Winter 2016 Academia Sanchez-Casal Florida Exchange program

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We are an authorize agent academy for Academia Sanchez-Casal in Florida, so let’s make a trip (or two) there each years so our players can experience clay tennis and world class training.  Academia Sanchez-Casal was home to some of the best players in the world, such as Andy Murray, Grigor Dimitrov and Svetlana Kuznetsova to name a few.  We spent 2 weeks over the Christmas break at the academy and it was awesome! 

Monday morning, we hit the court at 7:15am, training started bright and early on 35 clay courts and 3 hard courts. Players rotated through live point plays, footwork-based drills and technical corrections. 

Fitness and Conditioning Training 

Fitness and conditioning go hand in hand with competitive tennis. Players undergo 2 hours of such training each day, except for Wednesday with just 1 hour and another 1 hour of mental training.

World Class Coaches

What an amazing experience for our players, they enjoyed working with some of the best coaches there.  Coach Emilio Sanchez was out there working with our players, he is a world renowned coach from Spain who had produced many top ranked players in the world. He’s now coaching Fernando Verdasco.  The program director, coach Lucas was incredible running our daily practice and training.  He was the former coach of Maria Kirilenko and had worked with the Bryan brothers.

And there was a great surprise for us, coach Pavel Slozil was giving private lessons to each of our players.  He was the former coach of Steffi Graf for 5 years, during which he coached her to the #1 rank in the world. Did we say AWESOME!

Coaches Involvement 

Our coaches also travel with the team to further enhance the experience and productiveness for our players.  We shadowed ASC coaches, discussed coaching philosophy and together come up with lesson plans for our players while training there and also when they return home.

Private sessions for NorCal Tennis Academy Players

In each afternoon, we hold a light practice session for our players to go over what they have learned and try to execute them during match play.

 

Mental Training 

Coach Eva Borras worked with our players both on and off court on their mental strength.  A former WTA player, she went through on court routines and focus rituals to help our players perform their best in the midst of competition.

 

On Campus Fun times

That’s a lot of tennis in one week, it wouldn’t be productive if we didn’t let our players enjoy some time off. Slouching on the couch, playing ping pong, swimming and playing exhibition matches then right back to work.

Sunday excursions

Sunday is the day off from training, thank you to the parents who accompany us on the trip. They put together a nice trip to Miami and South Beach for our players to have some fun, good food and time away from training.