Strength and conditioning coach Francis Bougy has worked with plenty of athletes—both as part of former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka’s full-time team and at the Patrick Mouratoglou Academy with the likes of Alizé Cornet, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Holger Rune, and Stefanos Tsitsipas—but his coaching philosophy translates from the elite to recreational level and emphasizes overall athletic proficiency.
Read more: Get to know Francis Bougy, Victoria Azarenka’s strength and conditioning coach
“It’s not good enough to merely train to the specificity of a sport,” Bougy explained during the off-season. “If you look to any top athlete in any sport, they have general athleticism, coordination, movement that could translate to any sport. For tennis players, they can also play soccer. Soccer players could play basketball. If you play basketball, you can play handball. There’s definitely a base that begins in childhood and develops as they grow up.”
The good news? It’s never too late to build an athletic base, and here are three tips to help you build one:
