{"id":33744,"date":"2026-05-05T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/growth-phases-load-and-the-two-weeks-nobody-trains\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T08:00:00","slug":"growth-phases-load-and-the-two-weeks-nobody-trains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/growth-phases-load-and-the-two-weeks-nobody-trains\/","title":{"rendered":"Growth phases, load and the two weeks nobody trains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every squad and elite player is measured at the start of each term, and the number I look at first is not strength. It is height, against the last three terms, because a rapid growth phase changes what a body can safely do on a tennis court for a few months, and a training plan that ignores it produces the overuse injuries that end junior seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through a growth phase we reduce load rather than intensity: fewer sets, the same quality, more landing mechanics and less power. Parents sometimes see this as a step back. It is the opposite; it is the reason the player is still training in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"the-two-weeks\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">The two weeks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The elite programme has two compulsory rest weeks in August, and they are compulsory because nobody takes them voluntarily. A player who trains fifty-two weeks a year arrives at the autumn hard-court block already tired, and every screening result we have says the same thing: the fortnight off is where the next season is won.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sam Okafor on monitoring growth, reducing load through it, and why August has two compulsory rest weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":32817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_spx_person_id":0,"_spx_fixture_id":0,"_spx_pick_id":0,"_spx_eg_facts_label":"","_spx_eg_facts":"","_spx_figure_caption":"","_spx_news_feat":"","_spx_video_url":"","_spx_duration":"","_spx_views":"","_spx_presenter":"","_spx_media_state":"","_spx_start_at":"","_spx_media_status":"","_spx_episode":"","_spx_subject":"","_spx_subject_role":"","_spx_story_year":"","_spx_duration_seconds":0,"_spx_view_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[299],"spx_comp":[],"spx_fixture_ref":[],"spx_series":[],"spx_format":[],"spx_video_kind":[],"spx_show":[],"spx_sport":[],"spx_flag":[],"class_list":["post-33744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performance","tag-squads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33744"},{"taxonomy":"spx_comp","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_comp?post=33744"},{"taxonomy":"spx_fixture_ref","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_fixture_ref?post=33744"},{"taxonomy":"spx_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_series?post=33744"},{"taxonomy":"spx_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_format?post=33744"},{"taxonomy":"spx_video_kind","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_video_kind?post=33744"},{"taxonomy":"spx_show","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_show?post=33744"},{"taxonomy":"spx_sport","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_sport?post=33744"},{"taxonomy":"spx_flag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_flag?post=33744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}