Training plan to maximize my performance in the 2025 Chinese Alumni tennis tournament

It is roughly 1 month away from the 4th Chinese alumni tennis tournament in Toronto .  I won the men’s single event tourney in both 2023 and 2024.   Those are undoubtfuly the highlights of my personal life.

This year I’d like to document my preparation plan toward this event , so I can be both comfident and comfortable walking into the tournament without regrets.

Baseline and starting point

Weight : 92kg (~7kg above of what I was hoping)

Physical condition:  medium-poor.   After two consecutive weeks of camping trip with the family, my body is exhaused .  My right wrist and right leg mustle are bothering me mildly due to mis-confort, but i won’t consider them injury (yet).  My conditioning wasn’t great either – breathing heavily after usually 30min of intense workout.

Mental condition:  decent.    I want to give my 100% effort preparing for this tournament, however I also have realistic expectation. There are lots of things can happen on the tennis court that I can’t control, and I will be peaceful for whatever outcome it pans out.

tennis rhythm :  medium .   I played three training matches this week – lost all of them and the score are not competitive.  The good news is I used the tourament at Milton 3 weeks ago as a baseline, and i ended up winning 2 matches and secured a browse medal .

My plan

• Physical/conditioning
  • Reduce at least 2kg weight by reduce caloris intake, swapping to heathier options
  • Skipping at least 3 times a week – get my agility & conditioning back
  • Various other sports to stay active and build up conditioning : swimming, water sports
  • Sleep better –
    • Target in bed by 9:30pm in bed everyday
    • 6am waking up
  • Avoid injury and illness
    • Explore options of working with a phsyio to recover
• Tennis rythem
  • 2-3 tennis matches on a weekly basis –
    • arrive 15m early on each session to do proper stretching
    • schedule more matches during the day since my scheduled tournament matches are in the afternoon
  • Use ball machine (Slinger bag) at least one time/week to train myself when coaching other family members
  • Restring my raquet 2 weeks before the tournament
• Mental
  • Active prioritize – since this (give my best effort at this tournament) is a priority, mentally i can’t take many other priorities (particuarlly with high demand in energy)
  • Securing support from family members

I am commited to update this blog at least weekly basis to hold myself accoutable to execute the plan listed above

Weekly update

Weight :

– wk 1 : 90.9 kg (tolerating occasionally hunger isn’t easy – but I am glad it is 1st time in 6th month that my weight has dropped to below 91kg)

– wk 2 : 90.1kg (lowest point) – bounced back to 90.9kg on Sat after one day getting lose on diet 😳

– wk3 : 90.7kg. The diminishing returns is expected , however I hope to make one more push to cut my weight to 80 range by reducing carb intake

Physical/conditioning :

-Wk1 – I did mild work out 3x – including rowing (sup), ball feeding , and some stretching at night. Even though I tried to find time to skip, it is hard to execute because of my other family responsibilities (parenting two young boys is physically demanding!!).

-Wk 2 – played 3 competitive matches, all at Milton, also train with kids twice – basically kept the momentum from last week

-Wk 3 – played 3 less competitive matches at different surfaces- all against partner that has slight level. Trained with kids twice

sleep

– Wk1 – two days I got 8.5+ hrs which is great, one out of 7 I slept poorly but was able to make it up during the afternoon snap. 9:30pm is hard but most of the time I got to sleep before 11am.

– Wk2 – 4 out of 7 days I got 8+ hrs sleep – getting back at recovery

– Wk3 – one day I didn’t sleep well – other days are all fine

Injury management :

– wk1 – no injury to report

– wk2 – my right knee is starting to bothering me occasionally. It is manageable with knee pad so far.

– wk3 – no injury to report. However I had a scary moment almost twisted my ankle at Applyby.

Tennis rhythm

Wk1

– Played 1 competitive match on Friday morning and feel my conditioning has improved over last week. That is encouraging

– coached family members on 3 other days – at least it is active outdoor time and burned some caroline

– played with slinger once – feels great ! Should do it more often

Wk2

– Played two ladder matches and 1 practice match – all in hard court. I can feel my games has gradually improving – physically with my conditioning and also the ability to execute game plan.

– train with kids twice – doesn’t feel it was as fun as the week before – I guess I just need to keep grinding out

Wk3

– The warm up exercise at Appleby college was definitely a highlight. I didn’t play very well on score wide. At the same time it definitely played a positive role on my preparation .

– Training with Juliet twice – it was much more fulfilling than training with kids.

Mentally

Wk 1

– there is one day that I absolutely burned out physically – on Monday I commuting to downtown office, and then took Remy to train tennis in the evening . I definitely shouldn’t go to grocery afterwards.

– family member are supportive

wk 2

– no item to report

Wk3

– trending positively . I can feel my forehand confidence is back and I am also moving better on the court