Day 5 🐿🌞🖐🏾

After waking up and having breakfast, we start with the Physical Conditioning. Today, we are doing it on the so-called 'Hill'. It's a very simple hill, where no one really knows what it's for 😂. It's located right next to the golf course, but definitely doesn't belong to it. On the other side, there's also a field that can be used for pretty much any sport. But even that doesn't make sense to use a hill there 😅⛳️.

Originally, all kids under 11 should train at the SPRI Center and all other people at the Hill. But when it was 9:10 and there were still only about 10 people there, the coach just started. No one else came later.

After the warm-up and stretching, we did 35 minutes of stations. Of course, they were always on the slope 🙆🏼.

There were 4 stations where you had to do the exercise for 40 seconds each, then you had 40 seconds of rest or time to move to the next one 🏃🏼💃🏼.

We did the whole thing twice in a row 😅😅 and the stations consisted of the following exercises:

Station 1: Jump up the hill and bend your knees into a squat, then jog back down.

Station 2: Hop sideways up the hill and jog back down.

Station 3: Sprint up the hill and jog back down.

Station 4: Crawl up the hill and jog back down. 💪🏽

To finish, we repeated the same stations after a break for a drink. But this time, we only had 10 seconds to change stations 🕐.

Luckily, the session was already over after 35 minutes. I think I've never been so sweaty in all the time I've been here 💦.

Since I still had plenty of time, I walked to the tennis courts. On the way, you cross a really beautiful bridge that makes you feel like you're in the jungle, it looks so wonderful there 😻💫🌿. Often you can also see animals like squirrels 🐿🐾.

Since today is Friday and that means some people's last day, it was 'Funday' 🎾.

We didn't warm up as usual, but varied the exercises a bit. Then each coach got to choose a team and we did a kind of challenge. The team that wins the round doesn't have to do any punishments.

First, you had to hit a forehand to the coach, who then played it back as a volley. You had to hit the ball back into the court to score a point. If the coach didn't get the ball, you had to go back to the line and didn't score a point. The game went up to 15 points and I was in the group with the crazy coach from yesterday 😂.

We were the first team to reach 15 points, so we didn't have to do kangaroo jumps 😇.

Then we did the same thing again, but this time starting from the backhand and going up to 20. Unfortunately, one of the other teams did it before us.

For the 3rd challenge, there were 3 cones that you had to hit with a forehand volley to win. Unfortunately, that didn't quite work out 😬😂. So we had to sprint back and forth between the net and the baseline 5 times.

Doing the same thing with a backhand volley meant doing 5 more sprints 😅😁.

After that, the 4 winners of the skill challenges competed against each other to determine who will represent our group against the other groups. It's not going to benefit anyone, but Daniela from Panama won in our group 🙃.

Before the people from all the groups competed against each other, the players from all the groups met and we played a game called 'Ring-Ring'. It's similar to a game called 'King' that we play 😊. With so many people, I think we used almost 10 courts.

Each person had a partner. One team stood on one side and formed the 'Champions', while about 3 other teams stood on the other side. A coach would hit the ball to the 'Non-Champions' who would return it and then move to the net. Then they would play the ball against the Champions. If a team scored a point against the Champions, they would call 'ring ring' the next time they were up 😂. If a team scored 2 consecutive points, they would switch with the Champions. The points scored on the Champions' side counted. At the end, the team with the most points moved up one spot, while the team with the fewest points moved down one spot 🔛🔃.

Then it was time for the skill challenge. The winners had to hit a volley. The player who hit the most cones on the other side won. The final winner was a boy who was about 7 years old and I think he hit 6 cones 👲🏽! He also got a prize. If anyone is interested in seeing what it looks like, there's a video on Instagram at @imgatennis 👀.

At 12:30, it's Lunch time as usual. 

That was also the moment when I got to see my report card and the sweet card with the pendant ☺️. 

Ms. Peters, if you're reading this, thank you so so much for the sweet card, I had a wonderful time with you and Ms. Stegelmann, who please also receive my thanks when you get a chance 😍☺️.

After taking a little break because I was super tired 💤, it was time for Mental Coaching at the Wooden Center 😍. It was about Match Strategy. Quite interesting 😊.

Just as we were leaving, it started thundering again and the good old siren went off 😂🚨😂. All the groups went back into the hall, so we played on one court 😊. So no Match-Play today. The playing wasn't that exhausting because there were quite a few of us on one court, but inside the hall, the air was so stuffy that I still sweated a lot 😅.

We started with different forehand and backhand exercises. There was a line for the forehand and a line for the backhand. After one round, we switched. The first exercise was to simply hit a forehand or backhand. After the switch, it was an approach shot and a lob 🛩. This time, we had set up cones in the middle. For every cone we missed, we had to do 10 push-ups. In the end, there were still 2 cones left, but the coach was kind enough to accept 10 push-ups 🙅🏼.

Then we played 'Ring Ring' again. But this time, in a modified version, since we were playing on one court. On the Champions' side, there were 2 teams taking turns to play a point. On the other side, you only had to win one point to become a Champion 👑.

Apparently, there still wasn't any clearance regarding the thunder after the training, so the coaches led us out of the hall like bodyguards to a school bus that had to take us around the entire campus in a serious manner, just to make sure nothing would happen to us 😂😂😂. It was a bit exaggerated, as the sky wasn't even cloudy anymore 🌥😂. But it was definitely a funny experience!

After that, it was time for dinner and then a shower 😍🚿. 

That's almost the end of my day today, as I'm really tired and feeling my whole body 💪🏽👅.

Tomorrow, breakfast will be a bit later. Then there's an optional Match-Play from 8:00 to 10:00, but I think I'll just relax tomorrow. Maybe spend some time by the pool and later at 3:00, we're planning to go to the mall. If we feel like playing a match in between, I'm sure we'll find a court here... 😛😊.