Warming up with Gaudio and Robredo:-)

[Marius_Hancu]

OK, during my 6 days at the Montreal TMS, I watched the pros using practices advertised on this forum:-)

- Gaston Gaudio working out his shoulder muscles with surgical tubing gripped at the other end by one of his people

- Tommy Robredo doing the same, while surgical tubing was fixed under the feet of someone's else

- Robredo using a modified nunchaku (a martial arts weapon, check at yahoo for pics) for warming up his shoulder before practice: keep one baton of nunchaku in your hand, while you simulate service, with the other baton slowly flying through the air; mind you, you can do that with a racket too, or with no objects in the serving hand

- Hrbaty was running for something like 10 min around the court before doing anything

- Thomas Johansson was playing soccer with a tennis ball over the net with his coach for footwork and agility; I remember Ferrero doing the same two years ago; those guys were able to keep the ball on their feet for 5-7 kicks with no problem

- Robredo carefully stretching his hamstrings

One of the best built was David Ferrer. Some abs!

[the_innovator]

Thanks for sharing and I'll try to check out that exercise equipment you mentioned. It really is amazing hearing those soccer related activities pros can do with a tennis ball, but I want to know if it is really proven to make a significant difference in footwork and agility? I'm not a soccer player but I have been told I can dribble a soccer ball well and it looks natural.

The Hrbaty exercise is already an old warm-up that I thought ever one did or still does.

The Spanish guys seem to be in the best shape, so it's no surprise to hear about Ferrer, but it's a pleasant surprise to hear firsthand how built or how a player really hits, and you see the firsthand experience differ from how you thought it looked on the tv.