A Matter of Fitness
AUSSIE OPEN SEMIFINAL MATCH SPOILER ALERT!!!!!
If you don’t want to know the outcome of the Djokovic-Murray semifinal match, stop reading now!
I watched that match with great interest, especially as it moved into the 5th set. Both players were looking a bit fatigued, and it was obvious that this match was going to come down to who was the most fit – both physically and mentally. While Djokovic has traditionally been plagued with physical ailments which caused him to either retire matches or lose them outright, Murray has been plagued with fatigue of the mental sort but has always been a beast physically. Today was different. Murray seemed to lose his legs early in the final set, struggling to stay in points long enough to do damage to his opponent. Somehow, he found a last burst of energy to come back from a 2-5 deficit, but, eventually, Djokovic had a little more in the tank and was able to close out the match 7-5 in the 5th.
Why is this important to note? Because our junior players are no longer being pushed to their physical limits in tournament play. Many tournaments, even those at the highest national level, have gone to playing a 10-point tiebreaker in lieu of a 3rd set and to playing short sets in the case of weather delays. When our American kids are across the net from their European or South American or Asian counterparts, are they going to be able to withstand the physical – and mental – pressure of playing for three full sets?
And, it’s not just the length of the match that is in question – it’s also the style of play our kids are being taught. As Greek coach Chris Karageorgiades told me, “The game in Europe is more physical because their philosophy is different. In the US it has traditionally been about developing players with big weapons (namely serve and forehand). This is changing in order for players to better prepare for what has become a more physical game which is played from the back of the court. Whether this is a good or bad decision for the future of American tennis remains to be seen.” If you watched any of the Djokovic-Murray match, you saw some incredible points that involved 20+ shots moving the ball side-to-side and front-to-back. To stay in that type of point – over and over again for an entire match – takes incredible leg strength, stamina, and fitness. I’m concerned that our American juniors are not being adequately prepared for this type of protracted battle.
Two-time Australian Open Champion and current junior coach Johan Kriek shared with me the following: “May I say, that growing up in S[outh] A[frica] on a farm with no TV, no X-box, no video games was a huge plus in my future physical make-up…today’s kids are digital…they need to be pushed, and push I do …the good ones will excel, the wimps will bail!” Johan puts his players through fitness training every day: the older kids working out in the gym, the younger ones working with resistance bands. His biggest worry is that mediocrity is being accepted as normal, which he views as a societal ill that he just doesn’t tolerate with his players.
I know there’s been a lot of talk on the part of USTA about having the junior players train and compete more on clay, taking a page out of the Spanish book. But, I’ve also heard that our American green clay is very different from the red dirt and that it doesn’t provide for the same type of movement and long points as the red stuff. If that’s the case, are we wasting our time? What can we do better?
Johan goes on to say that “Murray and Djokovic are fit, but that does not mean that the mind fatigues as well, and that has equal input in the body not functioning, the two are hugely connected. If you believe you can win ,the mind will push the body beyond human capacities, we see that in tennis and people that had to use enormous courage to survive near death etc, it is not the body that controls the mind, it is the mind that controls the body. That is what separates the good players from the awesome players, not the strokes, they are all great! But the ‘head’.”
This is not only about being competitive on the professional level because, let’s face it, most of our kids aren’t on that path. It’s also about positioning our kids to be competitive when it comes to playing college tennis. They are up against foreign players again and again for scholarships and spots on college teams. If they don’t have the physical and/or mental fitness skills to fight through long points and matches, how are they going to convince college coaches to give them one of a very few coveted spots on the team?
Posted on January 27, 2012, in Coaching, Fitness/Nutrition, Mental Toughness, Tournaments & Rankings and tagged asian counterparts, atp tours, clay court, coaching, college coach, college scholarship, college tennis, fitness, guidance, hydration, junior competition, junior development, junior tennis, long points, mental strategy, nutrition, parenting, physical ailments, physical game, point tiebreaker, scholarship, semifinal match, stamina, tennis, tennis tournaments, USTA, weather delays. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
Just a couple of quick follow-ups:
The brain will tell the body to shut down long before it really needs to do so. Top athletes in training are able to put those thoughts aside and push through. I tell my players all the time their brain is lying to them and to keep going. You have to do it in practice and in training to be able to do it in a match. The best can do this.
Also, when fatigue sets in, more of the decision-making processes shift from one area of the brain to another. Without going into too much detail, this is why players make poor shot selection choices when tired; things like bailing out on a point with a slap-forehand attempt at a winner or an ill-advised drop shot. Their brain is actually not functioning properly. That’s one reason you will see that at the junior level or with younger pros; too much activity is being shifted to the prefrontal cortex which has not fully developed yet for players at their young age. I think some of that was going on with Raonic in the match he lost at AO, too.
Great article! As a fitness coach, I get invited to do the fitness part of the junior tennis programs, and it is terrifying to see how unfit these youngsters are. They have no strength to even hold and support their own bodies in different exercises. Withing a few months of fitness training, all of them improve their tennis dramatically, and they get also mentally much tougher. I always tell them “if you can survive this here in the fitness class, any point on the court will be super easy.”
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