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
