Anne Keothavong's Blog by Anne_Keothavong

How much tape do you think you often see on tennis players or other athletes? Do you ever wonder why they bother or what it actually does? Most of the time it’s preventative taping and there are lots of different ways to strap different body parts depending on the problem. Before most matches and training sessions, I tape up different areas of my feet and toes to prevent blisters and chaffing. As it’s now the indoor season, I don’t have to tape my feet up as much as I do as when I’m playing outdoors in hot and humid conditions, but it’s still part of my routine. Last week I was competing in Linz and had a slight stomach strain so there was an unloading technique used to help support the area with different types of tape.

Taping an area of your body doesn’t solve the problem, but it can sometimes help support the area and allow you to go out and compete. A lot of the time you won’t see what taping a tennis player has on underneath their clothing. I remember seeing Roger Federer’s physio tape him before his match at Wimbledon one year and he had both his ankles heavily taped and both his thighs. But you would never have known or seen it. Most tennis players have their wrists taped too, but you don’t see that underneath the wristbands. I’m in Luxembourg now and I’m writing about taping as I’m waiting in line to see the tournament physios. I don’t have the luxury of travelling with my own personal physio, so I rely on the tournament physios provided by the WTA.

There are always a minimum of two physios and a massage therapist at WTA tournaments and as it’s coming towards the end of the season, they’re even busier than usual. The waiting time is on average about an hour and a half to see someone. Because of the long waits and everyone not wanting to lose their place in the queue, the training room becomes the hang out area for all the players. Everyone will know about the other person’s aches and pains, but it’s not something you think about when you go out on the court. There’s a mutual understanding that every player will be playing in a bit of discomfort but you just get on with it. I personally believe a very good massage therapist is more valuable than a very good physio.

Most of my aches and pains are treated with deep tissue work. There’s nothing better than someone using their elbows to get in to your glutes properly, or someone using their forearms to strip your IT band - it’s painful at the time but you feel so much better after! One of my worst nightmares is going for one of those aroma therapy massages at a spa where they just rub oil or moisturiser in to you without putting any oomph into it!

Anyway, I’ve been playing better tennis recently and have had a lot of matches over the past few weeks which is good. Last week in Linz I played a pretty good match against former world number one, Jelena Jankovic. I lost in three sets but the fact that I was outplaying her for a set gave me confidence - I just have to be able to sustain that kind of level and not get too excited. Here in Luxembourg, I’ve already won three matches to qualify in to the main draw and I play the local favourite tonight, Mandy Minella. She’ll have all the home support but that’s ok because I’ll just be focusing on myself. Wish me luck!