Andy Blow is a sports scientist and the founder of Precision Hydration. Unsurprisingly he’s one of the most knowledgable people I’ve met when it comes to hydration. His company and expertise has helped me better understand my own hydration needs. The purpose of this post is simple: to teach you how to stay hydrated while training/competing so you can maximise your performance. Andy will be your guide, over to you Andy…

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Thanks Pat. Pat was one of the earliest high-profile athletes to use our products. It was a huge buzz to see his name pop up on the system after he’s done an Advanced Sweat Test with our Test Centre in Putney. So, when he mentioned that he gets a lot of questions about hydration from within his community, we were delighted to help by putting together a blog on how to stay hydrated when you’re out on the tennis court. So, quiet please…

 

Why is hydration so important?

Staying hydrated is crucial to your performance on the court.

Your body is under considerable strain when you’re pushing yourself during a match or intense training session. It’s pumping blood around your body to supply your working muscles with oxygen, remove toxic by-products, dissipate heat and regulate your core temperature.

Dehydration increases the stress your body is under during these processes and this hampers your performance. There have been a number of high profile cases of players not being able to complete matches due to hydration-related issues and heat exhaustion in recent years, including when American Jack Sock had to withdraw from his 2nd round match at the US Open in 2015 (though that was a particularly hot year at Queens!)

So, it’s important to understand the science behind hydration in order to make sure you’re doing the right things before, during and after your matches…

 

Why is sweat, and the sodium in it, so important?

Tennis is a high intensity sport and it’s often played in hot conditions, these two factors tend to drive high sweat rates. In fact, a study showed sweat rates in excess of 1 litre (34oz) per hour for juniors and up to 2.5 litres (85oz) per hour for older adolescents and adults. How much you sweat is important as that sweat is drawn from your blood plasma, and I’ve already mentioned all of the important roles your blood plays whilst you’re exercising.

But your sweat rate is only part of the equation. How much sodium you lose in that sweat is also critical as it’s this electrolyte that helps you absorb and retain fluid, topping up your blood plasma volume. Sodium also plays an important role in nerve impulse transmission, the absorption of nutrients in the gut, maintaining cognitive function and in muscle contraction.

You’ve probably noticed that your sweat tastes salty and some of you will have noticed that you get white marks on your skin and kit after a hard fought match. That’s because sodium is one of the main ingredients in your sweat.

 

What many people don’t know is that the amount of sodium you lose in your sweat is largely genetically determined, stable and it varies dramatically from person to person. At Precision Hydration, we’ve Sweat Tested more than 3,000 athletes (including pros from the Premier League, NFL, NBA, Formula One and, of course, the tennis world) and found that the average person loses about 920mg of sodium per litre of sweat.

But about 20% of those we test lose between 1,500 and 2,000mg/l, which we classify as ‘very high’. The differences in both sweat rate and sweat sodium concentration (how much sodium is in your sweat) can mean that two players on opposite sides of the court can experience very different sodium losses over the course of a match, up to 15 times different in fact.

As well as affecting the bodily processes mentioned above, inadequate sodium and fluid replacement can also cause cramp.  Hopefully, it’s becoming increasingly clear that replacing the fluids and electrolytes you lose when you’re exercising is critical if you want to maintain your performance.

 

What are the challenges with staying hydrated when playing tennis?

As I’ve already said, the intensity of the sport and the conditions it’s played in often mean sweat rates are high. The fact that match length can vary significantly between 2 and 5 sets (with long, close sets compounding that) is also a challenge. These factors combined mean that sweat and sodium losses can be very high indeed, especially if you lose a lot of sodium in your sweat.

Recovery time in between matches can also be relatively short in tournament play. There is evidence to suggest many players run the risk of starting matches in a less than perfectly hydrated state. All of these challenges mean that it’s crucial to plan ahead when it comes to staying hydrated.

 

Ok, so how can I stay hydrated during a match?

A good tennis hydration strategy should encompass the following…

 

1. Aim to start the match with good hydration levels.

That’s not just about drinking water, you need to replace the electrolytes lost in your sweat too. And, by electrolytes, I mainly mean sodium, as that’s the electrolyte you lose the most of in your sweat, potassium, calcium and magnesium losses are generally small in comparison.

If you only drink water over an extended period of exercise where you’re sweating, you’re actually further diluting your blood sodium levels and are at risk of giving yourself a condition called hyponatremia (literally meaning ‘low blood sodium levels’) which has nasty side effects like headaches, nausea, vomiting and even coma and death (in extreme cases!).

 

You can preload on sodium before a match by taking a strong electrolyte supplement like Precision Hydration’s 1500mg/l product. With that product, we’d recommend one serving in 500ml (16oz) of water the night before a match and another serving in 500ml (16oz) of water about 90 mins before you walk on to the court.

 

2. Have enough drinks and supplements on hand to get you through the longest possible match.

You should always drink to thirst, that’s the mechanism your body has evolved to tell you what it needs. However, there are some general guidelines on how much to drink in different scenarios in the Personalised Hydration Plan you can get for free by taking Precision Hydration’s Online Sweat Test. That test will also give you an idea of what strength electrolytes you need in training and matches.

 

If you want to go a step further and find out exactly how much sodium you’re losing in each litre of sweat, you can also take our exercise-free, Advanced Sweat Test. You can find out more about that here.

It’s also a good idea to have plain water to hand as well as electrolyte drinks. That way, your taste buds can help dictate what your body wants at a given point in time.

 

3. Drink little and often, from early on in your matches to keep on top of hydration levels.

Don’t wait until it is too late as it’s not always clear how long a match will last. There are, of course, lots of opportunities for in-game rehydration with changes of ends and the breaks between sets, so there’s no excuse for not taking on some fluids and electrolytes.

 

4. Your fluid/electrolyte replenishment needs to be personalised.

This can be done using a combination of science (understanding your likely levels of total sweat and sodium loss), trial and error and listening to your body. Remember that your needs can be vastly different to the needs of the player on the opposite side of the net.

 

5. For players with very high sweat/sodium losses: Consider carrying some foods with salt in to supplement your electrolytes levels.

Think salami, cheese, pretzels, beetroot (beets), celery, spinach etc. This can be a welcome change from an electrolyte drink in the latter stages of a long match.

American Jack Sock collapsed on court during the 2015 U.S. Open. He had been suffering with cramp and heat exhaustion.

 

6) Recovery (re-)hydration after matches is a good idea, particularly matches with high sweat/sodium losses and when you’re playing again the next day.

Taking in electrolytes with your post-match fluids will help fluid retention. In some cases, like after 3/5 set matches in tournaments in hot environments, you may find higher strength sodium drinks are right for recovery, in others a more moderate strength supplement will do the job. Our 250mg/l supplements were designed with day to day hydration and recovery in mind. They’re also useful for staying hydrated on long-haul flights to and from tournaments.

If you follow these steps and refine your hydration strategy in training and competition, you’ll be better equipped to perform at your best when it counts.

Keen players, parents and coaches may also wish to read this paper for more information and tips on dealing with playing in hot and humid environments.

 

A word about cramps.

Despite the fact that muscle cramps are a very common phenomenon – affecting anywhere between 40 and 95% of athletes at some point in their lives depending on which surveys you want to believe – and that they have been widely studied, no-one really knows the full story about cramp yet.

The bottom line appears to be that muscle cramps are likely to have multiple causes including, but not limited to, electrolyte imbalances and neuromuscular fatigue and that, as a result, it’s likely that multiple interventions are likely to be needed to try to eliminate these different types of cramp.

There’s no ‘magic bullet’ available to kill off muscle cramping at the moment and it doesn’t look like there will be one coming anytime soon. However, if you’re not inclined to sit around twiddling your thumbs waiting for science to deliver in it’s own sweet time, there are a few things you might want to try if you want to try to get on top of the issue…

 

Try consuming additional sodium.

Based on my own experiences and the historical evidence I absolutely think it’s worth looking at your sodium intake in relation to your sweat output. It’s a cheap and simple exercise and has little downside to it. It’s certainly a good idea if your cramps tend to occur during or after periods of heavy sweating, in hot weather, late on during matches or if you generally eat a low sodium (or low carb) diet.

One note of caution however; If you do take on additional sodium, especially in the form of electrolyte drinks, make sure they are strong enough to make a real difference. Most sports drinks are extremely light on electrolytes (despite the claims they make on their labels), containing only about 200-500mg sodium per litre (32oz). Which, as I mentioned above, is less than half the amount of sodium the average athlete loses in a litre of sweat out on the court.

Take the extra sodium in the hours immediately before and during matches (or training sessions) that normally result in cramping and see how you get on. You’ll know pretty quickly if this is effective or not, and can fine tune your dosage to balance cramp prevention with keeping your stomach happy over time (really excessive salt or sodium intake can cause nausea).

 

Other strategies.

Other strategies that are far from proven, but that either make intuitive sense or have been used by athletes in the war on cramp include…

• Sports massage and stretching of the affected muscles.
• Acupuncture
• Thorough warm ups prior to cramp inducing activities.
• Mental relaxation techniques.

Although none of these are likely to offer a complete solution they are generally accessible, inexpensive and may even benefit performance in other ways, so there would seem to be little downside to giving them a try.

Want to get started with personalising your hydration strategy right away? Take our free Online Sweat Test. And, if you decide you’d like to try our all-natural, multi-strength electrolytes to personalise your strategy, use the code PATCASH15 to get 15% off your first order, courtesy of the legend himself.

 

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We all know that sleep is important. But I don’t think many of us realise just how important it is. Among other things a good night’s sleep promotes skin health, improves  athletic performance, increases testosterone, encourages healthy cell division (helps prevent cancer) and can even improve your ability to learn new motor skills by 20%.

I’m lucky enough to never have had a problem with insomnia or other sleep issues. However, long flights, staying in hotels and dealing with jet lag while traveling the globe poses a challenge even for a heavy sleeper like me. So over the years I’ve developed a few simple evening routines and techniques to improving my sleep quality.

 

Eleven tips for better sleep.

So without further ado here are 11 of my top sleep tips and tricks to improve the sleeping one third your life:

1. Avoid artificial light after sundown
2. Don’t drink coffee before bed
3. Exercise
4. Eat a healthy high fat and protein dominated dinner
5. Supplement melatonin before going to sleep
6. Have a pre sleep snack
7. Drink a bedtime sleep aid concoction
8. Make your room as dark as possible
9. Turn off phone or move away from bed
10. Keep your room cool
11. Meditate while in bed

1. Avoid artificial light after sundown.

Studies have shown that exposure to artificial light in the evening can be bad for your health and sleep. The blue light emitted from technology like your phone, television and computer suppress the release of melatonin and throws off your body’s biological clock (the circadian rhythm). I try to avoid screens as much as possible at night but when that’s not possible I use an app called lux on my phone and computer. It adjusts the colour and brightness of the screen reducing the amount of blue light my body takes in.

2. Don’t drink coffee before bed.

This should be pretty self explanatory. Caffeine is not a sleep aid so stay away from caffeinated drinks and food before. I stop drinking coffee around 3pm but if you’re sensitive to the stuff you may want to avoid it up 8+ hours before bedtime.

3. Exercise.

I do some form of training almost every day (tennis, sprints, intervals, etc.) and because of this my body is physically ready for restful sleep. Research shows that some of the many benefits of exercise are improvements to sleep patterns, and the quality of sleep you get (stimulates longer periods of “slow-wave” sleep). If I can’t get out on the tennis court I’ll often do a tough hour of yoga in the morning or a more relaxing round in the evening (no later than 2 – 3 hours before bed).

4. Eat a healthy high fat and protein dominated dinner.

I’m not quite sure why this works but when I eat a protein rich dinner (3 – 4 hours before bed) such as steak with vegetables and salad drizzled with healthy high fat oils I fall asleep faster and deeper. I Don’t know the science but I suspect this works because our bodies use combination of long burning healthy fat and protein to repair muscles, grow new tissue and improve our immune system. I use a combination of olive oil, coconut oil and MCT oil in my food for my healthy fats.

5. Supplement melatonin before going to sleep.

Melatonin is a sleep hormone that tells your body it’s time to sleep. It occurs naturally in the body with the onset of darkness but because of all the electric light surrounding us the release of melatonin often shifts. To counter this I take 1 – 3 mgs of melatonin about one hour before bed. This is also a great travel “hack” to deal with jet lag. No long term negative effects have been found but I cycle my intake of melatonin to make sure my body doesn’t become reliant on it.

6. Have a pre sleep snack.

Having a quick and healthy snack before bed boosts serotonin levels, and prevents low blood sugar while also increasing cell repair and aiding heart function while sleeping. I eat a few cashews, walnuts and brazil nuts along with a spoon of organic almond butter before bed. It tastes good, helps me sleep and has the positive side effect of making me feel better in the morning.

7. Bedtime “knock out” sleep concoction.

If I’m really in the need of a good night sleep I’ll make a special bedtime drink that knocks me out cold. I’ve used a variation of this for years but here is the latest version. Mix and stir the following in a cup of hot water or chamomile tea and drink right before bed: apple cider vinegar, raw organic honey, flaxseed oil, poppy extract, chamomile or yogi bedtime tea. A simpler (and better tasting) version of this concoction is just the apple cider vinegar and organic honey mixed together in hot water or tea. You can find the exact recipe for this bedtime drink here.

8. Make your room as dark as possible.

If possible sleep in a pitch-black room. Block out as many light sources you can including light from outside like street lamps and light from inside like LED’s. If you live in a city or a place where the sun is up all night during the summer like Norway, you should get some blackout curtains. Think of this as trying to recreate the sleeping conditions from thousands of years ago before artificial light that our bodies evolved for.

9. Turn off phone or move away from bed.

I find that turning my phone off, setting it in flight mode or moving it away from my bed has a noticeable effect on my sleep. My guess is that EMFs can disturb sleep although I’m not sure if this has been scientifically proven. Could be a placebo but either way it works for me.

10. Keep your room cool.

The ideal temperature for sleep will depend on your personal preference so experiment to find out what works for you. However, a cool room somewhere in the range of 18°C – 21°C is a good place to start. I prefer my room to be about 20°C.

11. Meditate while in bed.

Meditation is part of my daily routine but a little trick I use is to also meditate while in bed. I just relax my body and pay attention to my breath. Either I end up in deep meditation or I fall asleep. Either way it’s a win! This is a great “sleep hack” if you have trouble falling asleep. Give it a try.

 

Four tools and gadgets for improved sleep.

Finally here are my top four tools and gadgets for improved sleep at home or while traveling:

1. Air purifier/humidifier
2. Grounding pillow and/or sheet
3. Sleep mask
4. Slow wave sleep audio

1. Air purifier/humidifier.

At home I use the DeLonghi Air Purifier which has a four layer ionizing filtration system to remove dust, pollen, smoke, etc from the air. For traveling the Boneco Ultrasonic Travel Humidifier is great. It uses high frequency vibrations to create and blow a fine mist around the room. These two products help eliminate sinus problems and as a nice side benefit improve my skin.

2. Grounding pillow and/or sheet.

Getting a grounding pillow and/or sheet was recommended to me a few years ago by my physio and a few other athletes. There is some interesting research that suggest it synchronises cortisol levels and increases blood flow to help reduce stress and inflammation. I’ve found it improves the quality of my sleep and speeds up recovery.

3. Sleep mask.

If you can’t make your room dark an eye mask is your best option. The Bucky Sleep Mask is great because instead of the normal pads that rest on your eyelids these have a dome like design that blocks out light without putting pressure on your eyes. They’re also great travel accessory for long haul flights.

4. Slow wave sleep audio.

I use these delta frequency audio files by Kelly Howell to block out noise and relax my mind while I drift off to sleep. My favourite is the 60 minute ocean wave track. The only problem is that now I have a pavlovian like response every time I’m at the beach ha ha.

 

I hope the above compilation of tips will help give you a better night’s sleep. It goes without saying that I’m not a doctor so please consult a specialist if you’re having real issues sleeping. Finally, thank you to all the trainers, friends and writers I’ve learned from over the years for helping me figure this stuff out. You’ve saved me from many a night’s bad sleep.

 

You might also like…

• 5 Things I’m Loving, Reading, Pondering & Using
• How to Stay Hydrated on the Tennis Court
• My “Knockout” Bedtime Drink For Better Sleep

 

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I love experimenting with and testing new things. Everything from new gadgets and training equipment to supplements, diets and cutting edge workout techniques.

Over the years I’ve spent a small fortune in a quest to find the ‘best of the best’ products and information that’ll improve my health, happiness and general life enjoyment.

I love sharing this stuff and people seem to like it so below are some of the popular products, thoughts, articles, and links that I’ve shared in my “5-Point Friday” e-mail newsletter. I cheated in this post and gave you six… plus a little bonus at the end (guaranteed to make you laugh).

Product I’m loving – Vyper Roller from Hyperice. I’ve tried a lot of foam rollers in my day but this is my new favourite. It has 3 vibration settings and is great for opening the hamstrings, IT band and other tight muscles. I often travel with it or it’s companion the Hypersphere so I can loosen up after long flights.

What I’m watching – Kid failing repeatedly but never gives up. This video encapsulates the essence of sport and teamwork in only a few minutes. Watch it then watch it again. You’ll be cheering in your seat at the end.

Quote I’m pondering again – “We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.” – Epictetus

What I’m reading – How to Meditate is a great introduction to meditation, it’s concepts and benefits. Meditation has been part of my daily routine for many years and I believe it’s one of the easiest things you can do to improve your happiness and health. This guide by David Gelles is a great place to start if you’re curious about how meditation, backed by science, can help you increase calmness and clarity while reducing stress.

Training I’m doing – Feldenkrais with Melinda Glenister. Feldenkrais is one of the most effective ways I’ve found to unlock tight muscles and reprogram lost movement patterns after an injury. It is very gentle on the body yet really tricky on the mind. I often do a session before tennis. By doing unusual movements, brain mapping connections are created that train the body to move in new ways while preventing burn out.

Supplement I’m taking – Precision Hydration 1500. I’ve been taking this product from to help my body absorb and retain more fluid when training. I’ve noticed a big performance improvement. I’ll also take the 250 “background hydrator” while traveling to help overcome jet lag.

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Do you like these types of recommendations?

Would you like to get a short email from me every other Friday with the coolest things I’ve found, explored or created from the past few weeks? It may include gadgets, music, articles, books, tennis tips, fitness exercises and all sorts of strange stuff I discover from around the world.

These “5-Point Friday” emails are only available if you subscribe to my newsletter. They won’t be shared anywhere else. This blog post is just a teaser to entice you to sign up 😉

Why not try it out? You can always unsubscribe. Just enter your email address here and you’re good to go.

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P.S. If you haven’t seen this video of a man speaking to turkey’s you’re in for a treat! Watch the whole things. Trust me, It only gets funnier.

 

Every year at every Grand Slam the issue of medical time-outs rears its head. Sports pundits, players and ex-players like myself have argued that the rules surrounding medical time-outs are too vague, contradictory, easy to abuse, and hard to enforce.

A best-of-5 set Grand Slam match is a marathon no matter how you look at it. Is there any other sport in the world that allows the athlete to take an extended break towards the end of a match/game/event when they are sore? Boxing, running, swimming or triathlon? What about other racket sports like Squash or badminton? Or how about team sports like cricket, football and hockey? I can’t think of one. So why tennis? Yet it wasn’t like that prior to the medical time out! So what’s going on? Doesn’t anyone notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

Recently the outrage and controversy surrounding medical time-outs kicked into high gear for me in particular. I’ll get into the details about that below. However, I also want to take the opportunity to give some context and background information regarding the medical time-out rules themselves. Let’s start with basic medical time-out rules. Feel free to skip the following section if you already have a solid grasp on this.

 

Medical time-out rules in tennis

Here is a basic summary of the medical time-out (MTO) rules from one of my previous blog posts.

The rule is that a player can not receive treatment for loss of conditioning / fitness or fatigue. Loss of conditioning basically means tiredness, cramping, sore muscles, and so on. Essentially anything but an accident such as a twisted ankle, cut, sickness (not due to being tired), etc.

The following are excerpts from the official Grand Slam Rule Book regarding MTO’s. The rules are a little contradicting and confusing. Feel free to read the entire rule book for yourself. I’ve selected the most relevant points below (highlights are my own).

The purpose of the medical evaluation is to determine if the player has developed a treatable medical condition and, if so, to determine when medical treatment is warranted. Such evaluation should be performed within a reasonable length of time, balancing player safety on the one hand, and continuous play on the other.

Non-Treatable Medical Conditions:

• Any medical condition that cannot be treated appropriately, or that will not be improved by available medical treatment within the time allowed.
• Any medical condition (inclusive of symptoms) that has not developed or has not been aggravated during the warm-up or the match.
• General player fatigue.

The Medical Time-Out begins when the Physiotherapist/Athletic Trainer is ready to start treatment. At the discretion of the Physiotherapist/Athletic Trainer, treatment during a Medical Time-Out may take place off-court, and may proceed in conjunction with the Tournament Doctor.

The Medical Time-Out is limited to three (3) minutes of treatment.

A player is allowed one (1) Medical Time-Out for each distinct treatable medical condition. All clinical manifestations of heat illness shall be considered as one (1) treatable medical condition. All treatable musculoskeletal injuries that manifest as part of a kinetic chain continuum shall be considered as one (1) treatable medical condition.

Only in the case that a player develops an acute medical condition that necessitates an immediate stop in play may the player request through the Chair Umpire for the Physiotherapist/Athletic Trainer to evaluate him/her immediately.

 

The problem with the current medical time-out rules

There are a few core problems with the MTO rules as they are today. As you may have noticed, the rules are vague and slightly contradictory.

This combination of flaws make the rules hard to understand, open to individual interpretation and almost impossible to enforce. Rule enforcement is especially difficult when you consider the pressure trainers are under in addition to the fact that there are no consequences or incentives regarding how they perform their duty.

All this leads to a set of rules that are supremely easy to manipulate, bend or outright break without consequences. In a situation like this, some players are bound to take advantage. In fact one could argue that not taking advantage may be considered foolish as a less scrupulous opponent would gain a small edge by manipulating the system to his/her benefit.

I’m not claiming that all players do this. However some do and by subtle strategic bending or breaking of the rules they can gain an advantage at crucial times in a match, get some valuable rest or stop the momentum of an opponent.

Perhaps the overall problem is not so much about players breaking the MTO rules, but the fact that many of the rules are never enforced. The rules surrounding treatment of fatigue, continuous play and what constitutes an injury (to name a few) are essentially so flexible and malleable that even overt transgressions are almost impossible to punish.

Lets not beat around the bush. MTO’s are can often be used the same way diving and faking a foul in football is. We have all heard commentators and fans alike outraged when a player fakes a dive in football (soccer) yet only the bravest referee will pull out a yellow or red card. Why? Because he opens himself up to criticism and abuse. Yet, at the end of the day, diving is illegal and technically cheating.

A few years ago I was invited to a Chelsea FC dinner  to talk about the clubs charity work and discuss issues in football. The most passionate debate around the table was about how to stop diving, cheating and abuse.  Many including myself thought CFC could lead by example to help usher in a new era of honesty.  But some argued that this behavior is just part of football. When I asked “is cheating an acceptable part of the game?” the responses were “yes and no”…. I happen to disagree, cheating is cheating no matter how you dress it up.

 

How players bend, manipulate or break MTO rules

Firstly, keep in mind that “fatigue” or “loss of conditioning” is not a valid reason to call for a MTO. It doesn’t take a sport scientist to understand that any player in the later stages of a match can be considered ‘fatigued’. We all get tired, especially during gruelling five set matches.  So almost any manual work from a trainer (massage, stretching, etc.) at this stage of a match is needed because of “general player fatigue” or ‘loss of condition’.

Ok so what if a player has hurt themselves, over stretched, felt a sharp pain or a pulled muscle? Well the rule states:

Only in the case that a player develops an acute medical condition that necessitates an immediate stop in play may the player request through the Chair Umpire for the Physiotherapist/Athletic Trainer to evaluate him/her immediately.

With that in mind, the most obvious way a player can bend/break the rules is to fake or exaggerate an injury to gain extra recovery time, stall momentum or give themselves time to clear their head and think.

There are of course many shades of “faking an injury” and when I use this term I mean that a player may be exaggerating a minor “nagging” issue from before or pretending a muscle is injured when in fact in simply hurts due to fatigue or close to cramping.

But how do you prove that a player is faking an injury? How can a medico, in just a few minutes, determine if something is a legitimate injury versus simple pain from a fatigued muscle? And what exactly qualifies as an “musculoskeletal injury” anyway?

The worst abuses of the rule I have witnessed was when American/Canadian Jesse Levine was two sets to love up against Marcel Granollers in 42 degree Australian Open weather. At this point the Spaniard decided to go for a toilet break. He sauntered off from an outside court only to return from the distant bathroom 10 minutes later and call a medical time out. By the time the doctor and physio saw him and treated his exhaustion (illegally) it was over twenty minutes between sets. Needles to say, Jesse’s rhythm and momentum was disrupted. Refreshed Marcel regrouped and went on win the next two sets. At which point he again took a series of MTO’s before eventually defeating the rightfully upset Levine.

Unfortunately, this type of stuff happens all the time during smaller matches and lower level tournaments. Most people just never see it. Until something is done at the top players further down the rankings like Jesse will continue to be at a disadvantage for following the rules.

 

My 5 suggestions to help solve the MTO problem

Is there a foolproof solution? I don’t think so. A determined player will always find a way to manipulate, bend or break the rules in one form or another. This however does not mean there is nothing we can do. I believe there are a few simple steps we can take to improve the situation.

1. The 1st step is to clarify as deeply as possible what constitutes an injury. Is tweaking your back in the final set when you’re tired from serving 200km serves for 4 hours a legitimate injury? Or is it  just fatigue from serving 200km serves for 4 hours?  We need to set some parameters at the very least.
2. The 2nd step is to have an independent medico such as a doctor going on court with the trainer to supervise and diagnose the treatment. This doctor does not have to deal with the pressure of seeing and treating these players every day in the locker room. He or she would be more unbiased in their decision. However these medico’s will, through the natural course of being employed by the tournament, still be extremely reluctant to default a star player or start point penalty charges.
3. The 3rd step is to investigate amending the rules to ensure players can only take injury time-outs before their own service games. If they want a timeout before an opponent is about to serve, they should immediately forfeit that game (unless it’s an acute injury such as a twisted ankle, cut etc).
4. The 4th step is to unify and shorten the time limits on MTO’s and the evaluation to keep time between play at a minimum. This to me is the most crucial issue with the rule as it is being implemented at the moment, “balancing player safety on the one hand, and continuous play on the other.”
5. The 5th step could be to stop allowing medical time-outs from the 3rd set onwards and making “general player fatigue” the first physical issue a medico considers (Assuming a player is not in great pain from an accident).

I’ve said before I believe “nobody should be getting a medical time-out in the fourth of fifth sets unless it’s something serious”. Small muscle tweaks, minor nagging injuries and general discomfort is all part of the game of tennis and whoever manages it best on-court and off deserves their advantage. In fact this is what winning a Grand Slam is all about. It’s a battle of the fittest, strongest, toughest (sometimes luckiest) player over the two weeks.

OK, so a quick show of hands, who knows what it’s like heading into a fifth set of an Australian Open Final exhausted and injured after playing a gruelling five set semi final a couple of days before?

I do! Very well indeed!

I had beaten Ivan Lendl in five sets in the semi-final of the Australian Open and in less than 48hrs later I was heading into the fifth and final set against Mats Wilander. I was exhausted, nursing an injury and my socks were full of blood from open blisters. It was within my rights to call a medical time-out. However, there was a code amongst players that said you didn’t take an MTO unless it was something serious. Blisters, exhaustion and muscle soreness was part and parcel of winning the ultimate challenge over five sets. One just did not call an MTO for that!

In fact I can’t recall any players in my era getting a medical time out. I can only barely think of more than a few players defaulting matches during my career. When they did it was a really bad injury!

Vitas Gerialitis held on to win the 5th set against John Lloyd in sweltering heat at the Australian Open all while hiding his injury. What made the loss worse for Lloyd is that everyone in the packed stadium knew about the injury except for him. It was excitement personified. I wonder how Vitas and John feel about how MTO’s are used today? Actually, I doubt I have to ask…

 

Modern outrage & historical context

Hopefully at this point you understand the issues and problems regarding medical time-outs a little better. Good on ya for making it this far. Now it’s time to get back to the controversy I mentioned at the start of this post…

First let me give you some context. For years players and ex-players including Murray, Wawrinka, Federer, Wilander, McEnroe have expressed frustration regarding medical time-out rules.

McEnroe has called it among other things a “complete abuse of the rules” (he should know) and I’ve used the term “legal cheating” on multiple occasions.

Admittedly the term “legal cheating” is perhaps not the best choice of words as it an oxymoron but it illustrates the point and describes my feelings surrounding the controversial MTO rules as I’ve outlined them above.

Criticising MTO rules in the context of a particular match is generally speaking fairly uncontroversial. That’s not to say I and others don’t received some blowback. Each time we highlight this issue we hear from outraged fans who feel their favourite player has been slighted.

This is, however distasteful, is not abnormal. Well apart from the fact many can’t even spell Djokovic correctly. But ultimately it’s simple ignorance and I find it somewhat amusing. Unfortunately many fans assume that I, or other people who speak out, are unfairly targeting their favourite player without understanding the rules or tennis history. Their attacks are generally based on a single comment, tweet or partial interview they’ve seen. Sadly many fans rarely step outside of their bubble to read past the headline to get some context. If they did they’d realise the our criticism is not really aimed at their favourite player, it’s generally aimed at the MTO rules and enforcement.

When a player takes a MTO I ask myself if he or she are within the rules.

And if a player is strategically bending or breaking the rules, and allowed to do so, we as commentators are fully within our rights to point out the issue. In fact that is our job. Some fans feel it is perfectly fine to make their comments heard in public, (however abusive or childish), but we as experts who see an infringement, cannot? It may surprise fans that there are very few commentators who are even slightly biased. The truth is that I don’t care one bit who wins or loses. I just want to see good tennis. Yet, I receive abusive comments claiming bias for one player or another. Ironically often from fans of both players in the same match. Based on my Twitter mentions I apparently hate just about every player on tour! Or another explanation is that I simply call it like I see it regardless of who is playing.

 

Federer MTO controversy

Recently, during the 2017 Australian Open I used the term “legal cheating” during some broadcasts when referencing the debate surrounding MTOs. My big mistake however was not that I spoke about the problems surrounding MTO’s during a tennis match, I’ve done that many times before, it’s that I raised the issue when Federer was playing

Let me elaborate, I used the term “legal cheating” while talking generally about how I think the MTO rules need to be fixed. The reason the topic came up was because during Federers semi-final and final he took medical time-outs after losing the 4th set in both matches.

Federer’s medical time-out in the final against Nadal probably didn’t change the outcome of the match. However, without a shadow of a doubt, the 8 minutes off court during his semi-final vs Wawrinka drastically changed the momentum and possibly the end result.

Again, it comes down to balancing player safety and continuous play. In this case, I think the balance was wrong and I voiced my opinion. As I would have regardless of who was playing.But at the end of the day it is the official’s call to hurry a player up, tell them “no”, or simply do nothing. After all, they should know the rules best shouldn’t they?

After the matches Federer said he had some form of nagging issue in his leg but he also said the following after his semi-final match:

“These injury timeouts, I think they’re more mental than anything else,”

Perhaps I’m misinterpreting Roger’s meaning here but MTO’s taken primarily to clear your head or for “mental” reasons would be in direct violation of the current rules. I believe Roger, who has been critical of MTO’s before, would agree with me.

“I also think that we shouldn’t be using these rules or abusing the system” — Roger Federer on MTO’s

I’m not denying that Roger is within his rights to request a 3 minute medical time-out for a legitimate injury. He said he had a leg injury and that’s within the current MTO rules. And keep in mind that I know how rare it is for Federer to do this. He’s one of the players who takes the fewest MTO’s and is least likely to abuse the rules. If anything, Roger would benefit from stricter enforcement. He is possibly one of the best of his generation at upholding the tough Aussie traditions and principles of fair play passed down to him via his childhood coach, and friend of mine, Peter Carter or the great Tony Roach.

Judging by Roger’s comments after the semi-final he seemed fed up with the MTO system and how other players abuse it but felt that he could finally benefit from such a time-out. This may sound reasonable but I thought to myself “just because someone has a good record in regards to MTOs, does that mean we should ignore a possible infraction?”

Was his safety in jeopardy? Was it continuous play?

I admit, maybe because of his good record in this area, that I was a little disappointed at seeing Federer taking and being allowed to take such a long time out at that point in the match two matches in a row. As I said above, my opinion is that I don’t think anyone should be getting medical time-out from the 3rd set onwards.

But regardless of the context or my meaning the damage was done. Hyperbolic headlines popped up and zealous Federer fans who felt I’d slighted their favourite player unfairly flocked to social media to let me know what a terrible person I am.

 

I understand that some fans are…passionate (and often bad spellers who offer me unwanted sex ha ha). And my comments may not have been clear enough in the moment, leaving them open to misunderstanding. Especially when taken out of context like they were by a reporter during Roger’s press conference after the match. I know how reporters work. They will use a half quote from someone else instead of having the guts to make the claim themselves in front of the player. I’m used to that and so is Federer. However, I think it’s important for people to scratch a little beneath the surface. If they do they may find something that’ll show them that I don’t have some pathetic secret vendetta against Federer or any other player for that matter.

Look, this is not about who takes more or less MTO’s, how old/young they are or how hyped a particular match is. It’s the principle of the matter that’s important and fixing something that is broken in our sport.

As I’ve said before, The Grand Slams are a battle of the fittest over two weeks. Let’s keep things the way they were intended and let the fittest athletes and best players win.

 

You might also like…

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• Exposed: How Tennis Players Cheat
• Djokovic’s Popularity Versus Federer and Nadal

 

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Some things have changed a lot since I was a professional player. Other things not so much. The two “off court” things that have changed the most are diet and recovery.

Many believe that it’s fitness training that has advanced the most since the 80’s and that may be true for some observers and coaches but not for me. I’ve always loved to work out and so always surrounded myself with the best trainers who could help and teach me. I was the first on the tour to really focus on things like stability work, core work and stretching. Very early I was doing scientific muscle balance testing and blood work to analyse and find out what my body was missing and what I needed to supplement as far as vitamins, minerals and amino acids. As a result, thanks to brilliant trainers like Dr Ann Quinn, I was always on the cutting edge when it came to fitness. Naturally there have been scientific advances regarding fitness but to this day I still mostly see the same exercises, on courts and in the gym, that Ann Quinn invented and I was doing in the early 80’s.

When it comes to diet though things have changed a lot more. Depending on who you talk to you’ll get different opinions on what tennis players need. But one thing a high level athlete clearly needs is a lot of is fuel. When I spoke to Goran Ivanisevic he mentioned how blown away he was by the amount of food players consume. Goran said that if Cilic isn’t playing or training he’s eating. To a large degree this was the case for me too.

I’ve learned a lot over the years regarding diet and as a result I’ve modified my eating habits since I was on the tour. Back in the early 80’s I read a story in the newspaper about how Ivan Lendl and Martina Navratilova were on high-carbohydrate diets. So I asked Ivan about it and he said it gave him a lot more energy. I remember being surprised that he gave me that information. But at that stage I was too young to be a serious threat to him. Little did he know ;-). I’m not sure if I ever thanked him for that tip. Perhaps I should. His intentions were good but as I’ll come back to in a bit, I now know the advice wasn’t the best.

But at the time I thought it was so I took it a step further with my trainer Ann. We planned out carb heavy meals in advance and I had a cook coming to my house during Wimbledon (unusual at the time). Ann made her banana muffins fresh every morning for me to eat between meals. Her muffins quickly became so famous on tour that after my matches my Aussie friends used to come around and ask for any extras that I didn’t eat! Anyway, carbohydrate loading quickly became the go-to diet and the food areas at every tournament soon had pasta, pasta and more pasta. Even to this day they still have a lot of pasta.

After a while I discovered that a high-carbohydrate diet didn’t work for me. During one of my comebacks after an injury I remember eating a lot of paste for dinner and barely being able to get out of bed the next morning. My energy was low and I got tired faster despite training harder than ever. What I was putting into my body was not aiding my recovery or sustaining me through tough matches.

Later I adapted the “eat right for your blood type” diet. This helped me a lot but In hindsight it was probably coincidental as the science behind the diet doesn’t hold up well to modern scrutiny. But it made me go gluten-free over 10 years before Djokovic. The cutting out of a lot of carbs made a big difference. Although at the time I didn’t know that this was what caused the improvement.

Next I started looking at bodybuilders and doing a lot more research. It soon became apparent that I needed a more protein to aid in muscle recovery. So my diet gradually transitioned from carbohydrate heavy to protein heavy with a mix of vegetables and and smaller portions of carbs.

Today I know that a high carbohydrate diet is not the most efficient. I’m now on a diet high in protein and fat with a low or balanced carbohydrate intake. Something closely related to a ketogenic diet (check out Dominic D’Agostino and Peter Attia’s research to learn more about ketosis). The latest scientific literature has now shown this to be better for you and more effective for athletes. Especially for athlete training beyond an hour. The reason behind this is quite complex but essentially carbs spikes the insulin in your blood which then spikes your energy. Ideally you want a constant source of energy that doesn’t turn to sugar. Most energy drinks, bread, rice, pasta and high glucose vegetables like potatoes just turn into sugar in your system resulting in energy spikes and drops rather than a steady stream. Only store a limited amount of glucose can be stored in your system which is why you see athletes sucking on those horrible sugary energy pouches. Their bodies need another hit to bring their energy back up. Do they know that those pouched dehydrate you before rehydrating you? I’m guessing not. I will guarantee you that in 10 – 20 years time people will be looking back at those pouches and saying “what were they thinking!”.

Now remember, I’m not a doctor so please don’t go out and make drastic changes to your diet without doing a lot of research and consulting a professional.

 

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