My training schedule as a professional tennis player.
I saw a post about how awesome it would be to become a pro. It truly can be great, but the work to get there is pretty unfathomable for most. I thought I would give you a day in my life from 1993 to 1995 when I was on tour. I was a top 400 player and made very little money. It was not as beautiful a picture as most would dream. Here was a typical training day:
I trained with a guy named Lawson Duncan for a while and here is what we did. Lawson was a top 50 player in the world who fought injuries and should have been a top 20 player. His work ethic was crazy.
-Wake up at 6:30 and have enough oatmeal and bananas to kill a cow.
-7:30: I would run the length of a golf course. Usually around 5 or 6 miles.
-9:00: On the court for intense hitting drills. 100 balls forehand to forehand.
Same thing on the backhand and volleys the same. If a ball was
missed, we started over at 0. HIGH INTENSITY!
-11:30 Lunch and relaxation.
-1:00 Matchplay. Tiebreak after tiebreak as well. Losses had a penalty.
Usually running or push-ups (Funny, I was playing a guy who could
outhit nearly anyone on the tour from the baseline. I sure did a lot
of penalty running and push-ups.)
-4:00 Hit the gym. I spent 1 hour on the stair-climber and 45 minutes on
exercise bike. I then lifted weights.
This was the non-tournament workout. During tournaments, I was a tie-break playing maniac during my off days.
I experienced some burnout and we backed the schedule off, but I was in such serious shape, it was incredible. Those six mile morning runs soon felt like absolutely nothing. I found out that this was the workout that Lawson and Ivan Lendl followed when training for big tournaments. They would bike together instead of doing the exercise bike at the gym. That was just a training day in my life. Not so glorious huh?