They look after Casey well at the AIS – and push her hard. They look after Casey well at the AIS – and push her hard. Image: Stefan Postles

Racquets down

“I went pretty much six weeks without hitting. A lot of players need to keep hitting balls – they feel they have to keep their eye in. I feel I can put the racquets down for a while without a negative impact on my game. A big part of my game now is fitness and I feel it’s an area that will lead to more improvement. I might still hit for an hour or half-hour a week, just for fun. But November-December is when I incorporate the on-court work, building up to four hours of hitting a day.“Off-season is the time for the big picture stuff. We work on a lot of different things – increasing the endurance base, speed, power, but also a lot of rehab and injury prevention. I spent a lot of time getting shoulder mechanics right. Core exercises. All are included in the training block. You also spend a lot of time at the AIS Recovery Centre having physio and massage.“I love playing other sports, so I try to incorporate different activities, even if it’s just kicking a footy or playing basketball. It’s important to keep motivated during a large training block.”

Just do it all 

“Tennis demands it all: power, strength, agility, speed and stamina. We work on everything. I’ve always been naturally strong, so my strength work is just weights in the gym and jumping exercises for power. Endurance work is mixing in some long-distance runs. For agility, there’s on-court patterning and drills with short sprints. Interval training, for me, best simulates match conditions and the on-off nature of tennis. You’ll do a series of drills – 30 seconds of intensity, then a break. You set the time, so extending to 45 seconds for clay court tennis or shortening it to 15 seconds, in preparing for Wimbledon, is very realistic and a good way to adapt to different surfaces.”

Fuelling up 

“At tournaments, I’m thinking energy and some carbohydrates the night before a match. In training, I probably watch more what I eat, but it’s easy to eat well at the AIS – we have a nutritionist and prepared meals on-site. When you’re on the road – at airports, restaurants – it’s hard sometimes to get the foods you want. But I’m not a huge sweet tooth. My favourite splurge would be a simple glass of wine or a beer in summer. When I’m travelling, I rarely indulge – plus I’m mostly on my own. But it’s nice to reward yourself.”

All-year maintenance

“During the year, it’s really hard to find time to train. You’re practising and playing every day, so you don’t exactly lose fitness, but it’s a different type of fitness. If I lose early in the week, I hit the gym. It’s really hard to make plans because everything depends on your playing schedule and how long you’re in the tournament. You just fit in as much as you can when you have the time.”