Serving It Up In Women's Tennis

I am extremely proud to introduce my new role as a performance coach for Leylah Fernandez – Canadian professional tennis player. A role that mixes Sports Therapy, S&C and Sports Science allows me to maximise her performance on and off the court.



Recently I have returned from the US after a short period training in Miami and my first tennis tournament – Indian Wells. Indian Wells has been around since 1974 and takes place in California with the second largest outdoor tennis stadium in the world.

Tennis is a sport based on unpredictability. The unpredictability of point length, shot selection, strategy, match duration, weather and the opponent all influence the complex physiological aspects of tennis play. As a performance coach of a professional tennis player it is important to understand the demands of the sport and the capabilities of the player.

So let’s take you through a typical training day...

We start the day off with a 15 – 20 minute mobility routine before breakfast and then head to the practice courts. When at the practice courts we do a 10 – 15 minute warm up incorporating skipping, footwork and reaction drills. After this she goes onto court where the tennis coach takes over and we use a lot of video analysis to break down her technique. This session lasts approximately 2.5 hours before we head to the gym for our daily strength/speed session. During a strength session we look to target a high number of anti rotation work with trunk strength stability. After lunch we go back to the court to work on the

corrections from the morning session before finishing the day with a daily treatment.

I hope this gives you a little bit of an insight into the life of a performance coach on tour with a professional tennis player. I will be back next time to talk about all things performance nutrition and how to fuel for training and competition like a professional athlete.

You can catch me in clinic on a Tuesday and Thursday!

Tom

Chelmsford Physio

hello@chelmsfordphysio.co.uk

01245 895410

Riverside Leisure Centre, Victoria Rd, Chelmsford CM1 1FG