Madrid: The day before

10 October, 2008 | 23:10

Better late than never, a glimpse at Andy's last day in the UK before heading out to Madrid on Friday.

The culmination of two weeks training started at 10am sharp with a Reservoir Dogs moment from Jamie (back from Moscow), Matty and Miles...

With just days to go until the tournament, Friday's training schedule was deliberately light, with the afternoon blocked out for recovery.

That didn't mean any cutting of corners in the morning though, and for the second time in the week, they were working with the bungy...

So, for a good thirty minutes, Andy's trainer Jez towed him around the court, working on very specific movements. Moving sideways, moving forward, everything...

It's pretty tiring as you'd expect, and they take a water break after every other sequence....

The interesting thing is that once they've done each movement with the bungy, they'll do it again without. Taking the bungy away makes the same movements more explosive because the body's able to perform them without the resistance.

The overheads looked hard work with the bungy on...

The bungy work out of the way, Andy hit some balls with Miles for another hour which took them up to lunch, and the end of their post-USO training block...

It's been an intense but fruitful couple of weeks, and both coach and player exchanged high-fives as they walked off court.

With very little on the agenda in the afternoon, lunch was long and laid back, although that might have had something to do with their last destination before leaving: the ice bath.

Sadly, even recovery sessions occasionally involve pain, and a stint in the ice bath is one of them.

Fortunately for Andy, he managed to rope everyone in to joining him, and they all gingerly got in a pairs for two minutes at a time, resting for a minute in between.

At a temperature of just 6 degrees, it's a painful experience. First to go are the toes, then the legs begin to burn, then everyone simply begins to scream, partly through pain, partly because it's, well, funny.

The chilled water works wonders, reducing swelling in their tired muscles to the extent that everyone reckoned they felt as good as new afterwards.

The next part of Andy's recovery was a little nicer: an afternoon off in front of the TV before facing every touring player's nightmare - bag packing ready for a tournament.