I am in the middle of a six week structured improvement program inspired by one of Dennis Ralston’s books, Six Weeks to a Better Level of Tennis. During this time, I am publishing a status update on the effort every Sunday. The previous posts on this topic are summarized below in case anyone is interested in a refresher.
- Week Zero: Introduction of the inspiration and arc of the project.
- Week One: How the “Davis Court Circuit” hobbled me for a few days.
- Week Two: The tyranny of the tournament calendar and training periodization.
- Week Three: Watching better players, Steffi Graf, and the crossover recovery step.
If anyone is following this project closely, in week one I shared my planning category matrix and indicated that the flip side contained my tracking mechanism. I have not shared the flip side of that card which contains my tracking matrix.
The reason why the backside of that card is unlikely to ever be shared is due to one of my objectives on the front side. Specifically to “Check Weight Daily (lighten the load).” I have been targeting a moderate weight loss during this six week project to bring me back down to what I consider to be my target “playing weight.”
For me, it is a simple matter of physics. I would not want to strap on a five pound weight vest and play a match. Excess weight that is organically on my body is much the same. I am way too lazy to carry extra weight around the court. At the same time, I like food. A lot.
Weight, body image, and perceptions of fitness are touchy subjects in general and particularly for female athletes. It is no longer socially acceptable to comment on a player’s physique. On the other hand weight can be a loose approximation of overall fitness.
In “The Crazy Summer of 1994 Part 1: The Players” I included a reference to a news article with the headline “Junk Food Binge Blamed for Seles Gaining 28 Pounds.” To make matters worse, this was when she was recovering from being stabbed on the court. She wasn’t playing tennis or really exercising because she was recovering from a horrific event. I want to believe that the same article would not be written today.
As another point of reference, I am horrified at the way the USTA treated Taylor Townsend in 2012. Despite the fact that she the #1 ranked junior in the world, the USTA withheld funding for travel to the 2012 US Girls 18s Nationals and the US Open. Additionally, they also rejected her petitions for wildcards into the main draw and qualifying.
The reason? The USTA coaches wanted her to lose weight. The USTA coaches unilaterally decided that the appearance of her body was a better indication of her fitness than the exhibited levels of fitness on the court. To make matters worse, Taylor Townsend was 16 years old at the time.
The USTA rationalized this under the guise of “concern for her future health.” I personally do not see evidence of a an appalling lack of fitness in photographs of Townsend from that time period. I want to believe that the USTA learned something from this episode and that something similar would never happen today. I kind of doubt it though.
Back to my own journey, without sharing the numbers, I am not super happy with my progress against this goal. While weight fluctuates on a daily basis I seem to have generally lost a single pound. On the other hand, I can see some increased muscle definition from the “Davis Cup Circuit” which I wrote about in week 1.
As an additional point of reference, the Fiend at Court spousal unit says that I am looking great. I would note that he has consistently stated the same thing throughout our 30+ years of marriage including the time periods when I gained 50 pound with each pregnancy. The Fiend at Court spousal unit is no dummy. That… probably isn’t a good reference point now that I think about it.
The secondary question to the weight objective is whether my overall fitness level has increased. I want to say yes, but it is hard to say for sure. I continue to be very happy with my increased court coverage. However, as it turns out… it is exhausting to run hard for every ball. Without a doubt, I can play points with a lot more intensity and duration than before. At the same time I am “hitting the wall” more frequently in my workouts than I used to.
When I added weight monitoring with an objective to cut my load on the court, at the back of my mind there was some question in my mind whether it was a good goal or one that I would be willing to share. That question is answered, I guess.
I think that this is one of those objectives that has to be intrinsically motivated. It’s an OK goal, but it is only OK because it is something I set out for myself.
As a footnote, I will forever be a fan of Taylor Townsend. She has overcome so much adversity. As a part of my “watching better players” objective, I have been watching her victory over Simona Halep in the US Open last year over and over. I have found that there is a lot in Townsend’s game that relevant to my own journey.
- Ralston, Dennis, & Tarshis, Barry, 1977, Six Weeks to a Better Level of Tennis, Simon and Schuster, New York, New York.
- “Junk Food Binge Blamed for Seles Gaining 28 Pounds,” Dayton Daily News, August 31, 1994.
- “Taylor Townsend dispute: USTA cuts funding until No. 1 junior loses weight,” Courtney Nguyen, Sports Illustrated, September 7, 2012.
- “Meet the 23-year-old American having a seismic impact in the US Open,” Jill Martin, CNN, August 30, 2019.
- Simona Halep vs Taylor Townsend Full Match | US Open 2019 R2, YouTube.
