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DAMON 0:00
I learned on how important of a role that a coach can have in the preventative injury side as well and not just on court tactics right i mean that you know, our job as a coach is to definitely train and improve technique improve the mental side of tennis, improve the strategies that you can use but but now you know, it refreshes my memory of a you got to take care of your body as well. You better be doing your stretching, you better have your routines and stay disciplined with your routines.
INTRODUCTION 0:33
Welcome to the fit and healthy Denver podcast where we discuss all things revolving around health, fitness and wellness in the amazing state of Colorado so you can get behind the scenes information from industry insiders, special events, and more. Coming up is our host, physical therapist and strength coach, Dr. Jamie Beauvais. And here we go.
JAMIE 0:59
All right, on today’s episode of the fit and healthy Denver podcast, we have Damon Gillette, who is the head tennis pro at the Denver tennis club. Welcome, Damon. Yeah,
DAMON 1:09
I’m happy to be here. Thanks, Jamie.
JAMIE 1:11
And we’re gonna be talking about all things tennis, tennis, performance, tennis, injuries, tennis, injury avoidance, hopefully. And you know how to play your best. And so I wanted to have David on today as an expert in the field, and just kind of talk about a lot of different things that people have questions about. So before we do that, David, why don’t you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your background? Yeah, Jamie. So
DAMON 1:35
Once again, thanks for having me on the show here. Yeah, so I am a Denver native, I’ve grown up here kind of grew up in the highlands area. And started playing at the Denver tennis club when I was a young kid just playing some tournaments around town. And as I got older, after high school, I jumped out onto the tour, tried to go pro for many years and didn’t work out the way I had imagined it would. So I started teaching and landed a good head pro position here at the Denver tennis club. And I’ve been here for about eight years now. And it’s been amazing, wonderful people that I work with. And yeah, I get to be on a tennis court every day. So there’s definitely some worse things to be doing. That’s
JAMIE 2:16
Yeah, for a tennis player, I can’t imagine there’s not a much better job. So you and your coach, mostly adults, correct.
DAMON 2:24
mostly adults, yeah, mostly adults, from, you know, beginner levels, to open levels. And in all ages in between, as well, probably more so you know, 21 to 80. And so that’s what I love about tennis is it really is a sport of a lifetime. And, you know, we get a lot of people out in their mid 80s, playing and running quick running down balls, and it’s just impressive and inspiring. So it’s definitely a great sport to pick up. And it’s a fun sport to teach our kids so that they have it for longevity throughout their lives, right now to help play to keep yourself Young. Right? Definitely. Yeah, that’s for sure. Yeah, it’s
JAMIE 2:58
great to see those older adults that are out there, you know, playing games every day. And we you know, we’re by the gates tennis center where our clinic is, and we see older adults kind of walking by our clinic with their tennis rackets in their bag every day. And I just, I love it. You know, you have those older adults who sit on the couch and watch Bonanza or whatever. And then you have your older adults who go to play tennis every day. And I think the quality of life, I’m guessing, has considerably improved. And not only from a physical aspect, but from a social aspect as well playing with their friends and things like that. Jamie, you’re
DAMON 3:32
absolutely right. This, you know, not only does this sport keep you young, but the network and the social aspect that you end up experiencing is a bond that tennis players have. And it’s a bond that you have, wherever you go, a lot of times people move here, from out of state, they come visit the tennis clubs first to see what it is because it’s such a big part of their lives. And that’s just the way the tennis family is. And so I used to actually be over at gates before I got the gig here. AND gates just had such a great volume of people to where they have great energy, all ages. And you know, people would come together and meet so many friends through 10. You know, being on the court, you know, then you go out for drinks or for dinner or whatever it may be. And I tell you the social net, the social aspect of tennis is almost almost maybe even more important than the healthy aspect. I know that’s hard to imagine. But you know, it’s the emotional health as well.
JAMIE 4:28
Absolutely. And speaking of emotional and physical health, you told me you were recently injured. Tell us a little bit about that. And what did you learn from that? You know,
DAMON 4:40
I’m 36 years old, I’ve been competitive my entire life. And so naturally, the players that I work with here at the club are players that love to compete at their respective levels. And I feel like for me, I do a better job of coaching them If I’m able to stay, you know, in the trenches, if I can keep it fresh for myself, because a lot of things that, you know, my level ends up filling in a tournament with nerves, emotions, tactics, it’s the same thing that a lot of the other players feel as well. It’s just a different level. So if I can keep it fresh for myself, I feel like I’m a better Pro for the players that I work with. And so during the Denver City open, which was in mid June, our club actually hosted that tournament, I did some training for the tournament, probably not as much as I should have. And I ended up playing a lot of tennis in a short amount of time, I ended up playing about 15 sets in three days. And my body couldn’t take it, I felt great. I was in the semifinals of the men’s Open singles. And we were at one all in the first set 15 Love and I hit a certain volley and I just exploded, going forward. After my serve, I had a pop in my left calf. And I instantly knew I instantly do I’m done. semifinals of the tournament that I’ve been wanting to win for so long. If I’m injured, I’m not going to be able to do it. I couldn’t even walk in. So you know, for me going through an injury. It keeps it fresh for me on what so many of our players in our community have to go through. And it really does make you take a look at okay, well what type of preventative things did I end up doing? I didn’t I didn’t do many things, I did some Footwork Drills, I did the usual things. But now that I’m getting a little bit older, I know, you really have to take care of your body, a whole lot more to be able to give yourself those opportunities to be able to compete, and especially at the level that you’d like.
JAMIE 6:47
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s a good aspect as an athlete, what did you learn from this injury as a coach,
DAMON 6:56
I learned how important a role that a coach can have in the preventative injury side as well and not just on court tactics, right. I mean, that you know, our job as a coach is to definitely train and improve technique, improve the mental side of tennis, improve the strategies that you can use, but But now, you know, it refreshes my memory of a you got to take care of your body as well, you better be doing your stretching, you better have your routines and stay disciplined with your routines because I definitely wasn’t I was out here with my players weeks leading into the tournament, helping them with their games practicing for myself when I was you know, when I had time to indefinitely didn’t do the things that I needed to, to be able to play at that level. And so I think our job as coaches, we definitely have to guide our players in the right direction as much as we can, which can be difficult to do, you know, we have to end up wearing a lot of hats out there. But at once again, that’s why I love to compete, because it refreshes my memory on what these players go through. And if I can only have given them an edge in certain areas, then hey, all the better for my players.
JAMIE 8:07
Yeah, absolutely. And I think you kind of touched on something there where you’re kind of like talking about, you know, you’re doing all these stretching drills and other drills, but kind of like time almost got away from me a little bit. And I think that’s everybody’s problem, right? Like, they would do all these other things if they had the time. So keeping that in mind, how does somebody prioritize training for injury prevention? You know, I think you
DAMON 8:33
got to take a look, and you got to make some goals for yourself. And if something is truly important to you, you’re going to make the time. And so for me, you know, I’ll just share my goal. We have the Colorado State open coming up mid September, it starts September 17. Over at gates. And so that’s about six weeks to that. And so I’m trading a bunch of my players to play in that tournament, I’m doing the same things. And so I’m putting a goal on the calendar, and I’m doing things every day to try and because I’ve been injured, I really want to take good care of my body. And so I am waking up in the mornings and having my 15 or 20 minute stretch routine. I am, you know, getting my workouts in every other day over at GW on the soccer field or on the football field, and then doing a stretch after that. And then I am doing a stretch before bedtime. And so being able to stay disciplined on these things is what’s going to help me achieve the goal of having some fun and competing there at the tournament and I’m helping my players to do the same thing.
JAMIE 9:38
Yeah. And well, let me ask it this way, how is training different for injury prevention versus for performance?
DAMON 9:47
You know, I think you know, for injury prevention, whenever you start your workout, you definitely want to end up having you want to warm up your body the right way. I think all of us can end up having a very good intense work. Cow, all of us can end up playing a very intense tennis match, and be in just fine. I think where the preventative stuff comes into play is what do you do before that workout? What do you do before that tennis match? What do you do after that tennis match or after that workout? To me, I think that’s where the preventative stuff comes into play. Obviously, if you can get out and get in, you know, massages, I bought a theragun to help kind of lengthen my muscles and keep everything nice and loose. You know, unfortunately, it is more of a full time job, it takes a lot of time and effort. And like you said, you bring up a good point, not everyone has the time to do it. And so I think even if you’re able to, to adopt some of these tactics to help you prevent your injury, even if you end up getting a handful of these things and implementing these things, I think it’s going to make it better for your performance and for your longevity.
JAMIE 10:53
Yeah, and, you know, that is something that we run into all the time, not only with our tennis players, but with any of our athletic people that we’re working with. And like with rehab exercises, they’re not always the sexiest exercise, right, we try to make it sexy, but sometimes some of them are a little boring. And we have to remind people like, this is going to like, don’t think of it as rehab exercise, think about it, as something that’s going to help your performance, like this mobility drill is going to help you run down the line and hit that backhand that you may not be able to do otherwise. And so I think with a lot of these things, especially like the injury prevention work, or the mobility work, it’s like, think of it as a training aspect, not as a rehab drill, or a mobility drill, it’s all kind of part of the same thing. It’s just getting a different aspect of performance. And so when we’ve done it that way, you get a lot more buy in, or we do. And I think it just, it just helps tie everything together a little bit.
Unknown Speaker 11:47
You know, and unfortunately, you I think people have to learn for themselves and look at me for the I’m a very good prime example. I know a lot of these things, but I still wasn’t staying disciplined with the injury prevention things that I should have been doing. It took an injury for me to fully understand and comprehend, hey, you better do these boring things, you better do these things that are not sexy. Because when you’re on the court, that’s where you’re gonna get your benefit. And, and that’s what I’m all for. It’s the, it’s the little things that you do every day, that are not the fun things. It’s just like practicing your serve, you know, you go out and it’s boring to practice your serve. But if you do practice your serve, you go out to that match, you’re gonna feel so much more confident that you did it in that moment, right. But if he didn’t practice your serve, and then you and then you hit that moment, you don’t feel the confidence. And it’s the same thing with the body, especially after having that injury, I want to feel confident to be able to make that move out to that ball or to that drop shot. And having a very good stretch routine. Having a very good yoga routine, I think helps out tremendously. There’s a handful of things that I think work. But I think it’s important for individuals to find that routine that works for them that they have confidence in.
JAMIE 13:05
And once you are injured, obviously there’s a time where you’re injured, but you’re not necessarily playing full yet. But it doesn’t mean you have to be off the court. Right. So what do you need to do to keep playing while you’re also injured?
DAMON 13:18
You know, that’s a great question. That’s a very good question. You know, what the thing that I recommend, to all of my players, and I am actually in this boat as we speak, because of my injury coming off of my injury is once the ball is actually in play, whether you’re doing a lesson, whether you’re doing a drill, or you’re just practicing with a friend, once the ball is in play, a lot of times our instincts just kick in, and we want to run after that ball. And so we get excited, maybe we get competitive. And we want to have that quick burst of speed. And that’s where that’s where if that injury is not 100%, that’s how you get really injured. So the thing that I like to recommend is that I’m a big firm believer in shadow tennis. And so that’s where you grab your racket and you just shadow out 10 forehand shadow out 10 backhand, do the exact movement, really visualize that the ball is coming at you. And when you do those movements, you’re doing the same movements that you would be doing on the core, but you’re in full control of these things because there is no ball in play. So that’s a great way to end up testing that injury. So in my case it was the calf but it could be the hamstring, it could be the thigh could be the quality could be a variety of different things. So you get the confidence you gain off the core by mimicking the same movements. And then you have the control of how aggressively you want to do this? How intense Do you want to be? And so I did that for my first workouts where I did twice last week, and I felt really good. And so I jumped on the court today for the first time. It felt pretty good to hit for a couple hours and so doing those workouts helped to give me calm Finance when I’m on the court, and so just because I’ve done it for two times doesn’t mean I’m going to stop doing it. Because it’s also part of the injury prevention.
JAMIE 15:08
Yeah. Yeah. Okay, it’s kind of time to go back to the basics, right? Like, it was something, you know, how can you perfect your serve just a little bit better, right? How can you hit just a little bit closer to the corners, like, perfect those basics while you are taking that time, and then when you do recover, you’re now slightly better at the basics, and your overall game is better. One other thing that we often suggest is like, when you’re going back, like, you know, you’re not ready to play at the same level, play somebody a couple levels down from you. So it’s kind of easy, if you will, and get that so that you get the social aspect, you get out there, you get your heart pumping a little bit, but you’re not out there. Full Tilt at the same time.
DAMON 15:44
I totally agree. Unfortunately, you know, a lot of egos will come into play with that. Right. And it’s, it’s, it’s like, okay, well, you know, if I’m playing Jamie and Jamie’s, you know, a 3.5, but, um, a 4.0. But I lost to Jamie, it’s like the whole ego thing of that, but it just, you know, it drives me crazy, but it is part of a reality. But I agree with you 110%. You have to be able to, you know, play and use the lower level to help gain that confidence. That’s why a lot of times, you’ll see some of the pros dropped down to the Challenger level, to kind of get some more matches under their belt so that it helps to propel them to higher levels. Yeah. So no, I definitely agree with you on that.
JAMIE 16:25
One thing I want to talk about, because I know it’s one of the most common injuries in tennis, tennis elbow. So you and I both know that tennis elbow is not necessarily caused by the elbow, there are lots of different things that can cause tennis elbow, why don’t you tell some of our listeners, just the vert some of the variety of things that can be involved in causing tennis elbow?
DAMON 16:48
You know, I think I’ll give you three things. I’ll give you three things. Number one is definitely improper technique. I think improper technique is probably the biggest culprit for tennis elbow, in my opinion, and in my experiences, and one of the big reasons for improper technique, one of the big things that I look for all the time is where the player is making contact with the ball. If they’re making contact behind their body, and they’re trying to hit a forehand, that shock is going to go directly to the elbow over and over and over and over. And it doesn’t take long to end up getting tennis elbow because that elbow keeps getting aggravated because the ball is being hit late over and over and over again. And so the big thing that I try to have my players do is you want to make that contact out in front. This way, there’s a lot more leverage, there’s letting the racket do the work. You know, it’s a lot more effortless when you keep the ball out in front of you. But even as I’m explaining this, I’m like shadowing the movement because I’m so in tune with doing that and so it’s showing the players but improper technique, you know it make contact guys make contact in the in the general, you want to have the right contact point on forehands backhands serves as a big one, keep the ball out in front of you, when it jams up the body, the elbows come in all the shop goes right to the elbow. The second thing that I would say is, is equipment. I think a lot of times the equipment that people are using can end up aggravating the arm. You know, for me, personally, I use a soft polyester string, and I string mine really loose, I string it at 38 pounds, which is crazy to a lot of people. It’s crazy to me, but I just like it. But if I strung that poly string around 45 or 48 pounds, if I were to go up seven to 10 pounds, I think my elbow would end up filling it and I’m making contact out in front. But that would be more of an equipment check for your account than an indefinitely attention check that you want to end up having. So I don’t recommend that type of string for a whole lot of you know, for a whole lot of club players, especially the beginner players. If they do I recommend going with the lower string. The big thing that I try to recommend for players that have the tennis elbow or are starting to feel a little tennis elbow unfortunately my wife is going through that and experiencing that right now and that’s very unpleasant is is that I just lost my train of thought that think about my wife and I just they just lose all. Oh, yeah, but I have the players switch out their string, you know, I automatically go to the natural gut. And it’s the softest string that there is yes, we want to make sure that the ball is out in front. But if you’re feeling any type of elbow pain or if you’re just coming back from tennis elbow, get into natural gas. It is a soft dish string and it absorbs a lot more of the shock than any other string. Unfortunately, it’s most expensive. But once you’ve gone through tennis elbow you’re well worth it. It is well worth it.
JAMIE 20:00
So we had a technique we had, how tightly the string is strong pressure wise down the link type of string down the type of string as well. Okay. That’s great. Thanks for Thanks for those.
DAMON 20:13
Yeah. Let me give you one more, let me give you one more game. When you get into competition, everybody gets tight. And a lot of times, you start to squeeze that racket a little too tight. So a lot of times because you’re nervous, you’re tight, you squeeze tighter, maybe the ball gets a little closer to but that tightness of the hand, especially on the groundstrokes, a lot of that shock goes right to the elbow as well. So you want to do what you can to be loose. Whenever you loosen up the fingers around the grip, naturally, the entire arm becomes loose. So that’s
JAMIE 20:45
got to avoid that ninja desk grip for sure. Is there any way to avoid that? Is there any way that they know they’re gripping too tight like I know sometimes like you’re gripping real hard, your your nails will Blanche white, anything, any quick tips like that, that you you know have or is it just more yield,
DAMON 21:04
that’s the thing that we look for, you know, are your fingertips really white, but that also at the same time. If people start to feel if they’re squeezing too tight, I always see players shaking out their hand. They feel the tightness. And when you feel that tightness over time, it’s just going to end up affecting that elbow. So you want to do what you can to keep that hand loose, obviously not super loose to where the racket flies out of your hand, but loose enough to where you’re going to be nice and relaxed, hitting through that ball.
JAMIE 21:35
All right, perfect. Well, Damon, I wanna respect your time. So I got one more question for it. And then we’ll kind of wrap up after injury, and you’ve recovered from injury? What are some things that you need to be aware of when you’re playing tennis?
DAMON 21:50
You know, I think if you still have this post apprehension?
JAMIE 21:55
Yeah, so some that somebody’s had an injury, they’ve come back, no longer having any pain, but they’re getting back, what are some things they should be aware of either about how their performance may have changed, or once you have one injury, you’re more likely to get another apprehension for sure. Anything like that that you’ve seen, as a coach?
DAMON 22:16
You know, I think the thing that I’ve seen is, you know, ease back into it, right, ease back into if people have had an injury, they’re coming back, they’re feeling good, they don’t feel any pain, you want to ease back into it. But at the same time, I’m a big believer in that shadow tennis stuff. If you can control your movements, off the court without a ball and really push yourself and test yourself. I think that’s gonna give you the green light when you’re on the court. And I think that’s what’s really, really going to end up bringing the confidence and if for some reason, if, if that end injury was pretty drastic, to where I don’t know, maybe you have a knee replacement. You know, these are just things that, unfortunately, are part of sports. And you know, injuries are a part of sports. And it’s the price that we pay as athletes to be out on the court, be out on the football field, be out on the basketball court, to do the things that we love to do. And hopefully people can end up having maybe just a small injury to where they learn from it more to start taking a little bit more caution and and focusing more on the preventative injury because I really do think that is the stuff that helps out the most, obviously, you know, you just want to be as well prepared as possible, because obviously accidents happen. But you can go into a match knowing that, hey, I was injured. I rehabbed myself, I did all the necessary PT, I did all the necessary massages, I did all the necessary stretching, yoga, I did it all. You know, you can go out there on the court and lay it all out there and feel confident to do it. Right. But it’s that apprehension that ends up a lot of times when you’re afraid to get hurt. A lot of times, that’s when it happens. Because you’re tight, right? You’re a little tight, lacking, it tightens up. And so make sure that you’re confident and that you believe in all of the off-court work that you’ve done, so that you’re ready for your event.
JAMIE 24:11
And working with somebody like yourself, obviously that helps give people confidence because they know they’ve done the right things to get back. You’ve given them the right drills, you’ve checked, you’ve checked them off that they’re ready to go back. So I think that’s where you come in as a nice confident, I would say confidence booster, but you are that person that that was going to give them the confidence and help them through your coaching
DAMON 24:32
the pros around town, we really do help our players to feel more comfortable. were exposed to a lot of times, you know, 3040 people a day, depending on you know, what drills you’re doing and so that’s that’s that’s a lot of relationships that you build and, and a lot of people end up getting injured and you you you help them through that based on the experiences that I’ve had. And, and you know, I’m not the only Pro that has had those experiences and that’s why it’s nice to have If you’re pro, it’s nice to have that bond with your pro so that they can help you through those tough times of rehabbing and getting back to it. And well, like I said, we’re there to remind people that it is a part of sports and they will be back. But hey, you better do the right things to make sure that it doesn’t happen again, and fully be prepared by taking good care of your body. Awesome. All right. Well,
JAMIE 25:22
we’ve already run a little bit over I know, you’ve got to go play and coach here real soon. Damon, if people want to kind of learn a little bit more from you, or contact you, how can they get in touch with you?
DAMON 25:32
Oh, they can you know, I’m on Facebook, I’m on Instagram, you know, they can email me, you know, my email is Damon at Denver tennis club.com. It’s pretty easy. If anyone has any questions about anything, I’m happy to shed some, you know, some experience and share my experiences and help out any way that I can. And if for some reason I can, I can. I should know a few people to point them in the right direction.
JAMIE 25:54
All right, perfect. Well, Damon is gonna say thank you and anybody who’s out there. Look for Daymond. He’s gonna be in our Fit unhealthy Facebook group, and he can answer any tennis specific questions there. Thanks for coming on today, Damon and everybody. Thanks for listening. And happy tennis, everybody. All right. Talk to you later. Bye.
OUTRO 26:17
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