A deload is a planned step back from the volume (sets x reps) or intensity (load on the bar) in your current program. The idea is to give your tissues and nervous system a chance to recover after a period of intense training.

For advanced lifters (or individual training styles like powerlifting) this is important because your tissues heal at different rates. Muscle tends to recover quickly from training sessions.

But other tissues like ligaments and tendons (which receive less blood supply and lack specialized cells that help remodel damaged tissue), recover much slower.

This is where most people get in trouble because ligaments and tendons won’t get sore like your muscles, but they receive just as much abuse from heavy training.

That’s why programs designed for advanced lifters plan in “deload cycles” to help reduce the stress on connective tissue and give it a chance to catch-up to muscle adaptations.

However, most of us are not advanced trainees, powerlifters, or following high-frequency (training 5-6x a week) programs that use heavy loads.

If you’re working out 3-4 times a week, the other 3-4 days should provide adequate recovery time for both your muscles and connective tissues.  

Between vacations, travel for work, sickness, and family commitments, we’re often forced to take a few days off here and there over the year.

Take advantage of these opportunities. Train hard up to your event and then let the time off serve as your deload.

So bottom line: If you’re crushing it with high training frequency, then schedule in deloads — your all-important connective tissues will thank you.

But if you’re training less (3x/week or less), then you likely don’t need to worry too much.

I’m a big believer in video as an aid to sports improvement. I’ve already written about the subject in my post about recording padel matches, so that’s a good read as a start, but in this post I’ll expand on some tennis-specific things.

I would still use a GoPro, and if you don’t have one you can use an iPhone or iPad. I use a Manfrotto quality tripod which is also an essential part of your gear. If I am attaching the GoPro to the back fence, I use the Joby Gorillapod.

The app to use for stroke analysis is Coach’s Eye. When you compare your shot to the pros, you should probably always use Federer as he has the purest technique you can refer to.

You should always insist with your coach that you record the strokes, else you will not have a clear baseline when starting out and neither will you be able to clearly observe the improvement that takes place over time.

As a coach, you cannot have a rally while watching exactly what’s happening with the technique of the student at the other side of the court.

The ability to use slow motion is essential as you can really look for those important steps within your strokes and observe the finer kinetic details of your movement.

With regard to angles, the best ones to use are the following:

• Side views for backhand and forehand
• Back view for posture and movement
• Side-back (45-degree angle) for volleys

You should record one minute of each stroke so that you have enough to be able to choose the best and most representative shot. Another important consideration is frame rate. You should use the highest possible available with your camera, generally 60 or 120 frames per second.

Do you have any other tips on recording your tennis that I have not mentioned above? Let me know in the comments section.

Today I want to address confrontation in sports like tennis and padel, where it is quite common to have opponents try out some gamesmanship techniques to try to put you off your game.

I’ll start by recounting a situation that happened to me recently while playing in a padel tournament in Barcelona.

I’m always a bit on edge about playing in tournaments due to there being no second chances, one loss and you’re out.

Here in Spain typically players don’t warm up, take a break between change of sides etc. It seems that everyone is very anxious to keep the play flowing, unlike their tennis hero Nadal ironically.

So me and my partner like to do things properly, and take a break to towel down, drink and have a few quick words on change of sides, nothing out of the norms allowed by the rules on timings. At the end of a hard-fought first set in our last match, one of our opponents started to accuse us vehemently of time-wasting as we were having our break.

It really took me by surprise as I’m the type of person who likes to abide by the rules very strictly, so being accused of cheating took me by surprise and made me indignant. I made the mistake of engaging with the opponent and giving explanations that had every right to take breaks as the rules stipulate such allowances, and after a 5 minute heated discussion we continued the match. The guy was constantly nervous and commenting during the rest of the match and refused to shake hands at the end, which is totally unsportinglike.

Apart from not enjoying the tension in the atmosphere of this match, I was really bothered about how I lost my nerve and got the jitters after this exchange and played very badly in the second set, almost costing us the set. I think they would have been able to win the tiebreaker had we not narrowly managed to close off the second set.

I then spent some time replaying the situation back home (I actually had recorded the match too so I could re-watch the conflict). I thought about how things had panned out and asked some experienced players for their thoughts on such situations.

Basically:

• What should be my response to such comments and accusations?
• How do I not lose my focus and enter into a state of jitters and feeling of elevated heart rate and breathlessness (stressed)?

What is happening in these situations is that our body’s “fight or flight” response is activated, and then it’s really hard to get back to a calm state. Based on that knowledge, it’s definitely better to avoid or mitigate the confrontation in the first place if possible.

Tournaments have officials around even though there might not be an umpire for every match, so it is not your responsiblity to listen to your opponent’s complaints; they have the option to seek out an official if they feel so strongly about things.

It’s important to make sure that partners support each other if you’re playing tennis doubles or padel. You should not leave your partner exposed alone to the other players’ accusations. That doesn’t mean picking a fight to protect him, but rather to help him maintain his calm and composure and not be influenced by the other team.

On the bright side, the fact that your opponent has to resort to gamesmanship to try and throw you off means he doesn’t think his tennis is good enough to win. That is a sure sign that you’re doing well and you should continue playing and doing whatever has gotten you thus far. That means that you should absolutely not engage into an on-court duel with the offending opponent as this will mess up your game and potentially be exactly what the opponent was looking for.

Think of non-sensical comments, aggression and loud cheering from your opponent as if they were a car alarm that goes off relentlessly. It’s annoying but ultimately harmless, so we ignore it. You should do the same with your opponent.

On the other hand, when there is a real issue that needs sorting out, for example if the opponent is continuously breaking the rules such as by foot faulting, you can simply approach them with a smile and point it out without any emotion. Ask them nicely and see what happens. If they continue faulting you have two decisions. Either stop the match and approach the officials for a resolution, or else ignore it altogether and focus on your return in this case. The worst thing is to continue simmering about the offending foot faults and observing their feet during every serve. This will throw your return off and gift them victory.

Another common problem is players not wanting to change sides. I don’t understand the logic behind it apart from just pure laziness. In these occasions, you can simply point out that you’d prefer playing by the rules if they don’t mind. They might shrug and mutter some complaints but ultimately the rules are clear and on your side, so they have no option but to comply.

Do you have any other tips?

Here’s a quick list of five different ways you can improve at tennis or padel. Go through them whenever you feel like you’re stuck in a rut and you’re not improving much.

1. Movement and positioning – understanding the footwork patterns to be the most efficient on the court and can your recover to the right positions.
2. Fitness – can you maintain good technique throughout the whole point and the whole match due to being in optimal shape?
3. Mental shape – can one point cost you an entire game or set? How tough are you mentally?
4. Strategy and patterns – can you figure out your opponents’ strengths and weakness and can you figure out patterns to stress their weaknesses?
5. Technique – All four points above are interlaced with this last point. It’s really important but not the be-all-and-end-all. Technique gives you a larger array of shots you can hit and the ability to hit them consistently, but you need the other four points too.

During friendly matches and most amateur tournaments padel matches are played without an umpire. The qualifying rounds of World Padel Tour don’t have a referee either. This means that the players will have to judge certain things themselves in an amicable manner. Let’s talk about some of these things to keep an eye out for and how to behave.

If one of the players hits a shot whereby the ball hits another player, it is usual to apologize, while the person who got hit will acknowledge, knowing it’s part of the game.

At the start of the match it is usual to wish the other players a good match, and at the end all players are expected to approach the net and shake hands amicably, with both sides congratulating the others and thanking them for the match.

1. Each player is responsible for all decisions in her half of the Court. She should be completely honest on all “calls” but, if in doubt, she should give her opponent the benefit of the doubt and play the ball as good. You should not play a let.
2. It is your obligation to call all balls on your side, to help your opponent make calls when the opponent requests it, and to call against yourself (with the exception of a first service) any ball that you clearly see out on your opponent’s side of the net.
3. Any “out”, “let” or “fault” call must be made immediately (ie. made before either an opponent has hit the return or the return has gone out of play); otherwise the ball continues in play. “Calls” must be verbal and clearly audible to the opponent, followed by a signal if necessary. “Lets” may be called by any of the participating players.
4. On all court surfaces except clay (see (g) below) if a player incorrectly calls a ball “out” and then realises that the ball was good, the point should be replayed on the first occasion (involuntary hindrance) and the point lost on each subsequent occasion (deliberate hindrance). In the case of a point winning shot, a let would not be played.
5. When returning service, the partner of the receiver should generally call the service line for her. The receiver should generally call the centre and side service lines.
6. If players cannot agree on the score, they should calmly discuss the points/ games that are the areas of disagreement. If they cannot reach agreement they should replay only the points or games in question. All points or games which the players agree on stand eg. Two players cannot agree on whether the score is 40-15 or 30-30, but agree on the winner of the first, second and fourth points. Therefore only the third point needs to be replayed.
7. Players are prohibited from checking the mark of the ball on their opponent’s side of the Court, unless invited by their opponent to do so. Ball mark inspections are only permitted on clay courts. On clay courts if a player incorrectly calls a ball “out” and then realises that the ball was good, the player who called “out” loses the point.
8. Where a ball interrupts play, either by rolling/bouncing onto the court, and/or creating a visible interruption behind the court, a let should be played.
9. If a player hinders her opponent it can be ruled involuntary or deliberate.
10. When a player has created an involuntary hindrance (ball failing out of pocket, hat failing off, etc.) the first time a let should be called and the player should be told that any such hindrance thereafter will be ruled deliberate.
11. Any hindrance caused by a player that is ruled deliberate will result in the loss of a point.

If there are any situations that you’re unsure about, let me know and I’ll do my best to clear any doubts.