By Dean Hollingworth, CTPS


It’s been a little over a month since I’ve come back home from the US Open. It took a bit of time to settle back into my routine and gather my thoughts on what was a great experience. Having gone over the month that I was on the road, at three different tournaments (Cincinnati, New Haven and New York), I found myself wanting to share my professional experience with others that have the goal of traveling with a tennis player. Training concepts remain consistent whether you are in your own stable home environment or on the road dealing with different gyms and surroundings each week. On the other hand, having the ability to deal with an always changing environment is where the challenge lies.

Here are three points that every strength coach should adapt to their training concepts and philosophies in order to succeed:

1.      Preparation: Like the famous quote says “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” -Benjamin Franklin. This is true at any level of coaching, whether on the road or not, but becomes increasingly more important at the higher levels of athletics. Do not expect to be successful if you plan on showing up and figuring out what to do within minutes of a training session. Elite athletes need to be precisely challenged for positive changes to occur. A plan must be set forth with goals and objectives that you, the coaches and the player have gone over. Without this path in front of you, the likelihood of spinning your wheels in one spot is inevitable. This means having a long-term plan with short and long-term goals. Weekly and daily planning is crucial. Being prepared for every training session is necessary in order to focus on the athlete and not guess at what you are going to do next. A good athlete is capable of seeing who is and who isn’t prepared. This preparation will give you and the athlete confidence in the training.

2.      Be flexible: So with all this discussion of preparation, now you have to be able to adjust on the fly. One of the challenges is that with every city comes new surroundings. Mostly it has to do with adjusting to the gym that you will have access to for training. This includes the warm-up, fitness training and recovery work. Each site will present you with different problems including space, crowdedness and lack of equipment. It’s great that it is supposed to be a box jump day, but what if there are no boxes, or a leg training day and the heaviest dumbbell is 25lbs. This is where preparing ahead and being malleable is crucial. This can be achieved by trying to find facilities to suit your training or by being creative and challenging the athlete in other ways to obtain the desired results. What also helps is bringing your own equipment (tubing, TRX, cones, ladder, recovery tools, etc.) to help out in difficult situations. It’s about making the best of a situation that is not optimal.

3.      It’s all about the detail: To me, attention to detail is what separates good coaches from great ones and good athletes from great ones. Yes, the planning should be very detailed, but I see detail in another light, detail to the athlete’s training and surroundings. When in a gym setting with your athlete, the gym is your office. When in your office, the person you are with should get all the attention. Focus should be on the athlete and not others around you. No detail is too small not to realign or correct. Other details to be taken into account are the sport specific needs of the athlete. This can be hydration, food consumption, appropriate rest and recovery needs. Understanding their individual differences, rituals or quirks assist in helping them achieve optimal performance. The difference that separates a lot of these athletes is often extremely small. In order to make up that difference, the details should be focused on and adjusted for success.

This was my third time traveling with a player and of course it was easier than the first. Like it is often said, “if I knew now what I knew then,” well now you do. Incorporate these tips and let them help you become the best coach possible. In the end everyone wins.

By Mark Kovacs, PhD, FACSM, CSCS*D, MTPS
iTPA Executive Director

@mkovacsphd

www.mark-kovacs.com

The 2015 US Open has seen a number of players struggle with cramps this year. Many years at the US Open players struggle when they compete in New York in the hot and humid conditions. In general the hottest, most difficult days in New York have temperatures between 85-95°F and 45-60% humidity. This temperature and humidity is not dissimilar to many parts of the US throughout the entire summer period. Therefore, why do some of the best players in the world struggle so mightily to combat the conditions? Also, what can the regular tennis player do to help avoid the dreaded exercise associated muscle cramps? I have been fortunate to have been around cramping research and researchers for more than 15 years. I have worked in three different thermal physiology labs under some of the smartest minds in the fields of heat, humidity, temperature regulation and cramping in athletes. These labs are designed to study everything including blood, sweat, urine, saliva and everything in between. Many questions about cramping have been answered, and some questions still remain. Cramping is a multi-faceted problem and many different types of cramps occur in athletes. Fatigue cramps can occur in hot and cold conditions. Heat related cramps are different, night time cramps are different again and eccentric exercise (think of doing 100 calf raises in a row) cramping differs as well. Also, some athletes are more cramp-prone than other athletes. As a result, solving the cramping problem requires a personalized solution from a highly trained individual who understands the many causes of cramping and appropriate solutions to prepare the athlete and prevent cramping. With the right training and appropriate monitoring and education, limiting and completely avoiding cramping is possible. Below are some initial areas that should be part of a training program to limit the chance of experiencing exercise associated muscle cramps during tennis play.

1)      Poor and/or incorrect conditioning

This is usually the most common cause. Many well-meaning athletes are just not training the correct way to prepare for the conditions. This includes training specifically for tennis. As a result many athletes are being put through tough workouts, but these general workouts are not actually training the athlete to be fully prepared for the demands of matches. Remember that tennis is all about quick explosive movements over short periods of time in specific movement pattern, with short recovery periods (<25 seconds). Many times the tennis player will not train specifically for the demands of tennis, which can cause the athlete to be ill prepared (even though a lot of hard work and sweat has been put into training). The old adage train smart is a lot better than just training hard – if hard training is not smart.

2)      Nutrition

Most of the top players are doing better with nutrition and understanding the needs of the elite tennis athlete. However, many players (especially young players) are still not taking care of individual nutrition well. Tennis specific nutrition is highly individual and each player has a different physiology and needs a different composition of nutrients based on their unique biology, training habits, game style and energy needs. Remember that everyone burns different amount of fats and carbohydrates throughout the day and especially during training and competition. How nutrients are used by the body are somewhat different as well; nutrients are used differently. Many individuals may have deficiencies in different areas that may need adjustments.

 

3)      Hydration & Electrolytes

An athlete’s hydration is always talked about when it comes to cramping. Although hydration is an important aspect of the equation it is usually not the sole answer to stop cramping alone. Most elite tennis players are aware of the hydration needs, and generally most do a good job of taking care of the hydration appropriately. The challenge is that the human body can only replace between 1.5-1.8 liters of fluid per hour comfortably. However, tennis athletes (especially male athletes) can sweat up to 3 liters per hour. Therefore, the balance of hydration is always somewhat of a challenge, and it is very important that the athletes come onto the court well-hydrated. The major electrolyte lost in sweat is sodium, and many tennis players are not supplementing with enough sodium in the days leading up to matches. On-court hydration, although important, is usually not the answer. Only so much can safely and effectively be consumed during matches, so the pre-match routines and day before and week before match routines are very important. Other electrolytes that can play a role are potassium (although at a much lower extent), magnesium and calcium. There is one caution that players need to be aware of before and after tennis matches. Many well-meaning players may try to overdrink. Overdrinking is a concern, especially if the fluid is just water. The problem is that once an athlete sweats out a lot of fluid (sodium rich fluid) and then replaces the lost sweat just with water, the electrolyte content of the blood becomes diluted which can result in significant health consequences. This is sometimes termed water intoxication, or the more medical term of “hyponatremia.”

4)      Neuromuscular Fatigue

The neuromuscular theory of exercise related muscle cramping suggests that muscle overload and neuromuscular fatigue cause an imbalance between excitatory impulses from muscle proprioceptors that control length and tension in muscles. These tend to occur when the muscle is contracting in an already-shortened position. This is very common (the shortened position) when tennis players move. Therefore, the nervous system plays a significant role and working on better strategies of relaxation of the nervous system may help to reduce the likelihood of muscle cramps. This is likely the explanation for much of the muscle cramping that occurs when fluid levels are appropriate and sometimes when cramping occurs in colder conditions. Good methods to train this in preparation is to incorporate high velocity speed and power movements including plyometric and high velocity power movements to train the body to handle these movements in varying conditions.

5)      Lack of Emotional Control

Developing strategies to cope with hot and humid conditions is very important for elite athletes in all sports. Having well defined between point and changeover routines is very important to conserve energy and control/manage energy levels appropriately. Athletes that are highly emotional, talkative or generally burn a lot of excessive energy may result in more problems just due to more calories being burned each minute which requires more energy, etc.

Check out more information about cramping, nutrition, hydration and appropriate training for tennis players in either the Tennis Performance Trainer (TPT) certification program (www.itpa-tennis.org/tpt.html ) or the Certified Tennis Performance Specialist (CTPS) program through the International Tennis Performance Association (iTPA).

@itpatennis

www.itpa-tennis.org

Congratulations to Andy Murray for becoming the 2012 US Open Champion. His mission of winning a Grand Slam title has taken many years and lots of success, interspersed with many heartbreaking failures. It is a very important lesson for everyone involved in tennis and life. Things rarely come easily. It is very unique that you succeed at a major goal on the first attempt. It usually takes many mistakes, losses, frustration and heartbreak before achieving anything worthwhile. Andy kept working hard and trying to improve certain aspects that he needed to work on to take the final step in achieving his dream of becoming a Grand Slam champion.

Although Ivan Lendl has received a large amount of credit for Andy Murray’s victory, it is important for everyone to realize that although Ivan brought a very important piece to the puzzle, his involvement was only one aspect to the success. Andy has a very structured support team of fitness and health professionals who have been with him for more than five years. This consistency is very important for an athlete to have individuals who know the athlete very well and provides a consistent presence. The iTPA wants to congratulate the physical training team:

Jez Green – Physical Conditioning Coach

Matt Little – Strength & Conditioning Coach

Andy Ireland – Physiotherapist

All three individuals are true professionals that have dedicated a large amount of time, expertise and effort to helping Andy achieve the dream of becoming a Grand Slam champion. The consistency that they provide is very important and unfortunately this consistency is not seen enough at the junior, collegiate or professional level. It should be a red flag to parents, coaches and players when a physical conditioning coach does not last very long with a player. Many reasons may exist for a short relationship, but if a physical conditioning coach works with many players for only short periods of time, this should be a concern when evaluating the right trainer (or coach) for the athlete. Consistency is very important for long term success, and the best results are seen with a consistent team. Be wary of physical conditioning coaches who do not show long track records with players. It is similar to any professional who cannot (for multiple reasons) work with the same athlete for extended periods (i.e. greater than one year). If the trainer’s relationships are short with many different athletes, it suggests that the coach may lack the ability, interest, connectivity, long term focus or skills to take athletes through a progressive plan to reach large goals. When evaluating individuals to be part of the athlete’s team, it is important to think about the bigger picture and have a long term focus plan.