Alexander Waske is relieved. The time that he had to force a few weeks ago “to finally clear out the basement like everyone else”, the former German Davis Cup player is now finally back on the pitch. Every day, normality returns to his tennis university based in Offenbach.
After the German amateur and professional players, who had been able to train again after the corona easing by politics in May at the latest, the around 40 contract players from around the world are now gradually returning to Germany to resume training at the academy. Global tennis is on the move. The association of male professionals recently announced that the ATP tour will continue in mid-August. Waske and his charges have another goal in mind that they can train towards. The days of waiting and uncertainty are over.
However, a lot has changed for the time being, and not just the new staff in the fitness department with Marcus Lindner and Hannes Heyder: “We totally slowed down and never trained as much as now,” says Waske. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that the trainers make sure that they start up again to the right extent in order to prevent injuries. On the other hand, there are also changes that Waske and his team have made. “We used the time by, as an academy, in daily video conferences, we gave a lot of thought to how we could improve – especially structurally,” explains Waske, who was concerned with daily processes in training but also with fundamental questions, how you want to teach tennis to young learners, for example.
The idea behind it is trivial, but plausible: “All successful people try to pull something positive out of every crisis. That’s how we do it, ”explains Waske. Such a lot of time to make elementary considerations and identify improvement potential will not be available again so quickly. Many methods and concepts were put to the test – according to a Waske, the necessary procedure in order to be able to continue to survive against the big competitors. “We are in a niche. We are not a huge academy and can therefore only come from the quality, “says the tennis teacher, who makes a comparison to the car industry:” We cannot be VW or Opel because we do not have 70 tennis courts. “
However, being smaller does not necessarily mean that your own figureheads travel worldwide with less horsepower than the competition. The Offenbach Tennis University, which Waske founded in 2010 together with Rainer Schüttler, has had some notable successes – even if it currently has to do without top players from the top regions of the world rankings: Angelique Kerber and Andrea Petkovic did it with Waske as coach Jump into the top ten. The 19-year-old Czech Jonas Forejtek is one of the most promising talents in men’s tennis, won the Junior Grand Slam title at the US Open last year and has meanwhile taken first place in the junior world rankings.
He could become the figurehead of the academy if he could continue his steep climb. It is annoying that he was denied the opportunity to gain match practice at an important stage in his career. The young Czech, who had enough time to graduate from high school during the corona pandemic, was supposed to throw it back too far, but not: “Everyone has this problem. In addition, almost every professional has to deal with a phase in which he cannot train at some point in his career due to injuries, ”says Waske.
The fact that a lot has started again and that the summer camps are booked more often than two or three weeks ago is particularly pleasing to those responsible in Offenbach from a financial point of view. With the termination of the training in March, the academy also stopped claims for payments from customers. The Tennis University is still making ends meet: “Because we have managed well and with foresight in the past, we will get away with a black eye,” says Cornelia Heintz, who is responsible for finance and administration. This is also due to government grants such as the short-time allowance that Tennis University has applied for for its employees.
The effort that is currently being put into place during the re-start is enormous: Every player is treated as if he were newly admitted to the academy, explains Waske. New training plans are created. For this reason, those responsible repeatedly come into dialogue with players and parents, explaining why there is now only one training hour on the court per day, where two were previously scheduled. Not everyone understands this, but from Waske’s point of view it has to be: Dosed re-entry and transparency towards customers are the most important thing for the former professional. “So far we have managed to start everything up again without injuries.” If it stays that way, it would be a success. How much more the fresh wind can bring will be shown.
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