Preseason Training, 2/3 Weeks Complete

Today things feel scrambled. It’s been two weeks now of pre-season training and I’ve fallen flat on my face. It feels like the walls are closing in on me and I don’t have any way out.

Throughout this offseason, I took my first two weeks off from training with the only time on court being spent on lessons… a much-needed break for my brain. During these two weeks, I spent nearly every day focusing on something in the gym. Monday, bodyweight exercises for 100 reps; Tuesday, exercises for pushing strength; Wednesday, exercises for pulling strength; Thursday, exercises for rotational strength and explosiveness; Friday, interval training; Saturday, endurance training; Sunday, active recovery. Each day, rent was due. I know I was putting in the right work, to get my body stronger and more explosive. I acknowledge that without on-court movement and practice my tennis level would drop, however I feel like things are only getting worse as I continue to practice. Pain began in my wrist every forehand I hit and gradually spread to my elbow as a form of compensation once I began tapping my wrist to reduce the pain. Now my serve as been impacted let alone my forehand… I knew I should’ve rested when I felt pain. But how am I supposed to train?

Learning when to push through and when to rest is in constant flux as a tennis player. We’re faced every day with the need to do both, yet we push too hard in one and the other faulters. My tendency is to push through, despite the pain and discomfort, however it can only bite me in the ass unless amid a competition.

Yesterday marked the second day in a row where I was on court for 5 hours and the inflammation spread from my wrist to my elbow in the pronating motion. Still feeling out of sorts on court, my intention this week was to ramp up the tennis slowly, from once a day to hopefully up to twice per day. Committed to my plan, I ignored my body’s signals to rest and recover banking on my rehab exercises and muscle stimulation recovery would be enough. This time it was not, the injury has continued to get worse and impacted my tennis immensely the last couple of days.

During my practice this morning, I began feeling great and ready to compete but as soon as things went awry, my mind began to unravel. Same physical pain, same mental battles as yesterday. Disbelief, reluctance, frustration, all emotional synonyms of fear. Each thought after the next, negative, hurtful, devastating. With every negative thought entering my mind, I felt like a boxer entering the ring with each bruise on his face beginning to swell until his eyes are swollen shut and he can only swing blindly. I let my thoughts cloud my consciousness, nearly resulting in rash behavior on court. I was furious, searching for excuses for why I was playing poorly and things to blame other than my injuries. The reality is that injuries don’t just impact my game, they impact my mind. If my mind is not equipped to manage the emotions of an injury during a match, than I will not perform 10% of my best.

I feel deflated. The level of my tennis has recently been impacted by the pain I feel in my arm, despite all the rehab exercises and self-treatment I’ve done. It’s time to take this rehab seriously and rest my body thoroughly. Listen to your body, feel your emotions, observe your thoughts, and breathe.