Trinidad & Tobago U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 2

Friday 23^rd March 2013

It was another good preparation day today as we started to increase the volume of training and at the same time the players became more accustomed to the intense heat on court.

After a 7.30am breakfast we met up with Katie Swan, her mum Nicki and brother Luke (who had all arrived last night from Wichita in Kansas) in reception at 8.45am and then took a taxi to the courts. Katie is playing in qualifying this week as she is currently unranked and so today was her only day of preparation before the qualifying matches start tomorrow.

After a good 25 minute warm up we managed to get two courts for almost the whole hour and a half session which meant that I could spend a lot of time with Alex and the girls could train together. The session consisted of a lot of drilling to again get used to the courts and the conditions and even though it was mid-morning the temperature was getting hot which meant the players needed a lot of time to rest and refuel. We finished the session with some serving points and by 11.30am everyone definitely felt as though they’d worked hard and put in a good training session.

Luckily they had fixed the showers at the club as yesterday there was barely a dribble coming out so after showering and changing we all headed to Pizza Hut to get lunch. It was then time to visit the supermarket again to stock up on water and Mia and Alex made a very professional decision to buy a cool box between them to keep their drinks cold throughout the day – they dismissed the idea yesterday but after experiencing the heat again today they knew it would be a wise move!!

This afternoon we warmed up just after 1pm and then went on court for just over an hour to play a practice set; Mia took on Katie while Alex and I battled it out. Both sets were well fought and it was obvious nobody wanted to lose but in the end Katie and I both came out on top 6-2.

We then had a little bit of time to kill while we waited for Nicki and Luke to return with Katie’s passport for sign in which gave Alex an opportunity to clock up 3 million points on Subway Surfers which now puts him in the lead!

Once Nicki had arrived, Mia, Alex and I went back to the hotel and straight into the gym to go through their specific strength and conditioning sessions for the day. Alex had some tough intervals (which I joined him on!) and injury prevention work while Mia’s programme included some light strength work. Both sessions took around 45minutes and then we all foam rolled and stretched out to end a really good training day.

After a break to relax we headed out to dinner by the swimming pool at just after 6.30pm and then it was back upstairs to the lobby at 8pm for our daily psychology session which today was “Rules of Engagement”. It basically was an opportunity for the players to list the things they are going to accept that happens on the court and also the things that they expect of themselves while on the court. Mia and Alex did the task very well and ended up finishing with a very professional “Top 10”.

Katie plays in qualifying tomorrow so we’ve got an early start to get on court at 8am but hopefully it’ll be a bit cooler then!!