Cyril Jacobe writes the following report of his recent attendance at the ITF/OS Advanced Players Coaching Course:
“Hello everyone, I am delighted to share with you my activities for the past six weeks here in Valencia, Spain. My name is Cyril Jacobe from Vanuatu, and I was doing the “ITF/OS level 2 Advanced Player Coaching Course” under the tutelage of Dr. Miguel Crespo. Also attending the course were four other coaches doing the ITF level 2 & 3 course, all from different countries. Pictured below from left to right: Dwayne Pagon (Jamaica), Cyril Jacobe (Vanuatu), Guillermo Stevens (Mexico), Miguel Crespo (tutor from Spain), Emmanuel Novas (Dominican Republic) and Andrew Thornton (Barbados). The past six weeks has been an amazing experience for me and I will cherish the knowledge acquired and friends made for the rest of my life.
Whist in Valencia, we were living with the residents at the “DEPORTIU COMPLEX DE VALENCIA”. The complex had 50 plus twin rooms, a cafeteria/ canteen, library, 2 gymnasiums, 1 Olympic swimming pool, 2 fitness rooms for classes, 1 sitting area/ lounge, laundry services. Each morning we were transported to the Sport and Life Tennis Academy by Carlos Valle, one of the coaches and physical trainers at the academy, where we coached court side Pancho Alvirino and Jonathan Moll, co-directors of the Academy. We were immediately made to feel at home by everyone at the Academy (Pancho Alvirino, Rafa Mensua, Johnathan Moll, Carlos Valle and Beatriz Garcia). They greeted us with open arms and showed us the coaching styles and methods used in Spain. We all appreciated the fact that we were encouraged to go on to the court with a coach to observe and give feedback, suggestions, and assist with the sessions with high performance players. They took the time to explain the goals of the drills while showing us the technical, tactical, mental and physical importance to improve their players. We then spent all our afternoons at the ITF office, studying and researching. In addition to the on court coaching and studying, we had six excursion trips planned by Mr. Crespo, our tutor, throughout the six weeks.
Our first excursion was to the Valencia Tennis Federation at the Dr. Lluck headquarters where Mr Francisco Mastelli gave us a tour of the facilities. The Federation has four centres throughout Valencia and at this location there are four courts. We were told that majority of the kids are at the beginner/intermediate level and play either once a week or twice a week.
The next excursion trip was to Mallorca, home of Rafael Nadal. Thanks to Miguel Crespo for organising and guiding us through the day. The first stop was the Mallorca Open, a first time WTA event. It had 6 grass courts made just for the Open, matching Wimbledon standards. We had the thrill of seeing Rafa Nadal practise for Wimbledon preparation. Nadal was very impressive, a very solid body structure but yet super dynamic and explosive. Furthermore, we hung around the Open watching the ladies practise and admired the pure power and fluidity of 6’2″ Kristina Pliskova vs Francesca Schiavone. We were all impressed by the splendour of the lefty, Pliskova, and Schiavone’s musculature. Again thru Miguel’s magic we were able to meet Tony Nadal, Rafa’s coach, here pictured below with the team of coaches.
Next stop was the brand new state of the art Rafa Nadal Tennis Academy by Movistar, which had 27 tennis courts, including 1 centre court, 2 artificial grass football pitches, 1 swimming pool, 1 fully equipped by TechnoGym fitness centre and much more, including a restaurant. We were all mesmerized with the grandiosity of the infrastructure. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to thoroughly visit the centre but just being there we felt it had enormous potential to create a new generation of Professionals. An eye opener for the ITF/OS course coaches.
From there, we made our way to a typical village tennis club, something more familiar to us. We had the great pleasure to learn from Geoffrey Porta who had worked with Nadal and Moya during their junior career. The centre had 5 clay courts, a small club house with a small gym. It also had residents on the top floor of the club house, residing up to 10 players including Geoffrey and his wife. His philosophy of tennis is to educate youngsters through the beautiful game of Tennis and by doing so he created his enterprise called “Tennis10”.
With now 3 weeks remaining we felt that 6 weeks wasn’t much after all. Miguel thought we were competent to part take in the Level 3 High Performance Coaching course therefore he accelerated the pace of the Level 2 course and we were sitting our final written exam on the Monday of week 4. During that same week we visited two of Spain’s top Tennis Academies, Barcelona Total Tennis (BTT) and Sanchez Casal Tennis Academy, both in Barcelona and both monstrous tennis bases with 25-30 plus courts. In addition, we had the privilege to stay at the Centre D’Alte Regime (C.A.R) and also had a full tour of the high performance centre. I had never seen anything like the CAR; State of the art infrastructure with the latest updated technology to create Spain’s Olympic medal winning athletes (not just tennis players). We then spent the weekend in Barcelona visiting some of the world’s most famous tourist attractions such as the Sagrada Familia and Camp Nau (Home of Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona).
Now with 2 weeks left we began studying “Psychology for Tennis” and in my opinion this is the main pillar to reach the top professional level of all sports. Meanwhile we still had trips planned and our next one was Madrid to visit Madrid Tennis Federation, home of the Federacion de Tenis de Espana. We had a very instructional presentation by David Sanz about the procedures and statistics of the Spanish Federation. Later on we were at the Ciudad de la Raqueta de Tennis to watch the 14s Nationals. A tournament that most of the current top Spaniards, Nadal, Verdasco etc… once played. The level of tennis was fascinating.
After a weekend of studying we were sitting our Level 3 Psychology test, doing our practical tests, and beginning the second module “Periodization/ plannification”. At the start of week 6 we visited Club de Tenis Valencia and Sporting Club Valencia which were in Valencia and both those clubs are the most prestigious clubs in Valencia. I’m glad that we were able to have the full tour.
Furthermore we had a last visit on the 20th July at JC Ferero Equelite Tennis Academy. Definitely my best experience of all visits. Lastly, we received a power point presentation from Carlos Valle, the physical conditioning coach at Sport and life tennis academy by Pancho Alvarino. The next day we were sitting our final test and glad it was over but sad to know my Spanish experience halted.
I would like to thank Olympic Solidarity and VASANOC for funding the course and Vanuatu Tennis Federation for supporting me. I would like to thank Evelyne Jacobe as well, my boss for releasing me for these past 6 weeks. Also a big thank you to Dr. Miguel Crespo, our tutor; Pancho Alvarino and Jonathan Moll at Sport and Life Tennis Academy for accepting us to work in their program and everyone that made this trip possible. MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS
Pictured below, the 3 international Level 2 coaches and the Spanish coaches at Sport & Life tennis academy.
