Junior girl in tennis camp six weeks but skips tournaments

[arturohernandez]

Hi Everyone,

So a bit of background. I have a 16 year old daughter. UTR is close to 5. She plays in high school and USTA tournaments. Used to be a high level champ in Texas which translates to Level 5 in the new USTA system.

She has done well in tournaments for the most part but never broken through to a higher level. The last tournament she played was 18's because I did not want to travel for her to play the same level of players in San Antonio which is a four hour drive. UTR's were consistently higher in the 18's but the best 16's in the respective draws were the same. She lost two close matches against higher rated players. In both matches seemed overpowered more than outlplayed. They were bullying her around. So we ramped up fitness.

We are in the Basque country for the summer. She is here for six weeks (I am staying for 3 mos for work). I was lucky to get her into a tennis camp for six weeks. They are completely packed. 1 hour 15 min of tennis and 1 hour 15 min of fitness five times a week.

She will head back in mid-August to high school tennis. She will probably not pickup USTA tournaments again until mid-October.

To summarize:

1) Tennis camp five days a week for six weeks. Focused on half tennis and half fitness. 2.5 hours a day. 3 hours total with two 15 min breaks.
2) Junior girl likes the camp but would rather not play tournaments in another country for now.

What effect will this have on her once she begins to compete again?

[don_budge]

What a tremendous experience. The tennis is going to play out by itself as you have discussed her development here in the past. It sounds as if she is making excellent progress. Develop the athlete parallel to the tennis player. Three hours a day is a good number. The social aspect is unbelievable to participate in another country and culture. This is one of the big assets of playing tennis. Take your racquet anywhere in the world and you are going to meet nice people. The right people.

I would take this opportunity to do some work parallel to the camp if she has the energy and motivation. A half hour a day hitting against the wall or against somebody concentrating on the backhand. Coming over it and slicing it. Another fifteen minutes a day devoted religiously on the serve and the motion. Hitting targets. Spots. I spent two summers at the Don Budge Tennis Camp in Maryland when I was eighteen and nineteen. I believe that it was a great opportunity to live, eat and breath tennis.

The fitness is just about the smartest thing you can do for her. Sounds really good. What an opportunity...in days like these.

[stroke]

Focusing mostly on fitness a superb idea. As for the tennis portion, I have no idea where she is on her serve, but that may be the other focus while not working on fitness.

[doctorhl]

Are any of the courts at camp on clay? If so, even better to help develop her game and find ways to overcome the power players she encounters.'

[stotty]

We have a girl training at the Juan Carlos Ferrero Academy. She does 4 hours a day on court and one hour in the gym, plus ITF tournaments. She trains predominantly on clay and gets through a hell of a lot of tennis socks according to her mother.

[arturohernandez]

Thanks for all the words of encouragement. We have been doing serious walking. I mean 10-15K steps a day up steps and hills in addition to her tennis.

[arturohernandez]

Are any of the courts at camp on clay? If so, even better to help develop her game and find ways to overcome the power players she encounters.'

Hardcourts only. Courts are tight here and the only place I could get her into was hardcourt. But we are going to the local club tomorrow to play on clay. She asked if we could just go for fun.

[arturohernandez]

Focusing mostly on fitness a superb idea. As for the tennis portion, I have no idea where she is on her serve, but that may be the other focus while not working on fitness.

Her serve is actually in a good place now. We worked a LOT on it for the last few months. Trying to get her to use her legs more. Not turning to early but making sure that she did not jump backwards either. She is really happy with her serve so that is probably the best part.

Actually, she is really happy with her whole game and even likes that she is practicing on single courts with no painted doubles alley.

She says she can really know where the ball should go on a singles court. On the doubles court, the alley can be distracting.

[arturohernandez]

What a tremendous experience. The tennis is going to play out by itself as you have discussed her development here in the past. It sounds as if she is making excellent progress. Develop the athlete parallel to the tennis player. Three hours a day is a good number. The social aspect is unbelievable to participate in another country and culture. This is one of the big assets of playing tennis. Take your racquet anywhere in the world and you are going to meet nice people. The right people.

I would take this opportunity to do some work parallel to the camp if she has the energy and motivation. A half hour a day hitting against the wall or against somebody concentrating on the backhand. Coming over it and slicing it. Another fifteen minutes a day devoted religiously on the serve and the motion. Hitting targets. Spots. I spent two summers at the Don Budge Tennis Camp in Maryland when I was eighteen and nineteen. I believe that it was a great opportunity to live, eat and breath tennis.

The fitness is just about the smartest thing you can do for her. Sounds really good. What an opportunity...in days like these.

The parallel work is the 10-15K steps we take up stairs and hills to move around town. The other day it rained and she had to walk up a steep hill for fitness. She says its the hardest thing she has ever done in terms of fitness.

There are no hills back in SE Texas near the gulf.

The other part is to go to play on clay tomorrow so that she can slide around and feel a different surface. Clay just makes you slow everything down and adjusting to balls takes the ping pong aspect of tennis out of the equation.

She is really enjoying her time on the court here and in general.

The trip was supposed to happen a year ago. It got postponed twice. I cannot even believe we made it given everything that has happened in the last year and a half.