Summer Camp is for Juniors What Off-Season Training is for Pros

By Liezel Huber T o me, summer camp training for juniors is like off-season training for professionals.

Over my many years on the WTA world tour, I never missed this opportunity to improve my game. Just like touring professionals, young players can spend a full day on the court during the summer to work on their hand and eye coordination and build technical skills. The longer days provide more one-on-one training windows and allows for more match play to practice

new learned skills and improve tactical development.

Off-season training for me, during my professional life was a time to build my body, focus my mind, expand my weapons, and lay the foundation for my game plan the following year. Summer camp is that same opportunity for juniors. I recommend to all my students that they take this training season seriously, and to set development goals as well as tournament goals. This is a time for juniors to experiment with their games, explore new strategies and get strong!

Now that I have retired, it has only strengthened my belief that a wasted

summer for a junior player is equivalent to a wasted year.

Liezel Huber is executive director of tennis for the Cary Leeds Center for Tennis & Learning in the Bronx, N.Y. A former number one-ranked doubles player, Huber won 57 WTA Tour doubles titles including seven Grand Slam titles and three year-end championship titles. Huber was also a threetime Olympian and a member of both the United States and South African Fed Cup teams. She was a WTA Player Council Representative for seven years, and is the founder of Liezel’s Cause, a non-profit organization she created to assist families affected by Hurricane Katrina.