High Performance Mini-Camp Blog

Herrmann Tennis Academy
High Performance Mini-Camp Blog
10s & 12s
January 15 – 17, 2010

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With our club’s busy permanent court time and tournament schedule this was our first opportunity to host a Mini-Camp this season. I immediately knew that I wanted to get former USTA Director of Men’s Tennis Rodney Harmon back to HTA. Coach Harmon had been to the Academy last year for a Mini Camp with our Boys’ 16s & 18s, and I was excited about him getting to spend some time with our talented “future stars.”

Friday, January 15th - The camp officially kicked off with all 22 participants joining Rodney for an on court session on “Beating the Pusher – A Lesson in Taking the Ball on the Rise”. After the talk, the juniors were placed on four individual teams for our Davis Cup Competition. The teams were Northwestern (coached by Alums Paul Wei & Jackie Jenkins), Michigan (Van King), Texas (my alma mater), and Tennessee (Rodney’s School).


The weekend team competition was formatted very similar to Zonals with singles, doubles, and mixed doubles matches taking place.

HTA Director Ernie Katko spoke to the participants about their recent wins and losses, and if they or their opponents caused the result. Katko’s presentation, entitled “Winning Matches through Game Analysis,” set the tone for the entire weekend as each player was instructed to make specific notes of his or her opponents’ strengths and weaknesses.

We played until 9pm and told everyone to get a good night rest for our nine hour day on Saturday.

Saturday, January 16th – We began the day with a video match presentation on winning patterns of play. Rodney, the 2008 USA Olympic Coach, broke down footage of the James Blake vs. Roger Federer Beijing Olympics match and discussed the changes Blake made in his game to win. The kids were very impressed and asked various questions on tactics, strategies, and the reactions both players were having during the match.

One of the most popular segments of the camp followed as Rodney broke down the draw and picked his favorites for the Australian Open. Unfortunately his streak of correctly picking the champion only lasted a single year as his 2010 favorite Nikolay Davydenko fell in the quarterfinals. Afterwards we started our hitting session with two hours of live ball drills, followed by lunch and a FAST SERVE Contest won by Max McKinnon (95mph).

Our afternoon session saw the players compete for their respective teams and competition was fierce!

Later that evening at 6:30 we had a pizza party and everyone was ready to get some rest.

Sunday, January 17th – 8am comes fast. We started off our session with Rodney presenting “Exploiting Your Opponent’s Weakness”. Several interesting topics were discussed here from analyzing your opponents grips, to finishing off the mid court ball. We finished our morning session with final Davis Cup matches.

Throughout the weekend each of the players filled their camp notebooks with insights they recorded during and after match play, they also took detailed notes on how our topics related to their individual games. We hope the campers all share this vital information with their personal coaches.

All players were given a group photo to remember their experience on court with Rodney.

Special Thanks goes to former HTA Advisor Paul Torricelli for his talk on “Does Your Child Aspire to Play Collegiate Tennis”, and current HTA coach Van King’s talk on “Lessons in Parenting a Junior Player”.

It was a terrific weekend with lots of great tennis and information discussed. I enjoyed meeting the players that came in from across the Midwest. We’ve got some very talented kids in the Midwest coming through the ranks!!

Fawcett Wins Midwest Winter Championships

Tom Fawcett took the Boys’ 14s title to lead a strong contingent of HTA competitors at the Midwest Winter Championships held at the Dayton Center Courts & Tennis Academy in Dayton, Ohio January 15-17. The tournament is a National Level 3, Midwest Level 2 event.

Fawcett, seeded third, rocked Brandon Yeoh of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. 6-0, 6-1 in the first round. In the second round Fawcett dropped his only set of the tournament, falling behind 6-7(5) to Indiana’s Jeffrey Chen. Fawcett turned it around and took each of the next two sets 6-1, 6-1. Tom handled fifth seeded Michael Dube 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.

The semifinals brought a tighter match as Fawcett knocked out Harrison O’Keefe 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the finals against Aron Hiltzik. O’Keefe, from Salem, Va. knocked out #1 seed Max Fleigner 6-1, 6-2 in the quarters. Fawcett took out Hiltzik in straight sets 6-3, 6-0 to take the title.

In the Boys’ 18s draw Ben Hoogland won his first two matches 6-1, 6-0 and 6-2, 6-1 to cruise into the quarterfinals, where he faced #3 seed Jackson Withrow. Withrow topped Hoogland 6-3, 6-2.

Also competing in the event were Sam Hoogland (2-2), Vinnie Nagaraj (1-2), Michael Sellitto (0-2), and Brandon Wozniczka (0-2)

Four Compete at Boy's 10s Closed

Four juniors from the Herrmann Tennis Academy traveled to Kenosha, Wisc. to compete at the USTA Midwest Section Boys’ 10s’ Midwest Closed Junior Indoor Championships January 23-25.

Kenny Herrmann had the top showing of HTA competitors, receiving a bye as the seventh seed and winning his first two matches to advance to the quarterfinals. Kenny then fell 6-1, 6-0 to Sam Komis in the quarters. Herrmann rebounded to take out fifteenth seed Scott Bout 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the feed-in semifinals and end the tournament on a winning note.

Jeremy Barretta posted a 4-2 record in the tournament, highlighted by a 4-6, 7-5, 10-7 win over eighth seeded Oliver Weaver.

Quentin Benedetto lost to sixteenth seed Casey Johnson in the first round and was defeated 3-6, 7-6(7), 11-9 by A.J Dugan in his second match.

Michael McFadden also fell in a close consolation match, losing 7-5, 2-6, 10-5 to Benjamin Bout.

“Each of our players showed some positive results in this event,” said HTA Owner Ken Herrmann. “Each of these boys’ has a bright future in the game and we are excited to see them develop together.”

Wisconsin's Robert Krill, an attendee at the most recent HTA High Performance Mini-Camp advanced to the finals.

The Fitness Difference by Chris Thomas

The Importance of Fitness
HTA Coach Chris Thomas

If you have ever played several, grueling three set matches in one day you know how important it is to be in great physical shape. Having the ability to last on the court for long periods of time and to recover quickly will give you a major advantage during matches.

Fitness training should go beyond aerobic conditioning and include speed, quickness, agility, strength and endurance training. If you want to be at the top of your game you have to devote time on a consistent basis to increase your overall fitness. For all juniors that are gearing up for the high school season, now is the time to put your fitness regime into high gear. Matches (and positions on varsity teams) are rarely won by the player that hits their strokes the hardest but are almost always won by the player that consistently moves around the court with excellent footwork. Can you imagine the difference it would make in your game if during a third set tiebreak you felt like it was the first set? Being able to get to every ball and hitting it in your strike zone will make a huge difference in a long close match. Increasing your overall fitness level is something every player can do that will definitely help every time they step one the court.

There are many activities you can do to increase your fitness level. I am a big believer in making sure that you raise your heart rate for at least 20 minutes as a starting point for every workout. Many activities that can be utilized include jogging (outside or on a treadmill), riding a stationary or recumbent bike, using an elliptical or stair stepper or one of my favorites – inline skating. Additionally, I like to include some type of speed and agility training in my daily workouts. A few good exercises are sprints, speed ladder, and jumping rope. The last element I like to include is strength training. The key is to concentrate on your form, use lower weights and more repetitions and be sure to include leg work and core work.

Fitness is a major factor in becoming the best tennis player you can. You need to discipline yourself and make fitness training part of your daily practice routine. Work hard and give it 100% and you will see the results on the court.