A week at Sanchez-Casal tennis Academy, Barcelona
Led by Coach Martyn Lappas, five junior members of Sheen Lawn Tennis Club spent an unforgettable week at the Sanchez-Casal tennis Academy, in the outskirts of Barcelona. Adrian Cruizat, Teddy Pisker, Ollie and Max Friend and Cesar Campoy were the lucky ones who had the chance to do an intensive training in one of the world’s top tennis centres.
The group gathered at Gatwick Airport on the afternoon of Sunday 11 April. When we arrived to Gatwick Martyn was already there, with a yellow, black and white big Babolat luggage kit which distinguished him as the unquestionable group’s leader and head Coach. Teddy was there too and shortly afterwards Ollie arrived with his father Nigel, also a traveller (Max was going to fly to Barcelona later in the week with his mother Nicky). I arrived with my son Cesar, my wife Monica and Adrian, whose parents were leaving on a trip on the same day. Monica and I were also travellers as we took the opportunity to spend a week in always beautiful Barcelona. A number of racquet bags and tennis gear were spread around us as we progressed in the Easy Jet check-in queue, so an incidental onlooker could tell that this group was serious about tennis.
After taking off we said farewell to England from our seats, expecting to see the same green land below us just after a week. As everybody else, we were then unaware that the power of an Icelandic volcano was ready to be unleashed and force us to a change of plans for the way back.
Two hours later we arrived in a sunny Barcelona. Martyn, Nigel and the boys took the minibus that was expecting them for the short drive to the Academy, while we headed for our hotel in central Barcelona. That night we called to the Academy to see how things were going. The children were very excited; they were sharing a room with four beds, their own fridge and a full bathroom. They were chatting loudly after having dinner at the Academy’s restaurant –very good food, they said. They told us that after arriving they have even managed to get into a clay court and knock the ball for a while. Of course all recommendations to go to sleep early were in vain, but at the Academy they assured us that they were in a very safe environment with a watcher keeping an eye on them at all times. They said that light were going out at 10 and the boys had to be up at 7:30 in the morning, have a good breakfast at the restaurant and head for a warm up before the morning training session.
The next day we drove to the Academy late in the morning. Once in there we wandered for a while in the labyrinth of walkways linking the substantial number of courts of many different surfaces until we managed to locate the group. There was Martyn standing on the side of a clay court and taking footage of two of our boys while they were being constantly fed with balls from the other side of the net by a 40 something year’s old man with a familiar face. He was giving commands in English with a Spanish accent.
“Do you know who this guy is?” Martyn asked. “Sergio Casal, winner of Roland Garros and the US Open in doubles with Emilio Sanchez Vicario” he said without waiting for an answer. You could see how euphoric Martyn was with this chance of having the boys coached by a former grand slam winner. The children were thrilled too; you could see it in their faces and in their attitude, extra focused on every word pronounced by Sergio, each one of them trying to do their best to comply with his instructions.
We thought that Sergio’s presence was a kind of treat on the first day at the Academy, but we were all wrong. He personally trained the boys from 11 to 1:30 every day of their stay except for one. These training sessions were very intensive. He took them in pairs to a court for about 30 minutes while the other two stayed playing points under his supervision in the next court. For about 15 minutes he coached one of the boys, focusing each time in a different aspect of the game, while the other one picked up the balls in the back. Then they switched for another 15 minutes and after the two were finished with their turn Sergio called the other pair to repeat the same procedure. After two and a half hours of doing this almost non stopping they were exhausted and more than ready for lunch.
Each one of the boys was given a pass for the restaurant, showing it they could eat and drink as much as they wanted and the food at the buffet looked very tempting indeed. The restaurant manager told me that all the food is prepared following the high energy requirements of an intensive training regime and that they always keep an eye especially on children to make sure that they eat enough to sustain their needs throughout their training period.
After lunch the boys had some hours of free time. Part of this time they spent it at the computers (there are only three or four computers for public use, so no one can stay for too long), or playing table tennis (at one point Adrian told me: “Do you know who is this guy I am playing table tennis with? He is the number 17 in the world’s junior ranking!”), or simply standing on a court side watching a training session (“Look he has just got his first ATP points and the guy who is coaching him used to be 34 in the world!”).
We left the Academy before the starting of the fitting session at the gym, which was to be followed by a late afternoon tennis coaching session. We could see that the children were going to be very tired that first night. And very happy as well.
We came back almost every day of the week and spent some hours at the Academy, perhaps eating more “tapas” than we should have, but also having the opportunity to check that all the boys were fine and happy. This was not really necessary because Martyn was always there, close to the children, taking notes of their progress and making sure that all was going well. The third day Sergio told me that he has very happy to be training this group of boys as he could already see big progress in all of them. Then he showed me how they were moving in the court and how they were improving their attitude while playing points. I could see he was right, that good results were already there.
As it always happens with time well spent, the week was over too soon for everybody. The last day in Barcelona came with the news of the flights cancellations due to the volcanic ashes, but facing this unexpected circumstance Martyn, with a big help from Nicky, reacted well and fast finding alternative ways to bring the children back home.
Overall the trip to Barcelona was a complete success. It started some months before as an idea that Martyn proposed to some of the parents and perhaps then not many believed that it could be accomplished. But he showed the determination and the ability to make the arrangements from London and once in Barcelona he showed that he is well fit to lead a group of children in an experience like this one. He was in charge at all times, showing up at the Academy early in the morning before the first training session, standing beside the courts to follow movements and coaches’ instructions, sharing lunch and some of the free time with the boys and always keeping an eye on them to make sure that they were happy at the Academy. Congratulations Martyn, you did very well!
For the children this was an unforgettable experience. After the week at the Sanchez-Casal Academy they all came back with a renewed enthusiasm for tennis. They want to train more, go into tournaments and match days at the NTC, and get together at the club to play friendly matches or just knock the ball… I hope they can keep the momentum and start to see tennis as an increasingly important part of their lives. And I also hope that with the club encouragement experiences like this one can be repeated in the future. |
Juniors 
