Inside the National Tennis Centre | Ep 2 | Ft. Alfie Hewett, Gordon Reid, Cam Norrie & Ryan Peniston

Intro welcome back to inside the national tennis center we're back at the home of British tennis to see exactly what goes on inside of these four walls coming up we'll meet Britain's top two men's wheelchair players Alfie hu and Gordon Reed who will knock Jody bar off the leader board of The Bucket List challenge oh my God and we get to know Ryan penison a little bit more favorite sport ping Kong this is inside the national tennis center hello and welcome back to our Court Studio here at the national tennis center today I'm joined by a men's British wheelchair number one and number two Alfie Huer and Gordon Reeds oh super play from Al Gordon Alfie thank you so much for joining us so it has been an incredible start to your year hasn't it and uh let's start off with the world team cup which you brought home in consecutive years can you talk to us a little bit about that experience yeah it was a great week we had a strong team and it was the first time we've had all those four players together and yeah we had a little bit of pressure on us trying to defend it from last year but you know we dealt with it pretty well and we got the result we were looking for so it was all positive really and Alfie five titles already this year for you and when you haven't won the title you've been in the final so how do you maintain such a high level of consistency is it training is it mindset yeah I mean it's it's a lot of things really obviously um Minds set is probably a a big thing that we've been working on as a as a team to try and get that consistency which has probably been the biggest thing that I've been striving towards but it's not just one thing it's obviously the the onc court stuff it's the Tactical stuff technical stuff obviously Fitness stuff nutritional stuff yeah really happy with the recent sort of uh success that I've had it's a big year isn't it because it's par Olympics year so would winning a gold medal be the ultimate Triumph for you do you think he's already got one that that question I want some more though I want exactly no I mean the doubles go is a massive Target for for myself and Alfie you know obviously We've Come Close a couple of times and not quite go over the line so that's one thing that we're you know really gunning for and yeah obviously in the single side you know it's going to be really tough there's a lot of guys that are playing very well and and competing hard at the moment one of which is sitting next to me so it's going to be the hardest has ever been but when you're representing your country you want to bring home those medals and especially the gold so that's the target with certainly not going to go into it too complacent we want to go into it with confidence and off the back of some really good results the last couple of weeks on Clay it's obviously a good feeling we can take that into it but the par Olympics is such a unique event and you can go into it and players can surprise you performances can go either way and is very much on the day but absolutely going there and getting a goal is a big ambition of us so can you talk to us a little bit about how much tennis has changed your life yeah I don't know how long we've got cuz it could be here for with that one but you know it brought me a lot of life lessons and and also I think um opened my eyes to a lot of things as well for me when I started playing wheelchair tennis uh that was when I was first introduced to other people that were disabled and you know I was seeing what they were able to do not only on the court but off the court as well um and the lives that they were living and the characters that they were that was something that that changed my life for the you know a lot for the better and had a difficult period in my life when I was getting diagnosed with uh my hip condition and um tennis really brought me out of my shell and the sort of hole that I was in at the time the journey that I've been on ever since has given me so many positive impacts and influences and having a career at the moment through it is incredible and I feel like it's a a duty to to give back and a responsibility to share our stories really because tennis can have so many amazing um yeah amazing impacts and and benefits so yeah what it really is so inspiring what both of you guys are doing so thank you so much and um yeah best of luck thanks lot so really exciting times ahead for those two and something that's really important to the LTA is Cam Norrie sustainability hi guys I'm cam Nori this is what's in the bag sustainability Edition sustainability for me is very important because growing up in newand was a big Focus to make sure that the the environment and all the beautiful places remains looking beautiful yeah I believe it's very important for players like myself to be sustainable because we have quite a big impact of other people around the world playing all over the world so if they see people like us trying to do the right thing and and uh make better decisions I think it can be a positive influence on the kids and the younger generation and and everyone um involved in tennis all right let's have a look what's uh in the bag we've got my bike locked so hopefully no one's stolen my bike out there right now I enjoy cycling in it's a good warm up and then obviously not burning fuels and admissions so I think that it adds up over time and yes I will definitely be cycling to wooden this year and then we've got a lot of towels in here these have all been washed at 30° to save energy at a slightly cooler temperature yeah I'm going to be going through a fair few of these today oh I have it yeah all right and then I actually I have a used tennis born here I know that the the NTC in a scheme to reuse tennis balls for all the clubs around the country so I think that's fantastic players at all levels can can reuse these tennis balls not needing to play with new ones all the time but yeah that's basically what I have in my tennis bag other than about eight of these rackets in here as well I hope you learned a few things about um what I have in my tennis [Music] bag and some other important work for the LTA is how they're preparing their grass Courts for the upcoming season let's chat to the LTA Ops Team to see how they're getting LTA Operations on we open our grass courts here at the NTC on the 20th of May during the first week of uh French open qualifying so that really helps our British players to have a head start on the Grass Court Season one of the most important things on the Grass Court this time year is making sure the courts are irrigated perfectly obviously we don't want our cour to dry out so to keep them in premium condition we have to keep them watered as regular as possible so we have popups all around the court nine heads in total we program it during the night averaging probably 2 mil water every night so in the morning when the CL walk straight on the court it's perfect and ready to go looking after grass is all about a balance keep getting the right height everything from applying fertilizers chemicals cutting Heights irrigation um letting the brass rest a little bit so it's all about having a balance getting everything sort of in line with each other once you got everything balanced correctly you got a nice ping surface like we have here the most challenging part is getting as much p as possible and also the weather when it does rain we're all hands on deck ready to cover the G courts we have to take the Nets down get all the chairs off the court we have to inflate the tubes just basically strip the court down all out the gate and roll the covers out as quick as possible and then obviously when it stops weighing in get them back off within a couple of hours they're not ready to go again it slowly starting to get busier and busier as we get closer to wien this is their key time of as much practice as possible just give a head start on the next tournaments they involved with so you can see we've got some of our top players here which is always nice to see so it's quite a privileged to watch and meet some of them as well I'm really proud and feel privileged to be in a position where feel like I can contribute even just a little Bucket List Challenge bit forget grand slams and ranking points this is the competition that really matters aiming to get their name as high up our Bucket List as possible players have 30 seconds to hit as many balls as they can into the bucket they must stand on the spot and if the ball bounces back out it doesn't count 3 2 1 [Music] [Music] go oh my good stop it's terrible it's better than Jody still all right Arthur congratulations you've just completed your first ever LTA bucket list challenge let's see how many you got all right three you happy um not my best effort but still be still be jod so that does put you at the top of our leaderboard so let's move jod down and there you go your pi to the post how about that thank you yeah I'm not sure how long I'll stay at the top but for the time being I'm good you're there that's all that matters all right Ryan we are going to Quick Fire Questions do some quick fire questions we're not going to make you walk around though appreciate that are you ready yes I'm ready what was the first gig that you went to uh cplay oh good one if you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life what would it be dim some goto series to watch on a long flight uh Breaking Bad favorite podcast uh it's a scrubs one actually a film that makes you laugh Anchor Man which player did you admire most growing up uh rapper introvert or extrovert extroverted introvert oh interesting okay we haven't heard that before which music artist are you obsessed with right now right now I have to say call playay again it's been a longstanding Obsession then yeah yeah which British player are you closest mates with um Stewart Parker favorite thing about being a tennis player traveling what's your first tennis memory uh playing my dad and your favorite lesson at school math what was the last book that you read uh uh it was called uh Peak Peak was it good yeah it was very good yeah your favorite sport that isn't tennis ping pong any nicknames uh Penny some said Panini what's your go-to party joke the splits I'm not going to make you I can't do that now either which player on tour would you most want to cook you dinner it's got to be one of the Italians probably favorite surface to play on grass favorite tournament wimbl dream doubles partner uh say rapper again okay who do you WhatsApp the most uh my girlfriend read receipt on or off on on okay yeah final question if you weren't a tennis player what would you be o um chef chef yeah great thank you so much thank you so that's it from us at the NTC this month be sure to like And subscribe so you don't miss out