Routines and Training

My training programmes depend on whether it is a tournament week or a non-tournament week. Let us start with a non-tournament schedule.

Generally I will have five sessions a week on court with the rest of the squad at the Connaught Club in Essex. This has been my home base for several years now.

Every other day, usually Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I will also have a session in the gym with a mixture of weights and stretching. On alternate days, the days when I am not doing the gym work, I will do some interval work on the bike in the afternoons.

Most mornings I will do some routines on court with my coach, Neil Harvey. I will have a hit every day with a different player, depending on who is at the club. The regulars include Bengy, Tim Garner, Pete Genever and Joey Barrington, plus a number of players from overseas, including Ritwik Bhattacharia and Tim Wyant, who come to London to learn from Neil Harvey. The locals include Lee Jemmett and Lauren Briggs, with appearances also from guys like Chris Walker, Paul Johnson and Lee Drew.

As you can see, there is a lot of variety. Linda Charman-Smith also comes up from Sussex on a regular basis to train with the guys and play for the UK Packaging Connaught team in the National League. We usually finish the sessions off with a game, depending on the time of year.

It is essential to stay supple so I like to do a lot of strengthening work in the gym. In the summer I will try to do two extra sessions a week of stretching or yoga, but nothing too hard.

I also do some "stability" work with a gymnastics ball or crunches and some balancing work with different weights, working on different sets of muscles.

I take a different approach when I am building up to a tournament. This is a typical build-up to a tournament.

Monday:
Morning session on court followed by a gym session in the afternoon.

Tuesday:
Light hit in the morning followed by a match in the afternoon.

Wednesday:
Light hit in the morning. In the afternoon I will be flying off to the tournament.

Thursday:
I like to get acclimatised with a light hit and then do some stretching followed by a massage.

Friday:
I will play a game for 30-40 minutes followed by a lot of stretching. At this point I will make sure I am eating good food and getting lots of rest.

Saturday:
Time for the tournament to start.

This is a fairly typical build-up. I am just tuning up, getting the mind and body ready for the job to be done.

ALCOHOL. Yes please! Seriously, I rarely touch a drop of drink for two weeks before a tournament. The reason is simple: too much will poison your body and make you feel tired. This year was particularly hard with the US Open being held in the first week in January, but I did not touch a drop of drink from December 9th to January 9th, when the US Open finished. That meant having none over Christmas. It did not mean that I missed out on any of the fun, just that I was careful not to damage my tournament preparations. After tournaments I will often have a drink or two. You need to relax so the odd one or two beers is fine.

Sorry if some of the above is a little vague, but please understand, I do not want to give away too many secrets!