Xmas blog...

22 December, 2007 | 12:12

Christmas might be a never ending whirl of boozy office parties and general fatness for most, but for the pro tennis players amongst us it’s business as usual.

Since flying back from the ATP University in the States, Jamie’s been spending some time training down at the National Tennis Centre, before he heads back up to Scotland for a short break with the family. Mind boggles at what the excess baggage fee on that haircut will be, but anyway…

So, no evidence of Christmas as far as Jamie’s concerned. Straight into the stretching after rocking up at around 10am. There seems to be a general (and healthy) obsession with Yoga down at Roehampton, and it’s certainly spilled over into the player’s stretching routines.

The guys spend around ten minutes holding various poses, and getting the blood circulating etc…

 

 

Always room for some light cardio work too, just to get the heart-rate up. Look closely and you’ll notice none other than Shakin’ Stevens on the TV there. Of course, not Jamie’s choice, but then he did say, at least twice, that he liked the new Take That song….

That’s the thing with reputations: take a lifetime to earn, and they’re lost in an instant…..

 

 

If James Brown was the hardest working man in show business, then Louis Cayer’s got to be pushing for the equivalent title in tennis. The guy is just on court all the time.

The indoor courts have a booking system that then displays who is on which court, and for how long. Good little four hour stretch from Louis here….

 

 

Four hours might not sound that long, unless you’re working with the King of Banter here…

Once again, a variety of ever evolving doubles drills. Working on court position, movement, serves, everything. Pretty interesting to watch….

 

 

The guys will generally work really intensely on something for a five minute period (or until all the balls have gone from the basket) then come together at the net to compare notes on the exercise. Usually a fair amount of banter flying around at this point….

 

 

After a couple of hours, the guys broke for lunch, but Louis stayed on court to wait for the next lot. Might be wrong on this one, but I think this is him feeding the morning session’s data onto his laptop.

 

 

Jamie headed to the treatment room before lunch, just to make sure he could sneak in some time on his back later in the afternoon. Place might be a centre of medical excellence, but they love the Quality Street at Christmas.

In a cynical plot to leave all the Praline’s for himself, Jamie put himself in charge of handing them out…

 

 

More later….