Day 9 🐳🌤

Tuesday. The 2nd day of the 2nd week 😊.

My alarm clock rings at 7:00 ⏰. I get ready comfortably. Change clothes, brush my teeth, apply lotion, pack my bag.

By 7:20, I'm done with everything, but I'm scheduled for breakfast at 8:00. 

So I decide to go outside and listen to a podcast comfortably in the sun 🎧☀️. I found this spot on a bench behind the building. Where the sports field is.

At 8:00, I meet Rica and Polina for breakfast. Today we have gluten-free bread 🍞 (don't know why 😂), a hard-boiled egg, and fruit salad 😋🍉🍐🍌🍇.

There are no bananas to take away today 🙀...

Then at 8:45, we go for physical conditioning 🏃🏼.

Because I got sunburned all over my back yesterday despite wearing sunscreen, and someone said it was going to rain today, I decided to wear a t-shirt this morning.

I think it's the thickest one I have.

During physical conditioning, I realized it was a mistake 😂. It was already so hot early in the morning, like I've never experienced before in my time here ☺️🌞.

After the usual stretching and warm-up exercises for half an hour, the theme today was 'Run and Jump'. We had a task that we had to do for 20 seconds. Then another task was done for 20 seconds. We repeated this 6 times after a 10-second break 😅.

Repeated the whole thing 2 times with different exercises.

In between or after a package, we ran laps around the cones for 2 minutes.

When we were done, the next group was already ready for their physical conditioning. So we left the SPRI zone and wanted to go to our courts, so we went left, but the coaches led us right into the indoors 🤔.

When we were supposed to put down our bags and sit on the sidelines of a court, we were completely confused 😅.

Then Nick Bollettieri suddenly came in 😍. 

Really now. Nick Bollettieri came to the tennis courts 😍.

It was then briefly explained to us that he takes the opportunity to visit the academy whenever he is nearby. That was today. 

So it's absolutely not a given. He doesn't come every week 😍☺️.

He himself then talked about how many people say that IMG trains professional athletes. But he wants IMG to prepare the people there for life and show them what matters in life. 

To constantly be able and willing to improve and also to be ready to learn new things and achieve great things with the simplest things 😊.

He told stories about himself in between. For example, when he came home from school, his grandmother asked him if he had done everything the teacher told him to do and if he had done what he should have done. 

If he answered honestly with yes, he was allowed to go outside.

That, he said, showed him and his grandmother that he had done everything in his power that day to improve. Every single day.

Later, some coaches played forehands and backhands, and he explained the technique and what the coaches did well 😇.

Then he talked about how when he built the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in 1987 with borrowed money from a friend, it didn't look anything like it does now. In 1987, where we are sitting right now, there were tomato fields and the academy only consisted of tennis.

But it is constantly evolving and he is especially proud of that. Because that's what his parents and grandparents taught him.

To show development.

Now the academy has 9 sports and is among the top in all 9. That makes him really proud. Since last year, the whole campus has changed. Buildings have been added. More space for sports fields has been created.

And the academy is constantly evolving. Always striving for more.

At this point, he explained why it is so important to have goals and not think about negatives.

For example, if you play in a group where most people are better than you, that's an opportunity. An opportunity to learn, to experience, and to develop.

And it can work. If you just go in there with a positive mindset 😊👴🏾.

After a while for questions, each tennis group took a photo with him. Then there was a big group photo 📸.

I'm really happy that I have a photo too, because one of the coaches kindly took a photo with my phone 😍.

If you don't know who Nick Bollettieri is, you can find him in the middle with the dark green shirt 👴🏾. On the far left is one of the assistant coaches, Carlos, and from the far right, you can see Coach Diego in white, Coach Taylor in blue, our head coach Arthem in gray, and next to him with the cap is Coach Austin.

Later, I got a photo with Nick alone and a signature on my ball ☺️😍.

At 11:00, we went to our courts 🎾.

We still had 1 1/2 hours left, so we just warmed up quickly. Then we did a challenge among ourselves. We had to hit a forehand and an approach shot into a target. The team that hit 30 balls first would win.

Unfortunately, we didn't win 😂. So all the other groups had to run laps outside of the 4 courts in one minute. Outside the nets around the courts 😅🏃🏼.

Then we did exercises for backhands, because Tuesdays are backhand days. First backhands with only the left hand ✋🏽. Then with the left hand and the thumb and index finger of the right hand ✋🏽👌🏽, and finally with both hands 👐🏽.

After the skill challenge - backhand crosscourt - we moved on to serving.

We did a short dry exercise before doing actual serves.

Finally, we played with a partner on one side of the court, since we are so many, hitting the balls back and forth. Whoever had more points after some time would move up to a higher court, the other person would move down 👆🏾👇🏾.

Then it was time for lunch 🍽.

After lunch, we went to Polina's room because she really wanted to eat her pizza there 🍕😂.

Before the mental coaching session, Rica, Polina, and I went to Smoothie King. Rica bought a Gatorade, which is normal.

Polina decided to get a large smoothie 😂. Even though she's already full from a small one. That's not normal.

Or rather, the size of the large smoothies is not normal 😂. You can't see it very clearly in the photos, and I don't know what they contain, but I can say that my hand could barely hold the cup, and the cup was so unusually heavy 😂.