It takes a village
From providing data-driven analysis to feeding them bananas – the LTA team are key to the success of our British players
Getty
- Sherna Noah
Add Wimbledon to your watchlist
Ad
Toby West – Lawn Tennis Association’s Senior Performance Analyst (Women’s Programme)
Describe your role…
I provide data-driven insights to optimise match strategy and gain a competitive advantage. New technology offers tracking of ball trajectories, player movements and shot placements, providing precise data on serve speeds, spin rates and court coverage.
How crucial is your work to players’ success on the court?
Elite-level tennis is now heavily data-driven, margins between victory and defeat are razor-thin. The small gains that players may achieve can be the difference between a win and a loss.
What’s the stat most players want to know?
“Where does my opponent serve on big points?” Understanding opponents’ tendencies with serve direction can give a player an idea of where to set up, and what to expect from one opponent to the next. What a lot of players also value is how their opponents behave under pressure, such as at 30–30, break point or in tiebreaks. Many players have predictable tendencies when the stakes are high, even if their patterns are varied earlier in games.
Bananas are still popular – the riper the better
Dan Ellis – Nutritionist
What does your work involve?
Preparation begins well before match day. We look at what players eat, when they eat it and how much they need to consume, tailoring everything to meet the demands of competition. We also refine their in-match fuelling strategy – selecting foods, snacks or supplements that are high in carbohydrates and easily digestible, helping them avoid discomfort such as bloating, sluggishness or urgent toilet breaks mid-match. Strategies vary depending on the athlete, but common choices include carbohydrate-rich drinks, gels, energy bars, dates and bananas.
Why bananas?
Bananas remain a popular option when players want a wholefood alternative to their gels or sport drinks – the riper the better, as the breakdown of starch into simple sugars makes them faster to digest and use for energy.
What are the challenges?
The unpredictability of match timings. Unless a player is first on Centre Court or Court One, their start time often shifts due to longer matches before them or rain delays. This makes it tricky to manage food timing.
Rachel Newnham – Performance Lifestyle National Lead
How do you help players?
We’re a psycho-social team comprising performance lifestyle, performance psychology and clinical psychology.
How important is your work to the modern game?
A player’s wellbeing is crucial to performance and the need for support with mental health has grown and grown over the past few years.
How has your advice changed, particularly with the trolling that some players face on social media?
Social media has played an increasingly big part in players’ lives. We help them and their team to navigate the good, bad and ugly that comes with it. Positive use of social media can bring great benefits, so helping players understand how best to use it and support them when they face online abuse is important.
What’s your number one tip?
We live busy, hectic lives but investing time in your own wellbeing can only ever have a positive impact!
Katie Boulter in training prior to a match in 2023. Getty
Ollie Fawls – Physical Preparation Coach
Describe your role?
We apply sport science principles such as strength and conditioning, load monitoring, athletic profiling and data analysis to prepare professional tennis players for the physical demands of the sport.
How important is your work to players’ success on the court?
Our role is crucial, the modern game is more intense. Particularly in the men’s game, you see more all-court game styles at the highest level; meaning players are repeatedly exposed to more high intensity movements and changes of direction. The recent men’s final at Roland-Garros between Sinner and Alcaraz was an advert for this. You can’t be a top professional player in the modern game without being a top athlete.
How have expectations of fitness changed?
There’s no hiding in the modern game; the physical standards are there for all to see at the top level.
What’s your top tip?
Ad
A general top tip for any aspiring top player or junior is to never waste a warm-up – 15 to 30 minutes each day of targeted exercises and drills to develop yourself as a tennis athlete goes a long way.
Authors
Sherna Noah
Ad
Ad
Get the Christmas double issue
Too much to watch at Christmas? Let Radio Times do the choosing to find something the whole family will enjoy.
Loading...
Ad
Loading...