNR) vs Milo Bargeron (GBR) (UNR) – 2nd round on after 9am

 

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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