Sania - Conditioning, Foot Speed, Mobility and Coaching ..

[Varma]

Oh, wow !!! This news made my day too. I remember reading all those stories about the kind of torture he put Henin-Hardenne through and how much she appreciated it later...not to mention the results that followed. This indeed is very exciting. OK, Sania...eat as many Biryanis as you can before you head to Florida. Once there, I am sure he will make you cry for your mummy and granny.

Kudos to team Sania for making such wise decisions.

Good luck !

- Varma

[BSharma]

I am happy that Team Sania has decided to give importance to physical fitness, and this will make her a better player and will prolong her career if she makes fitness a part of her daily training throughout her playing career.

I would like to add a word of caution for Sania. I hope that Pat Etcheberry's Sports Performance Clinic people have worked with athletes from India, or understand that physique of people from India is somewhat different than people from America and Europe.

Sania can benefit from this program if she makes physical fitness a regular part of her training from now onwards. People lose the benefit of these programs very quickly if they do not maintain them.

[Sandeep]

I have my own reservations on how Sania is going to cope up with the fitness schedule there. Let us see how it works out. Bsharma, what is the possibility of Injuries when you are subjected to super fitness program all of a sudden?

Anyways, Sania

[genius]

A word of caution.

Martina had blamed the same trainer for Henin's long lay off last year.

And when I saw Justine training, I thought, ’My God, that woman works very, very hard,’ and I was wondering how long she can keep it up. And there’s your answer.

“The trainer that she works with, he’s done that to other players. He works them too hard. He’s done it before.

“She’s in her prime physically. Obviously she overdid it a little bit, and she knows that, and she’ll probably pull back the reins a little bit. The trainer should have known better because he’s been there before.

“For her, it was the first time, and she worked her butt off, worked a little too much.”

Agassi on the same issue

At the WTA Tour Championships, she even went so far as to say that she hoped Etcheberry’s routines would be more painful than last year. When Agassi was told this in Houston, he voiced his skepticism: "There’s always going to be a certain amount of sacrifice involved any time you push yourself to cross boundaries, but there are a couple of crimes in training. There’s a crime of sort of having such commitment and desire and running yourself into a wall and having it sort of come back to bite you in the backside. The other crime is that you have such desire to sort of strive and to make gains, but the program itself doesn’t allow you to accomplish that. So you have to know what you’re doing, you have to know why you’re doing it. You have to know its effect in the short term and in the long term. If [Justine] is looking forward to pain, I would just caution her to keep her mindset on a career, not on just another great tournament or a great year."

I was hoping for agassi's trainer gil reyes.Though i am not sure if he trains other players.

[BSharma]

Sandeep,

Can you move these posts to the thread for conditioning, speed training, etc?

Bsharma, what is the possibility of Injuries when you are subjected to super fitness program all of a sudden?

Sudden increase in exercise, and especially one that will involve muscles not used much, can result in injuries. The sports fitness programs for elite athletes involve:
1. Aerobic exercises
2. Strength or resistance training
3. Flexibility training
4. Speed training

I am hopeful that these professionals will know how to handle Sania, and she will undergo pre-evaluation to see where she stands as far as her aerobic strength, muscle strength, flexibility and speed are concerned.

[prasen9]

This is good news. However, imho, Sania needs a traveling trainer who will forsee her training for a substantial time rather than one week. Maybe that is coming.

-pm

[puneets]

Dear guest..I think that you overlooked one point...that this is Sania's 1st year on the tour. This makes her acheivemnts even more important.

And you sound as if cricketers don't deserve money. It's a very difficult ask to get selected in the Indian team. Every kid in India plays cricket..and dreams to be in the team. Being in that 11 is indeed special.

[Sandeep]

Sudden increase in exercise, and especially one that will involve muscles not used much, can result in injuries.

Initially, when a foreign trainer was appointed for Indian cricket team, there were tons of injuries! I thought that it was because of the sudden increase in fitness regime (it was just my assumption as I didn't find any reason for sudden increase in injuries). And the quotes from Martina and Agassi only strengthened my views.

Hopefully Sania will comeout great guns without any problem. Go Sania.

[genius]

Unless I hear her say that she needs to cut down on her UFE (backs off her uppity attitude at the same time) and improve her serve, my wager for bragging rights (see a previous post) still stands. Just banging the ball with ferocious power will never be enough.

As i understand, this training is for the offseason and so i am not sure why you are speaking as if she is going to spend all the time there and have no time to work on serve or shotmaking when plyers don't like to do them anyway during the offseason month.

But this was one of the areas she has to work on and let's give credit progress is being made.I have been cautious as well,but for moe valid reasons.

now very well that the difference between the top 10 and the rest is 80% mental and 20% skills.

No its 99.5% (talent + skills) as i feel mental abilities relate a lot to the skills or armoury you do have.Rest are all overrated.

I know, she has beaten only two top 10 players so far (SK and NP) and SK has clearly not played at her best throughout the year. Against other top 20-30 opposition she has just shown flashes of brilliance

ROFL! this is an unbelievable comment.At this stage with an unevolved game,this is what you expect from young players usually.

Only against the very top,highly gifted players, it seems it looks like her chances are Slim.Against most like sveta, she can challenge them
even now.she will certainly win more against them with the needed improvements tough.Especially the losses like the one to czink can be avoided.

[sameerph]

She had 6 matches agaist top 10 players & won 2 of them.
Had fairly good wins against top 50-100 players. Her record is at least 50 % againat them if not better.
In grand slams reached 4th round in US , 3rd round in AO, 2nd round in Wimbeldon.
Tell me how many players has such success in first full year on Pro tour ? Let's give her some time. Team Sania will definately do what is best for her.
She has about more the 2 months off after mid-October. Sufficient time to work on improvements in game & physical work.

[completelyconked]

She had 6 matches agaist top 10 players & won 2 of them.
Had fairly good wins against top 50-100 players. Her record is at least 50 % againat them if not better.
In grand slams reached 4th round in US , 3rd round in AO, 2nd round in Wimbeldon.
Tell me how many players has such success in first full year on Pro tour ? Let's give her some time. Team Sania will definately do what is best for her.
She has about more the 2 months off after mid-October. Sufficient time to work on improvements in game & physical work.

Absolutely!She has exceeded expectations in my book.She has risen up through the rankings at the same rate as the genuine phenoms.And this coming from a girl with mimimum top flight coaching,and one of the most unreliable serves in the game.What more do you really want?Even Sharpova did not win wimbledon in her first year on tour .Sania's game is so raw and underdeveloped at the moment,that the fact that she has actually managed to steamroll two top 10 players already,won a tournament,and reached the fourth round of a grand slam is amazing.Very encouraging.

Can we all just shut up and stop expecting things to improve overnight?If you want overnight results then you should not be following sport at all.Everything takes time.

[completelyconked]

I spoke at length with a person who knows Brad Gilbert quite well, and his opinion is that it is difficult for many players to work with Brad Gilbert. Brad apparently talks a lot and a player has to get used to his constant advice during practice sessions. He felt that Brad Gilbert is a very good coach but he comes with a lot of baggage.

I do not believe Brad Gilbert is the right person for Sania.He has a Huge ego,and there have been reports of some unsavoury incidents involving him and female players like Mary Pierce.Sania is quite headstrong,and Brad is supposed to be quite stubborn himself.I do not think he would give her a free-reign to experiment with her shots,which is what she needs.She needs a firm hand, but not an egotistical coach like Gilbert.A lot of players have had problems with him.Apparently he talks more than he works during practice sessions.

I think Brad would be great for short stints,but not as a full-time coach.Personally,i think Farrington understands sania's game quite well.Its too early to judge him based on results.

[completelyconked]

Makes my day, and I'm not Arun!
Etcheberry will make her feel muscles she never knew she had. Lots of hard running in the sand and up hills / dunes, weights to stregthen shoulder, core training, and plyometics for explosive power from the large muscles. You won't recognize her body when Etcheberry is finished with her. This is great news.

I hope she doesn't end up looking like Serena she won't be quite so marketable .

Didn't this guy push Justine over the edge?He's practically ruined her career!She can hardly play two tourneys in a row!