Diary for 31^st January 2009:

I was meant to be doing my level 1 coaching course in Bournemouth on the 22nd of January. Unfortunately it was postponed to the 17th of February because they didn't have enough people enrol in it. Everything is going pretty well in England at the moment and there's not much going on in Perth which I cant do here, so I've decided to stay for the course :).
I would have gone to Perth and done the course later down the line if it wasn't for Tim Hewitt (my old training partner from when I was little), he's back in town for a while after being away playing futures with the British team and is now ranked in the top 900 in the world. so I've got a good training partner here for the next couple of weeks. Everybody else I train with have now left Dorset, Lloyd has gone back to the States for University and Ben Pritchard has gone to Spain for a while, training in the Barcelona academy. So Tim and I will probably be hitting a lot with each other now that it's just me and him for a couple of weeks until Ben gets back and the tournaments start up again.

It's all worked out well really with the course being moved to the 17th. My gym membership doesn't run out until the end of February, so I'm getting my money's worth there :). Obviously I've got some good training now set up, and also I have found a little job working for my friends dad in Poole, so I'm saving up a bit of extra cash while here :).
It's a quiet time of year for tournaments at the moment so it doesn't matter much where I'm training, as long as I'm training hard and earning an extra bit of money on the side then it's all good :)

I've defiantly improved 100% since this time last year, I was looking at my old programme the other day and I'm a lot stronger faster and fitter than what I was.
I remember Darren saying "as long as you keep moving forward and have the determination to keep on moving forward, then you cant go wrong" :)

I'm still living with my best mate James in Bournemouth. His family has been really nice and making me feel at home. His little brother has just been signed by Portsmouth football club (juniors) so they're a pretty sporty family who eat healthy :)

I'm still getting better and better in the gym. I did a 10km run the other day in 39 minutes which is a new personal best :)
It would be interesting when I get back to Australia and have a fitness session with Ryan (my old fitness trainer) and see what he says.

Diary for 12^th January 2009:

There's been a slight change of plan for the better re going to Australia. The original plan was to fly out on the 2nd Jan and live with my sister for the first couple of weeks. The problem was that Jenny (my sister) lives a good 20 minutes away from Wembley Downs, the club where I would be doing a bit of coaching, for whom I would play and where I will train. This wouldn't have been too bad, apart from not having a car or transport for the first couple of weeks, so getting to Wembley would have been a bit tricky. I was planning on just taking those couple of weeks to settle in and have a bit of a holiday with Jenny who I haven't seen for over a year and it would have been nice to soak in a bit of the Australian sun and have a real holiday before getting back into hard training and competing.
After my holiday I was going to move in with Rob (my best mate) and his family, the Martin's, who live right next door to Wembley downs. Then everything would be in place and I could start building a great little base to work and train, so that I have something to come back to after I've been travelling.
Obviously it would make sense to have just moved straight in with the Martin's, but they have their eldest daughter from Melbourne living with them until mid January, she has come over for Christmas and New Years, so they had no room for me until then.

The new plan is : I only recently became aware that there was a level one coaching course in Bournemouth on the 22nd Jan. It's really hard to find a course on your doorstep as usually they run them in London or somewhere up north. Having my level one would mean that I would be able to earn more for my lessons and when I'm in Australia would be getting paid up to $7:50 extra an hour. So I thought as I would only be having a holiday with my sister for the first couple of weeks in Australia and not really missing much, then I might as well wait a little longer in England, get my coaching licence and then go to Australia, where I could immediately move in with the Martin's and get straight into training, playing and coaching with bigger pay and a qualification under my belt :).

Training is going well. I'm still going to Bournemouth University gym, I love it there, it has everything you need and is only walking distance from where I'm staying. I've got another new programme to mix things up a bit. It's pretty much the same basics as before, as in working on strength, explosive power and dynamic movement along with the usual injury prevention and flexibility. Without getting too much bigger (don't see many body builders who are good at tennis), I'm getting stronger each week. My elbow feels great along with everything else touch wood.

I was in the gym Friday and got a new personal best on the rowing machine. It's the rugby professionals version of a fitness test : You've got to do it after a cretin weight lifting workout, then row 300 metre's in under 1 minute with 1 minute break, then do it again and again until you are unable to make the 300 metre mark in under a minute. Before I went to America I could do it 5 time's. Friday I almost did 8 (on my 8th one I got 1:02). I was completely dead and almost threw up. It wouldn't be so bad when your fresh, but when you have to do it when your muscles are already so tired from lifting weights, then it really is a killer. but I love it, and was really chuffed to see improvement :)

It's just a talking point at the moment, and probably too early to say anything, but I'm really excited about it so I've got to say something :). When I get to Australia, I'll be living with the Martin's for a while, but Vania is talking about moving to their farm in the outback of Perth. Rob wants to stay in Perth so that he can carry on training and playing etc. So Vania might sell the house they are in at them moment and buy Rob and I a house. Then Rob and I just pay her rent. So without getting my hopes too high, in a couple of months, I could have a really good base set up with a great mate and training partner. Have a good paying job for whenever I need a bit of extra cash and with the way I've been training and playing recently I'm sure I'll have all the weapons I need to achieve my goals for this year :)

Diary for 20^th December 2008:

I'm in England now. I'm living with some friends in Bournemouth for a couple of weeks as my 3 month American visa ran out on the 16th and instead of leaving the country for a couple of days then returning to Florida on another 3 month Visa. I decided it was cheaper and better to just come back to England.

I met some great people in America and had a solid 3 months of tough fitness training. But my plans to go travelling for tournaments didn't go the way I wanted. The friend with whom I was planing to travel and split travel expenses, decided he wanted to play American college tennis instead. As it turned out, a lot of the players of my age have decided to take the same road also.
I learnt from my European travels that it's important to have a good base that you can come back to for training, sleeping in a familiar bed, earn some extra money if you need to, relax and be around people you know and with whom you are comfortable.

I went to Florida to see if this could be a good base for me, but with Jake going to College in a few months, I wouldn't have anywhere to live, also America wasn't as cheap as I thought. So I've decided to go back to Australia. Perth was very good to me, the training there was as good as anywhere I've been if not better, I've made some great friends there, it's cheap to travel and live. One of my favourite things about it is pennants, where you play good quality matches every weekend in the summer for your club, who support and pay you to do so.
I leave on the 2nd Jan and have a year working visa valid from the 3rd Jan. I have a job lined up for when I get there so I have some extra money to get settled. Then once I've done so (which wont take long) I plan to travel to Asia, over east and there are some tournaments right on my door step now as well.

I've had a great year of travelling around away from Australia to see what else is out there, I've played on court next to the top players in the world and seen how they train, I've played against some quality players, been to the best tennis academies in the world, played in every condition possible, met some great people and made good friends, learnt what to do if ever your camper van breaks down in the middle of nowhere at 2am when the sign in for the tournament is at 8am :), and many other things.

I was looking at my tournament history the other day, and noticed out of the 11 people to whom I've lost, 1 of them is now in the top 300 in the world, 1 in the top 500 and 8 of them are now in the top 600. All of them were part of some academy or something and had everything they needed around them, from a coach and strong training partners to eating full meals rather than just pasta every night :). Perth is my academy. I remember Gary saying once "it's got to be an even battle field for a fair fight". I don't regret anything I've done in the last year, I would definitely do it all again, but I have done it the hard way. So now I know what to do to make it an "even battle field", it should be easy lol. So moving to Perth and setting up my perfect base is a really big step heading in the right direction for me :).


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