Hey everyone, sorry I haven’t updated you in a few days, I decided to take the weekend off to emotionally and physically recover. I spent most of my days eating with friends and relaxing at home. Today however was a different story as I hit the courts with an intensity that I was able to maintain throughout my 4hrs on court and into a one hour workout at the gym. Safe to say my legs are feeling it but in a good way. I managed to hit on some clay over at RCI with Advantage Tennis Academy in the morning. It’s classic to see juniors who are used to hard courts, jump on a clay court and expect to play the same kind of tennis that they experience while on hard court. But all jokes aside, I am happy to say that I need improvement on my clay court game and was humbled most of the practice. I also want to mention I see an upside to my game when I play on clay because of my movement and variety of shots, I believe once I get on some quality clay courts (Like the time I practiced at Rolland Garros or the Foro Italico in Rome), my game will develop and flourish. I also want to mention that former ATP professional Robert Yim (Career high #444) is a coach over at Advantage. His insight and expertise is definitely an asset that makes all the players feel inspired and driven. After I wrapped up a 2 1/2 hour practice on clay, I took a 45 min. break for lunch before heading back onto a hard court to hit with junior Connor Farren, a highly ranked player from northern California who also won his first round match at the Laguna Niguel F25 Futures event. We had a solid workout for over an hour but halted soon thereafter because both of us were pretty beaten up physically from prior workouts in the day. I suppose that’s tennis though but we both managed to maintain a pretty high level during groundies games and control/movement drills. A solid day of practice so far, but after two days off, left my wrist feeling rather sore from all the HUGE forehands I’ve been hitting haha! Oh well, since none of them really counted, I headed to the gym after a break for some pasta and yogurt to further the workout for the day.

I got to the gym and immediately hopped on an exer-cycle. The key on this machine is to get the blood flowing, get a good warm-up, and keep a high rpm. 20 minutes on the bike, I stopped, and jumped on a treadmill. I raised the incline a little bit, raised up the speed to a pretty quick run, but not a sprint, and maintained as long as I could or until the song in my headphones ended. From there, I’d lower the speed to a casual trot until my breathing was almost normal – at which point I’d again bump up the speed to the fast run and continue with my routine. You can call this wind-sprints or a “tempo” run as you’re alternating between high intensity vs. low intensity. After that I headed upstairs to do some balancing work via a “bosu ball” (Sort of a half stability ball with a flat part you can stand on). I did some squats, trying not to bounce from side to side, thus working my stabilizing muscles in my legs rather than “bulking up”. After that I turned it upside down and stood on the rubberized part with one leg. While standing on one leg, I bring my opposite leg forwards, sideways, and backwards for about 10 reps each. I once saw Berdych doing this with an rubber band wrapped around both his ankles, increasing the intensity of the exercise. This helps my balance as well as my hip flexor muscles. After that I did some core balancing exercises (planks and body weight stuff) to keep up the strength and more importantly, endurance, of my abs and lower back. Finally I was able to stretch my sore legs! But wait, there’s more… After stretching I changed into a swim suit and this time literally hopped in the pool. Refreshing. I did some very low intensity laps to work on my rotator cuff and ease the tension in my legs. A little more stretching of my shoulder and I was done. Phew. Quickly got some food in me albeit not quite the most healthy carb to protein ratio but hey, I was hungry and in the mood for a chicken burrito.

So, it’s been a good day so far physically. But I believe I made more progress mentally. I sat down at a nearby starbucks, ordered a hot chocolate, and spent about 2 hours reading through Rafael Nadal’s autobiography: “Rafa”. I swear this guy knows exactly how to articulate what a tennis player goes through physically but more importantly mentally; I suppose because he’s had so much experience (Duh). Today’s lesson I take away from Rafa is that he emphasizes how important his team and family is to him in terms of emotional stability. He attributes all of his intensity physically and mentally (which his doctor “Titin”, who has experience working with all of Spain’s top tennis players for decades, says is greater than any other player’s he’s ever witnessed) to his emotional stability. Rafa expresses that in order to have success in this game, one must have a strong and clear mind. And being in a healthy emotional state is key to performing one’s best. He then lists off several examples of good tournament results (winning grand slams) as well as bad spots where he loses due to pain and lack of passion to compete. I took a lot of lessons from these chapters centered around this concept because I believe in my tennis development, there were/are/going to be periods of emotional wreckage that will be unavoidable. I need to find ways to balance these moments better and understand how I can get through these rough spots quicker. Definitely don’t want to ever surround myself with negative people who are “downers” when my livelihood depends on being positive and optimistic. It also means being able to take myself lightly, have fun, continue trying to experience new things. Rafa himself claims that he is not a monk, like some of the Olympic athletes he was able to be around during the 2008 Beijing games, and he does like to party until 5am in the morning sometimes. Yet he will still show up to practice in the morning with vigor and energy. For me, I think that means going out and having feasts with my friends or yeah maybe going out to a concert or something. If I had a boat, you’d definitely find me fishing! haha I suppose when I finally pass out tonight, I’ll be concentrated on dreaming of tennis success that will lead me towards more fun, interesting life experiences, a healthy mind, and hopefully longevity/continuity in my sport!

Always trying to improve,

Shubert