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.
