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!
Not a bad view from my hotel room!
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
