French tennis tournament circuit - the fast lane!

A real tennis circuit should be your goal. I myself started off a long time ago with a tour in Scotland, which is where you go round the tournaments as a sort of tourist, playing where you can, when you can, as cheaply as you can. As a tourist you are not necessarily getting the best out of the system.

When you do the complete circuit, you are looking to optimise performance, training, essential development and preparation over a twelve month period. In France you'll find it possible to perfectly plan all of this, and you'll make progress in leaps and bounds.

A tennis circuit involves certain elements.

You will start off from a base. How and where you play your first tournament may well be decided by how your base is.

If you have been able to do a complete physical preparation with a range of practice partners of the right standard and intensity, over a period of about a month, you can go for the biggest best tournament you can find in the first week.

In my experience this is not the case. There'll be imperfections in your preparation, and you may want one or even two tournaments to get you warmed up. They may be difficult tournaments, where you may not be able to achieve much in terms of results, but they should achieve something, like getting accustomed to a surface, or weather conditions or a certain playing level or style.

You want ideally to be able to peak in the third week, carry on into at least a fourth week in this case. By the end of week four you'll be exhausted, at least from the travelling, but also from the stress of being in a tournament circuit.
 

Find a coach to manage the circuit

You'll then get back to base, wiser, but looking to become refreshed. Maybe you'll even change base where you'll not become a member of a new club, but meet up with some like-minded friends and change your preparation for the second leg of the circuit.

Best clubs

In my region I like to play some tournaments out towards Paris, where I'm not familiar with most of the players, and I find myself playing some new tournaments, for a fresh experience.

Very infrequently does a new tournament give me a "I've done this sort of place before" feeling. All new experiences can be put into the memory bank. If you find yourself having a particularly positive experience, you'll want to build that in again. You may be the sort who thrives on frequent fresh fields, but I haven't met many of these players. Most players do well at tournaments where they prepare for a set of conditions that they can predict very accurately. They will target those conditions and handle them better than their opponents.
 

Not winning?

I also like going out in the other direction towards the German border. The players are not such regular, clever, match players as the Parisians, but they are frequently well trained, and physically well prepared. A player must experience all types of mental and physical test to keep his development moving.
 

Top circuit performance

Then if I stay quite local, I'll know a lot of the players and all of the venues. In theory this should be precious knowledge for my players, and they can approach each match with a little head start.

Inside info before a match is often useful, and one of the main jobs of the pro coaches. He'll scout an upcoming opponent for his form and attitude, because that is a variable, but difficult to change enormously from one match to the next. If I watch him in a previous round, I'll have a very good idea what he'll produce in the next round.

In fact, the best pros know how to be playing in a certain way at a certain venue, regardless of opponent, and this combination will get them, moreorless, the results they want. They'll still want to know how the next opponent's form is though. This may be the 5% difference between winning and losing - that little bit better preparation.

Reentering a tournament you have played before, and bringing in that experience, without taking into account likely opponents, is doing half a job. I always check who my players are playing. Even if my information is a little inaccurate, I can fine tune my player's approach with the right words.
 

French tournament tour

After you've done a couple of tours, maybe had one or two quiet weeks in a new venue, you may be ready for a longer time off. Pauses must be built in, but I don't make these too long, unless this is a player who is making enormous, permanent progress up the tennis ladder.

In most cases you'll be losing one or two matches a week. Don't pause too long, get out there and play, and lose, some more. If you have a really good week, and you're feeling exhausted, then you may want to modify your approach to the following week, making it more of a consolidation week than an achieving week. Consolidation weeks are also good, and can be done in match play at least as effectively as in practice.
 

A real pause in a circuit is one where you can build in a little technical, strategic or fitness work. Ideally this should be conceived by a coach who has been following your recent matches, and who regards these exercises as essential to the next step of your progress. In the season March to September, these pauses shouldn't be longer than a month. Get back to match play when the tournaments are there.
 

Keep busy in the season

The other issue is whether to break away from the designated area or routine completely.

If you have immediate ambitions to get on the World ranking list, you may want to play some ITF events if you're a junior, or ATP/WTA Qualifying events if you're an adult. Generally these events will all cost you more money, give you more logistical headaches, than your standard tour, so it may be that your whole year, your whole annual circuit, is aimed at being in the best possible condition for these events.

In my experience, even if you can target these events, say, six months in advance, it is extremely difficult to be sure that these will be your best weeks.
 

Personally, for players looking to become professionals, I recommend a couple of full years playing the junior or senior pro circuit in France, before you spend any big money, or experience serious disappointments, on the ITF tour.

When you start the ITF tour, you really want to pack in at least ten events in a 12 month period, to give yourself a chance of having a few unfortunate weeks, a chance to acclimatise yourself to surfaces and opponent types.

A circuit is a minimum 12 month plan.