A Week in the Life of A Tennis Academy Player
Week in the life of a Tennis Academy Player who attend and board at Loughborough Amherst School, part of the Loughborough Schools Foundation;
MONDAY
On Monday, it’s an early start. I wake up at 6:20 and have a healthy breakfast to start the day off well. I get my bags ready the night before so straight after breakfast I can hop in the taxi at 7:20. I get to the Uni at around 7:30. I quickly get my tennis bag and get on court to start my warmup at 7:45. I start my training at 8 o’clock and finish at around 9:45. I quickly get changed and get in the taxi heading towards Amherst school. I arrive at school at around 10:10 and head towards my Geography classroom. I am then in lessons, Geography and then Maths, until lunchtime. I then go for a quick lunch and make sure I’m ready to leave school by 2:15. I get in the taxi and arrive at Uni at around 2:30. I quickly get changed into my kit and head on to court for a warm up at 2:45. I have a lesson for an hour and 45 minutes and finish at 4:30. Then I have half an hour to chill and eat some snacks. At 4:50 I jog to the gym to get there for 5. I then have a session until 6. I get back to the players’ lounge and sort my bags out to get into the taxi for 6.15. The other players and I then go to enjoy a filling dinner. I then walk with the other players back to Hahn house and have a nice, warm shower ready to start our homework.
TUESDAY
On Tuesdays, I wake up and get ready for the day ahead at 6:20. I have a quick breakfast and get into the taxi at 7:15. Today is a tough day! When I get to the Uni, I get my bags ready to get onto court at 7:30. Then I have 2 and a half hours of tennis. I finish at 10:30 and go get dressed ready to leave at 10:45. As soon as I get to school I have Maths for half an hour then Physics for an hour and a half. After, I go to the school’s common room to hang out with my mates and then we go for lunch. After lunch I have Extra Science for half an hour, then straight after English for an hour. School ends at four and I hop into the taxi to get there for 4:10. I get changed and head on to court for 4:30 with the other players. I have my second tennis session for an hour and a half and I finish at 6:30. As soon as I finish I go get my school stuff and get into the taxi. The other players and I go and have a nice dinner. I then go back to Hahn house, finish up some homework. Ready to get an early night in bed at 9:30, to start the next day well.
WEDNESDAY
On Wednesdays I don’t have training in the morning so I get to sleep in till 7:30 and have a tasty breakfast at school. School starts at 9:10 and that’s when I have an hour and a half of Biology. After this lesson I have to quickly get changed for my gym session that starts at 11.00. After an hour of gym, I head back to school for my English lesson that starts at 12:10. Wednesday is only a half day of school, so I head to Loughborough Uni at 2:15. At the Uni I then have a series of meetings either with my psychologist or my performance Lifestyle Education Manager. After the meetings we have another tennis session and finish at about 6.30. I head back to school to have a nice dinner with the rest of the players and then we go to Hahn house when I have a shower and do some homework.
THURSDAY
Thursday is one of my hardest days as I have to wake up at 6:30 to get to the tennis centre for 7:45. I then do a two hour vigorously hard tennis session and after start my cool down session at 10:15. I have a warm shower and change into my school uniform to head to school in a taxi. I arrive at school only to have a full day of school ahead of me, consisting of Chemistry, Maths and English. After school finishes I travel to Loughborough at 4:00 to start my second session at 4:30. After another long session, my cool down ends at 6:30 and I travel to the Grammar School to have my evening meal with the other players. Looks like I’ll be having a good sleep tonight after a long day!
FRIDAY
On Fridays I have an early start as my taxi comes to pick me up at 7:15 to take me to my first tennis session of the day. But before this I need breakfast, I don’t have a massive appetite in early mornings like these but I still try to get all the nutrients I need to support me throughout the day. When I arrive at the tennis centre all my bags for school and tennis are pre packed the only thing I have left to do is fill my water bottle up and off I go to warm up-this warm up is consisted of exercises for our own specific development. I have two sessions. In the morning when we finish we go to stretch after the session, next to the courts. I have a short period of time between my tennis session and gym session where I have a snack to build up my energy levels- we always have food in the players’ lounge so we can have a snack whenever we are hungry. We always go to the gym with someone else. After gym I have a refreshing shower and quickly get changed and travel to school. I have Physics, and History on Fridays and private study to catch up on any work I’ve missed. I love Friday’s lunch as it is fish and chip day. At the end of the school day I go back to the tennis centre and play a bit more tennis then head back to have some well-deserved dinner at the Grammar dining hall where we get dropped off by the taxi. We walk from the dining hall back to Hahn House and I normally shower and then relax and get ready to go to bed.
WEEKEND
On Saturdays we have a lie in as I wake up at 8:00. I get ready to have breakfast around 8:30. As breakfast is later I can have a normal healthy breakfast to help me maintain my performance even though it’s the last session of the week. The taxi picks us up at 9:05, when we arrive at the tennis centre we get ready to go straight onto court so we can start our warm up. The tennis session is 1h 30 - it is a bit hard as it’s the last session after the tiring week but we all know that it makes us stronger. We stretch and shower and head back to Hahn House for lunch. We either make lunch ourselves or Mrs West and her family make some delicious lunch for us- last time us girls made some food: I had rice with sauce and they had some pasta. The rest of the day is free time where we can go into town or meet our friends or even have sleepovers. We are also allowed to stay up just a little bit longer.
Sunday is usually quiet. I like to stay in bed until 10.30 and then we go to brunch at 11:00. After brunch, we sometimes go to town or we watch a film. We like to chill and chat. At 5.00 we go to tea at the Grammar School and after that, when we come back to Hahn House, we usually do some homework ready for the week to come.
By Given, Rana and Sophya
