27. January 2019

INSIGHTS: Coaching Tennis Star Kevin Anderson

Welcome to Miami.

I have coached many big names in sports but coaching Kevin Anderson, at this time the sixth best tennis player in the world, was simply special. When I got a call from his Physio in October it was clear for me, where I was heading in December – Delray Beach Florida, 50 miles away from Miami. My mission: optimize the health and performance of the 6 ft 8 in South African tennis professional.

Being a huge USA fan, I decided to combine my assignment with a little vacation trip, visiting Miami, watching my favorite NBA Team, the Miami Heat, driving down Ocean drive and much more.

What is the difference coaching pro athletes?

I get this question all the time. Actually people think pro athletes are completely different from your average Joe, but to be honest, pro athletes also have the same obstacles as ordinary people. Too often people think pro athletes have everything optimized and leave no room for improvement. Actually exactly the opposite is often true. Many athletes live completely of their talent and haven’t yet thought about optimizing their general health including nutrition, sleep, organ health and much more. Therefore it’s actually pretty stunning if you imagine how much potential they are leaving on the table.

 

What about Kevin?

Kevin however was actually pretty advanced when we assessed his 8 pillars of health including individual Neurotransmitter Assessment, Applied Kinesiology testing and the Bioprint measurement. He was taking good care of his body with good nutrition, sleep, supplementation and much more. Nevertheless I found different areas of his health where we needed to take action. I can’t get into much detail here but especially the areas of gut health, pre/intra/post workout nutrition, sleep and implementing healthy routines were on the top of our to do list.

Love for detail is the alpha and omega with pro athletes

The one huge difference that actually exists with pro athletes is the enormous love for detail you must have while coaching these high performers. The supplements must be WADA approved, the nutrition protocol on fleek, the recovery and sleep section optimized and much more. By optimizing only 5-10 % with these high level athletes, it will make a tremendous difference in performance and winning. The beautiful thing about health optimization – if you once understand how your body is ticking,  you can apply the strategies for the rest of your life. With Kevin I’m really looking forward for his successes, we practice the further support via online coaching as I do with most of my clients from all around the world. It was an absolutely special time in Florida and the trip plus the coaching was simply amazing. 🙂