Seminole High Performance Tennis

Pre/Post Match Nutrition (Eat like a Pro)

2012-01-20T19:00:00.001-08:00

by Katie Rybakova

Are you drinking soda before a match tomorrow? Naughty,naughty. That’s basically saying “Hey, guess what world, I want to cramp!” Whatyou want to drink is water, and plenty of it. Especially if you travel- yourbody dehydrates more on the road sitting in a van/plane on your rump than youcan imagine. Any kind of sugary, syrupy concoction reeks havoc on yourwonderful athletic metabolism, so stay away from the delicious talking bowl ofKool-aid (I’m too old if you don’t get that reference, shame on me for notkeeping up with you youngsters), lemonade (sorry, couldn’t think of anyeuphemisms worth attempting), iced tea, ect. Speaking of iced tea, say NO tocaffeine the day before your match. Now, certain peeps say that caffeine isactually a type of athletic enhancer prior to a match, but honestly, theyhaven’t tried to stick it out on the court in Florida weather in a threesetter, now did they? They, whoever “they” are, are talking about athleticenhancement for a short period of time, so don’t listen to them. Listen to me. J And if you don’t“like” water (spoiled!), stick some lemon slices in it and be quiet (anddrink).

Pre-match food: carbs, protein, and fat. Yes, fat. Notjiggly-snickers-bar fat, but fat that comes from foods like avocado, olive oil,and nuts. Hold the thought on carbs and protein- why do we need to eat mono andpoly-saturated fat (fancy scientific terms for “good” fat- that nutrition classdidn’t go to waste after all!)? Answer: so you maintain your weight and don’tact like a coo-coo bird on court- “good fat” stabilizes your metabolism anddigestion and enhances your emotional well-being.

Holding that thought of carbs and protein? Good. Verystraightforward- carbs equal energy. Here’s an algorithm for protein- oil isfor the car like protein is for your body. It keeps your body running smoothly,and, unlike oil in the car, needs to be replaced quicker than every 3000 milesand also happens to do some rebuilding of body tissue (show me a car oil thatcan do that!).

A science lesson later, we’ve discovered that a meal likepasta, chicken/steak, and a small salad with olive oil based dressing (bonuspoints for the dark leafy greens- Popeye-also super old, ugh I’m aging- wasright about spinach!) is spot on for a meal prior to match day. If you want toskip the salad, go for salmon- it’s high in protein and “good fat.”

Match day: now the amount of food and what you eat willdepend on when you play. If you play in the afternoon, have a good heartybreakfast with hot food and cold food- knock yourself out at the buffet.Obviously stick with the same plan- protein, carbs, and fats. Eggs, toast, andsome almonds sounds delicious. If you want to stay away from cholesterol (hibutter on toast and yolk in egg), have some oatmeal with some nuts on top. Your body will have enoughtime to digest the food and you won’t take a nap on the court and realize you’redown 6-0 when you wake up (blood rushes to stomach to digest food- thus absenceof energy and thought process J).Now if you’re close to your match and hungry, you need to eat something thatdigests quickly but will sustain you through the match. Stay away from diary,and go for some quick carbs and protein. Hi bagel with peanut butter, nice tomeet you. Stay away from larger meals, or you’ll turn into a lump of coal, or,my favorite expression nowadays, a tree stump.

During the match: drink PowerAde (Gatorade, whateverade). Ifyou need to eat something, take a power bar or some kind of quick granola barto munch on between sets (or between breaks, whatever floats your boat). Nowlet’s put to rest the whole banana thing- although Sharapova’s pantomimingfather is rather amusing, bananas are a long-time “tennis match” food thatactually don’t give you much. Gwen Stefani’s ode to the banana got us extraexcited about this fruit, and although it’s loaded with potassium and carbs, itdoesn’t prevent cramping like it claims to. Cramping is actually lack of sodium(salt) rather than lack of potassium. Sports drinks have plenty of sodium inthem, but a rather peculiar drink is taking the nation by storm (or at leastI’m predicting it)- Pedialyte. Pedialyte is a baby-formula for childrensuffering from diarrhea- hang with me here. It replenishes sodium andelectrolytes lost out of the body; when your playing, Pedialyte is a goodsubstitute for sports drinks because it actually has a better balance ofelectrolytes and sodium than sports drinks do! Disclaimer- it’s gross. You’llwant to drink it really cold to get it down, but you’ll thank me later.

Post-match: coconut water. Along with its not so tastyPedialyte, coconut water has more potassium (now you need it, so eat all thebananas you want), more electrolytes, and less sugar and grossness (color dyes,ect.) than any sports drink on the market. Not to mention, it’s delicious andnutritious. Lots of protein is good now, as are carbs to replenish the energyyou’ve lost. Keep drinking water and Pedialyte but add coconut water. Sidenote: if you happen to have stiff joints and issues with inflammation, sayhello to another health-nut inspired drink that helps ease inflammation; tartcherry juice. Yes, it’s not Advil, but drinking tart cherry juice is a goodlong-term medicine to avoid inflammation and tendonitis.

Here are some more fun facts regarding food:

· Kiwis have more vitamin C than oranges

· Coconut, avocado, and dried apricots have morepotassium than a banana

· Coconut water, since it’s pH is very similar tothat of our blood, has been used as a transfusion for people who are crampingor extremely low in nutrients

· Chicken soup is a known cold fighter (so is zinc-it’s highest in foods like oysters, dark chocolate, and peanuts)

· The food highest in carbs is a baked potato, notpasta

· Greek yogurt is high in protein- mix it withnuts and a bit of honey and you have yourself a delicious, quick breakfast thatwill digest pretty easily.

· Onions absorb flu bacteria- don’t eat it if it’sbeen lying outside the fridge, but put it by the bedside of someone who’s sick.

· Garlic is a natural antibiotic- eat a clove(stinky breath!) with food when you’re sick or feel like you’re getting sick

I’ll leave you with this- the more you pay attention to whatyou do outside the court, the more it influences how you feel and how youperform on the court. So put that soda down, and drink some water instead. J

FSU Men Open Season with a 7-0 Victory

2012-01-15T07:04:00.001-08:00

Jan. 14, 2012TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Building off the energy of a very enthusiastic crowd, the No. 44 Florida State men's tennis team shut out No. 74 North Florida 7-0. With the win today, Florida State has now won their last 11 season openers and increases their all-time record against UNF to 9-1.

"To me, since I've been here, I'd say it's the best UNF team that they've had," head coach Dwayne Hultquist said. "They had some really good fall results; their number one player won the State of Florida Tournament. They have some good players and compete really hard. It was a good win because at all nine positions we played well and played hard and came through at important stages."

"It was a very good crowd," continued Hultquist. "I think one of the things I liked was our ability to play hard. When you play hard with a lot of enthusiasm people want to come out and watch you play. I thought it was very entertaining and well played on both sides."

Starting the day was doubles with the Noles taking a quick lead winning all three of their matches. One court one, junior Jordan Kelly-Houston and sophomore Blake Davis defeated Julien Belair and Beau Treyz 8-3. On court two, junior Anderson Reed and freshman Dominic Cotrone continued their winning ways from the fall and nabbed the 8-4 match over Norbert Nemcsek and Daniel Sotomarino.

On court three, freshman Benjamin Lock made his debut in Garnet and Gold to team up with junior Andres Bucaro to win 8-5 over Moritz Buerchner and Leonardo Nahar.

"We got off to a really good start in doubles," continued Hultquist. "We got up a quick break on all three courts and I thought that was important."

After taking the 1-0 lead from doubles, the team went to work in singles winning five of the six first sets. Coming off first for the Seminoles was Bucaro who dominated court three winning 6-2, 6-1 over Nemcsek. Following him off the courts was Davis who won 6-3, 6-1 over Sotomarino on court two.

Clinching the match for the Seminoles was Reed on court six. Only needing two sets, the junior topped Graham Edgar 6-4, 6-2. Kelly-Houston was off next for the Seminoles with a three set match against Buerchner on court one. Kelly-Houston won the first set 6-0 but the talented Buerchner won the second set 6-2. After a tight beginning in the third set, Kelly-Houston came out on top to win the match 6-0, 2-6, 6-2.

"North Florida has been a tough team," said Kelly-Houston. "We had a tough fall with them. The guy I played (Buerchner) is obviously a good player. It was a little deceiving after the first set and I knew he would come back strong. I'm glad I was able to come out in the third set and get back to where I was in the first and finish it out strong."

Playing in the first collegiate duel match, Cristian Gonzalez Mendez forced a first set tiebreaker against Belair which he won. Using the momentum from that first set, the freshman finished out the match with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 win on court four.

"I felt like a couple of matches could have swung either way in the first sets," said Hultquist. "After Blake and Cristian won their tight first sets, we won five first sets. We pretty much dominated after that."

After losing his first set and being down in the second, senior Jason Zafiros knew he needed to come back strong and did just that. Building off the energy from the crowd, he came back to win the second set. Using that drive, he came won the third set decisively to with the match 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

"It was really important to take UNF very seriously because they beat us during the fall," described Zafiros. "It was huge to have a 7-0 win across the board. It gives us a lot of confidence going to the next match. It was a really big confidence booster. The crowd was extremely helpful and I hope they realize that can help us win a lot of matches down the stretch. A lot of us feed off energy so it's really important for the crowd to be involved."

Florida State returns to the courts on Monday at 10:00 a.m. against Florida A&M and 4:00 p.m. against Troy. All matches are playing at the Scott Speicher Tennis Center. Call (850) 645-GAME for updates. Follow the team on twitter at twitter.com/fsu_mtennis.

RESULTSNo. 44 Florida State 7 d. No. 74 North Florida 0Doubles1) Kelly-Houston/Davis (FSU) def. Belair/Treyz (UNF) 8-32) Cotrone/Reed (FSU) def. Nemcsek/Sotomarino (UNF) 8-43) Lock/Bucaro (FSU) def. Buerchner/Nahar (UNF) 8-5Order of finish: 1, 2, 3Singles1) Jordan Kelly-Houston (FSU) def. Moritz Buerchner (UNF) 6-0, 2-6, 6-22) Blake Davis (FSU) def. Daniel Sotomarino (UNF) 6-3, 6-13) Andres Bucaro (FSU) def. Norbert Nemcsek (UNF) 6-2, 6-14) Cristian Gonzalez Mendez (FSU) def. Julien Belair (UNF) 7-6 (5), 6-25) Jason Zafiros (FSU) def. Leonardo Nahar (UNF) 3-6, 6-3, 6-16) Anderson Reed (FSU) def. Graham Edgar (UNF) 6-4, 6-2Order of finish: 3, 2, 6, 1, 4, 5--www.seminoles.com--

Australian Open Bracket Challenge

2012-01-13T05:50:00.000-08:00

Compete in the Seminole High Performance Australian Open Bracket Challenge. Play against your fellow campers and friends. Bragging rights until the French Open! Let's see who knows their Pro Picks!!When prompted for the access code, type in: nolesDeadline to participate is 1/15/2012 at 7pm Eastern Time.Go to http://www.tourneytopia.com/RacquetBracketAussieOpenATP/seminoles/default.aspx

FSU Men's Tennis Opening Weekend!!

2012-01-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

Please come out and support the Men's Tennis Team as they take on in-state rivals the University of North Florida. Match starts at 1pm with doubles and followed by 6 singles matches!!

Serving Tip of the Week!!

2012-01-05T12:08:00.000-08:00

Serving for Success
When you think Andy Roddick, you think big, explosive serve. The kind of serve that you wouldn’t want to play butts-up for. The kind of serve you don’t want to return at risk of embarrassing yourself by cowering in a corner/running away. The kind of serve... well, you get the point, the man’s got a decent start to the point. Don’t you want to serve like Roddick? You’ll need to practice about 16 years. This is not one of those “In ten minutes or less a day” commercials. But on a more serious note, there are a few great pointers to take away from Roddick’s rocket, first or second for that matter.
Regardless of your serving style (I get it, you want to be unique, embrace your specialness, yada yada), there are common elements to every good serve (unless, of course, you’d rather not get it into the court- but then you’re reading the wrong blog).

First and foremost, let’s check out the ball toss in relation to the body in the loading position. Aka, where you toss the ball when you’re in “trophy stance.” Junior players like to toss the ball exactly everywhere where it shouldn’t be.  Too far over their heads, too far to the left, too far to the right, too far forward, ect. What happens is simple mechanics- the left arm drops too fast, and you are not getting the maximum force going into the court- instead, players wish to go against physics and end up falling backwards or to the left. Not good.
Back to our pal, Roddick. You’ll see in the video that Andy places his toss slightly to the right of the center above his head. Pause the video right at the loading position (aka trophy stance), and you’ll see that the ball is in a straight line with his left arm pointing up the ball.
Turn your brain off for a second- we’re refocusing. Now since I didn’t tell you to un-pause (de-pause? Sorry, amusing myself with semantics) the video, you shouldn’t have moved very far from Andy’s trophy stance, correct? Notice how his hips and trunk are rotated? You can see that he has loaded up to hit his serve with massive trunk rotation in the trophy stance, combined with extensive knee bend (hello squat jumps!). Left arm isn’t dangling to the side. It’s in a straight line with the ball at the apex (perfect placement for a toss to optimize power). Once Andy loads into trophy stance and maxes out his loading, he then explodes upwards and lands on his left leg with his back leg extending backwards to counterbalance his forward movement. Ta-da! The momentum propels him into the court, maximizing his power and at the same time placing him in a good position to recover to play the point. Since, you know, you’ll have to actually play the point after your serve. Oh, by the way, you can play the video now, see what I’m talking about.
So now you can serve like Andy Roddick. Yay! Well, what you should take away from this is that next time you go out to practice your serve, practice placing the ball toss in a straight line with your left arm in the trophy stance. It should be slightly to the right of center in the perfect position. Let it rip. But seriously, you’ll feel that you begin to get more power by propelling your body up and into the court. Make sure you are landing on your left leg for maximum rotation and power. Go on, why are you still in front of the computer? Make Roddick proud!
Stay tuned for more fun and tips!

2011-12-20T19:31:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share a couple of really cool videos that I have seen over the past few months for everyone to view. Please enjoy these videos and stay tuned for more on the Seminole High Performance Blog.

This first video is of Cara Black, former #1 player in the world in doubles. Her volleys are amazing and this video demonstrates her amazing talent!!

This second video is of two of friends, Bob and Mike Bryan, current #1 doubles players in the world. Enjoy this video of them doing the "Bryan Brother's Volley Drill". I remember watching them do this drill when they were 14 years old.

Lastly, I really enjoyed seeing this video of the evolution of the forehand from Bjorn Borg, to Ivan Lendl, to the world's best player Roger Federer. It's amazing how they all have their own style and own characteristics but also a lot of similarities in their strokes.

Stay tuned for our next tip of the week coming on Friday! We will be discussing the serve and how to help you gain consistency and power with one easy tip!

Go Noles!

Winter High Performance Camp Overview

2011-12-19T20:15:00.000-08:00

This last weekend we hosted our Annual Winter High Performance Camp. However, this was the first year we were able to use our indoor courts during the cold season. It was nice being able to go inside and not have to worry about the temps or any inclement weather. As for the training, on Friday night we focused on a lot of footwork drills and movement. We also skills tested the kids. It was interesting to see how some of our regular kids scored compared to last years results. They all scored significantly higher than last year on all of the strokes. We ended up finishing up Friday night with some match play.

Saturday was a great day as well. We followed up with more and more footwork, but also focused a lot on the serves. After the morning session, we walked the kids over to the Seminole Golf Course which is only about 200 yards away from the courts. The kids ate in the Seminole Grill and enjoyed some relaxation time with the coaches. In the afternoon, we utilized our new ball machine. Each student was able to isolate a stroke that needed work and focused on it for a while. Coach Hultquist focused on technique during this time as well.

On Sunday we concluded the camp with the Seminole Davis Cup Competition. Just like in our camps during the summer, the competition came down to the very last match. When it was all said and done, USA defeated Spain 70-69 in total games won. Each player in the camp played 3 rounds of singles and a round of doubles in the competition.

Overall, we had a great weekend of tennis and looking forward to finishing up the 2011 season this week with our last week of the After School Program before Christmas. Stay tuned for more info and tips of the week! Until next time, keep training like a champion everyday!!

Get Ahead of Your Competition

2009-12-07T20:56:00.000-08:00

Going the extra mile!!

What does it take to be the best or just get ahead of your competition? Well, it's the little things that you can do when you are not at the courts or at practice. That means following the 20% rule. What I mean is that you should always try to do 20% more than the next player. If the coach asks you to do 10 push-ups, then maybe next time do 12.

Sometimes those little things you do at home make the biggest difference. Extra push-ups and sit-ups at night, jumping rope in the garage on those rainy days when every one else is watching TV. Do the things that the other players aren't and you will ensure success!

Next time one of the coach asks you to do something, go the extra mile and you will get to the top! Until next time, Go Noles!!

Nick