10 Minutes of Tennis: Better Warm Up Routines

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Hey, hey, this is Shaun with the Atlanta Tennis Podcast,

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With that said, let's get started with 10 minutes of tennis.

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Hey, this is Shaun with GoTennis!, and we are here with World Renowned Tennis Coach Justin Yeo,

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the Australian in Puerto Rico. We're going to make that rhyme every time.

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Justin, the World Renowned Tennis Pro, Justin Yeo, Australian in Puerto Rico.

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And then Justin next week, we'll get you that background we were talking about.

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We'll put you in Melbourne park for sure.

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But today, let's jump right in. Justin tells me I need a better warm-up routine.

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So my first question for you, Justin, is what's wrong with my current warm-up routine?

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Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

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I think really the key factor there is just to know your body.

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Know what you need. I think where people sort of go wrong is they try to

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static stretch, which can actually make things worse.

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Try to be dynamic. I think also where people seem to mess it up,

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is they do the same thing every time.

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Try to mix it up. Try to change different muscle groups.

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This has been a discussion for me multiple times.

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Your first swing needs to be as loose as possible.

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Swing the bloody rack.

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This whole while I go warm up, I go warm up, I go warm up.

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All you do is dream stiffness and no touch.

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The less density, the muscles already know what to do.

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The brain flies to it and off it goes.

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So your first swings, I keep saying to people, swing the bloody thing down.

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Don't be like, "Oh, I gotta swing slowly."

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I go, "No, the slower, the step you become."

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Not a big fan of the half-quarter either.

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Some people kill me for saying that, but not a big fan.

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Because you don't finish your swing.

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You don't lengthen your swing.

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You're just pulling off it and doing the old 90s windscreen life

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or garbage that should have been that decade we can disappear

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because of the windscreen life.

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The other things about warm ups is I think if I go from kids to amateurs,

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kids, the sooner they get into a better habit of warming up

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and getting routines and spend plenty of time

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getting a mental, emotional, physical, everything warmed up before a match

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is critical.

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I've looked back at my career.

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Big problem was that I didn't understand anything of that.

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And coaches right now should be trying to get kids warm enough.

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I do see a lot of kids saying, "Well, I don't want to do the lap around the core."

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Well, you know what?

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He's just trying to get your heart rate up.

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And he's trying to give you something simply not to think so much about.

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But we do need to be better at getting kids warmed up

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and getting them into a habit.

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Are you still seeing the kids with the static stretches?

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Because everywhere we go, pretty much most all the academies especially.

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Modern coaching, the coaches have the kids.

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Even if it's a hamstring pull, it's a walking version.

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It's a Frankenstein.

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It's what we call that, the lunge walking.

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I see that everywhere.

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So with the kids, I think it's maybe less of a problem

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than you would say with the amateur adults.

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Yeah, adults, we grew up and we were just,

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we were told, "Get into it, let's go."

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We didn't really understand the vanages of body maintenance.

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And there are a lot of injuries can happen just because of not being prepared early enough.

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Not getting warmed up early enough.

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Even just the mind.

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Sometimes the mind isn't there and you've got to get yourself active

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so the body can be active.

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My mind is the first thing to cramp in the third set.

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Yeah, I look at the other thing too.

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Cramps can come from also just from working against tension.

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So mentally, if you're mentally thinking too much

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or mentally trying to push yourself through it,

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that can create the tension and you're working twice as hard.

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That's why I say the first swing is going to be trying to lose as possible.

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So there is no doubt you just swing.

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And every day is different day.

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I mean, left side of the brain might be working as well as the right side of the brain

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and the back out of the fore and totally different from the day before.

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So there's a lot of factors coming into the warm up.

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If we talk warm up in a match,

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don't see enough people identifying the three dimensions

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forward, up and back, side to side, up and down.

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Like they're just hitting the ball, thinking about themselves so much.

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Versus, okay, but hit this one high.

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What do they do?

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Oh, they've been back.

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Okay, I should take advantage of that when I'm playing.

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Like, there's a lot of tactical options.

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If you're doing the warm up,

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don't see enough people doing that.

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You're too focused on themselves so much.

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And really, when you're playing tennis,

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you've got no time to focus on yourself.

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You have to focus on what you're hitting where,

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you're getting better decision, tactical options.

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And so the sooner you get it off you, the better.

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You know, and we talked about that in the performance part,

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you know, internal external thought patterns,

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people don't understand that enough either.

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The quicker you can dig externally,

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the better you're going to play.

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It's just as simple as that.

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And I hadn't heard a lot of conversation about a tactical warm up.

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I have heard people complain and saying,

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somebody tried to win the warm up,

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where you're hitting winners and nobody likes that warm up partner.

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But one of the things, one of the things I do

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is just me personally,

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I take as many returns of serve as I serve.

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And, but a lot of that is because I got there early.

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Get to your match early.

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You get a, what, a five minute warm up,

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maybe 10 in a league match.

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It's not a way to get physically warmed up.

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So my wife is the fitness instructor.

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She offers our fitness tips for go tennis and the podcast.

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And she has a whole routine of this is what you can do

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as you're walking to the court.

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Here's how you start warming up.

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You need to be there a few minutes early

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and get yourself physically ready to go.

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You need to be sweating before you even walk onto the court,

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so to speak, to be physically ready.

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And two things I do in my warm up,

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I guess is tactical.

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One is when you come to the net to take your volleys,

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I only chip the ball.

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I'm only slicing.

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One, I haven't hit any warm up.

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I want to warm up that shot.

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And two, I don't want you to see my topspin

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that's going to go at you while you're at the net.

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So I'm going to chip only when you're at the net.

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But I hadn't considered hitting a ball intentionally,

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kind of off to a side,

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or seeing what my opponent is capable of

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without trying to hit winners like that guy nobody likes.

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Yep.

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Yeah, me tactically.

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Most people at the start,

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whether they're warm up or not, it doesn't matter.

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Because if I hit five balls back and forth

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and then hit them a drop shot and they don't run for the ball,

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it's like, okay, one, maybe they don't like to run.

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Tactically mentally, they're just like,

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that's the shot they hate.

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Or two, and all that.

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So in the first three games,

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when we're going to do a hell out of drop shots,

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it's like, okay, you don't want to come warm up to this match.

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I'm not hitting to you.

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You're going to run your ass off.

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You know, I'm going to take the first three games.

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You know, all that.

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So, yes, very, very, very important.

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And John, if it's,

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John Tvish does a lot of perception stuff.

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If everyone has noticed, every time he's hitting it's like this.

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And it's like forcing the eyes to see

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and watch the person's racket.

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You know, I don't know how many people don't watch the other racket

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in a warm up.

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And they're like wondering why their time is up.

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You know, or the person's hitting the ball harder and they're like,

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oh my god, this guy's harder.

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Okay, so make a step back

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for a new time, spot and then move forward.

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You know, or just start reading the other person's racket earlier,

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which I don't see enough either.

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So, but it was going to give the kids a tip.

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The first tip I would say is get rid of your phone as quick as possible,

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putting on our young now, but phones are definitely going to be a distraction

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mentally before they play.

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Adults too.

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That's not just for kids.

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Adults as well.

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Don't want to get in an argument before you come on the court.

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You know, maybe you might fire the first few balls, but that's bad.

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You know, phones.

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The other tip I would give coaches and kids,

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when you're doing your academies or you're doing your groups,

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have each kid come to each session with a different warm up.

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And it can be just the freakiest animal exercise.

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You know, they might say, hey, I want to do a tiger.

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And everyone's two hands to feet running around the court like this.

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But come up with something different every single time.

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Kids get so creative that way.

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And it just the whole group is into it.

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And the kid has to lead.

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So he has to show leadership and show everybody's exercise.

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He has to talk about it.

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Yes.

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And there's no judgment there either because no one knows the exercise.

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You see, so even the coach should be getting into it too.

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Half the coach is probably don't know how to bend over and do what these kids do.

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But it creates way more different exercises.

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And more way more different things that create.

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And in each kid's different.

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So I used to do that.

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I used to have kids run the exercise or run a warm up.

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And my advanced kids on my top older kids had to come up with a routine.

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Like eight or nine exercises.

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And you had to follow them.

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And it would take them, you know, a few days to think about it, write it down.

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Boom. Next one in, you know, because they all think of different exercises.

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So get there early. Yeah, get yourself physically ready.

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Yep.

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Tactically look at your opponents.

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Yeah.

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Hit some different shots in your warm up.

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Make sure you're loose.

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Yep.

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And we'll see you again next week.

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I appreciate your adjustment.

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Thanks so much.

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You're welcome.

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Have fun, guys.

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Well, there you have it.

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