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Josh's April 2012 Diary (his March Adventures)

Hi and I hope everyone is enjoying the tennis weather! This month has been one that I’ve spent settling into my new training regime at the National Tennis Centre in London and working on elements of my game. At the start of the month I began working with my new coach, Greg Rusedski. It’s been a good start and I am getting on very well with Greg as he starts to understand and learn how I work and visa versa.

I have been working very hard on my fitness to get into good shape and playing a lot of tennis on the clay courts as my next couple of tournaments are being played on this surface. My new routine starts at 7.30am with either interval training, strength work or weights until 8.15am, which is then followed by breakfast. After breakfast we have hydration testing at 8.45am which is something I have only used in the past when I have been travelling with the LTA. They have a machine that checks your urine and indicates whether you are hydrated or not...clever stuff! If I am not hydrated I have to drink a certain amount of fluid in preparation for the training. There has only been one occasion this month that I haven’t been hydrated, so it’s good to know I naturally look after my levels.

I’m on court from 9.30 to 11.30ish doing either tactical work or high intensity drilling, depending on what happened the day before and what we want to achieve that day. Lunch is next on the agenda, followed by a quick nap! Before each session I do a 30 minute warm up, which is the first thing I do when I get on court for the afternoon session and then I’ll startplaying between 2 and 2.30pm until 4pm. During the on court time, I am having quite a few individual lessons from Greg. We are getting on very well and one of the major areas he has helped me on is the serve as I am developing a more consistent serve through changes to my ball toss and grip. Other tweaks are being made to the groundstroke’s to allow me to drive through the ball more, so I feel that this is making some positive changes. A lot of the work I have being doing in the gym is also being translated onto the court, so as I progress, I look forward to reaping the benefits. My favourite shots are groundstrokes down the line, so we have also been working on opening up the court a bit more which will allow me to use my strengths. Other areas I am improving on with the serve are serving out wide when on the deuce court and down the T when serving from the advantage court. Today they filmed my forehand so it will be interesting looking at the footage and discussing this further.

After the on court training I will do injury prevention work for 30-40 minutes which includes the use of elastics and stretching. This is followed up by a massage, which is well earned at the end of the day! After dinner there is a bit of time to relax but to be honest, I’m like an old man and go to bed at 8pm... unless Chelsea are playing on TV! My schooling is on Friday mornings and then throughout the week I will do homework in my down time.

I’m getting on well with the other players who are based here but there aren’t many at the moment as they are off at tournaments. In the next few days I am hoping to play a tournament in France but I’m just waiting to see if I am in. It’s an ITF Grade 2 Junior event which will be a good level.

So as the training routine settles down, I look forward to updating you all on my progress over the next month. 

Take care and I’ll see you all again soon.

Forty love,

Josh Sapwell - 29th March 2012 

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