Work in Progress – The buildup of a new tennis player

It sounds like a company project or the idea of a doctor turned into a madman. But in fact is my idea of becoming a more solid player with more options to display on court at a less price in term of injuries…

All these months away from active competition or any sort of match play (there is always a competitive component in a friendly match that may not be good in my current development phase) Frank Hornig and I kept working on correcting the main flaws in my game.

Club Hipico y Golf City Bell

Groundstrokes started to show some good form as well as volleys. Serve and overhead (so much related) are to follow. So far I’m happy with what I’ve seen. Not only I’ve been able to play through tennis elbow injury but pain has subdued and for the first time in a long time I have nothing to complain on that front. I have stop using the patella strips protection for the first time in 7 years. All praise to Frank and his teachings.

I recently lost 10 pounds which helps me moving around the court better. Another improvement, little things that add up for a better overall outcome, won’t you say?

Switching hitting sessions with Oussama Azizi, Maher Diab, Francis Demers, and specially Carlos Montoto helps me discover little details that is dully captured and transmitted to Frank for further analysis/discussion. It’s a long process and of course I miss competition and the adrenaline rush of a break point, but it’ll come, sooner or later; in the meantime, I enjoy and embrace the process.

Not long ago I spent a few days in Argentina. With temperatures over 40C and humidity factor over 75% I just found hard to breath in such soaking atmosphere.  By 5AM temperature was close to 30C and raising, little to no wind, a true inferno.

Club Hipico y Golf City Bell

Still I managed to have a few hitting sessions at the nice Hipico y Golf Club in City Bell where my Family resides. I was helped by Walter the main pro there that accommodated the sessions for me with the cooperation of several of his students. Each session was 60 minutes long only as opposed to my 90 minutes here but considering the temperature it felt like 4 hours. I loved the feeling of hitting on red clay (my least favorite surface) as it was kind of a blast from the past.

Vilas and Wilander 2015

In my last night in Argentina, had the chance to visit Guillermo Vilas again and spent some time talking with him about what I was working on and we got into very technical discussions over dinner. It was great, enjoyed it enormously and hopefully he did as well. I’m deeply grateful that such Champion sets time to talk to someone that shares the same passion.

These days Mats Wilander is in Argentina, invited by the organization of the ATP 250 held in Buenos Aires. I know Mats and Guillermo sat for a talk. Their friendship goes way back to 1982 when Wilander defeated Vilas in the finals at Roland Garros. Both love tennis very much and I’m sure they also enjoyed each other company.