Managing Mind Body Tournament

Summary

JY Aubone — Atlanta-based high-performance coach who has appeared on ParentingAces multiple times, new father at the time of recording — joins Lisa Stone for a detailed, practical conversation about how junior players can manage energy, nutrition, hydration, and recovery across multi-day tournaments. The conversation is structured as a day-by-day playbook: pre-match preparation, between-match fueling, end-of-day recovery protocols, and sleep optimization. The episode is grounded in Aubone’s experience traveling with a touring professional player (Riley, referenced throughout) to the Rome Masters, giving the advice a professional-level reference point even as the primary audience is junior players and their families. Key themes: the tension between playing doubles and singles in the same tournament, the strategic use of doubles as a warm-up rather than a full competitive commitment, the hydration window starting two days before competition, and sleep as the primary performance recovery tool.

Guest Background

JY Aubone is an Atlanta-based high-performance tennis coach who works with both junior players and professional touring players. He has appeared on the ParentingAces podcast multiple times across different seasons, establishing himself as one of Lisa Stone’s trusted recurring guests. At the time of this recording, he had recently become a father — a detail he notes has given him new appreciation for energy management in daily life. He has significant experience traveling on the professional tour as a support team member, including a referenced trip to the Rome Masters with a professional player named Riley, whose pre-match routine required 75 minutes with a physio before hitting balls. Aubone holds a fitness training background, which informs his emphasis on recovery physiology alongside tactical tennis coaching.

Key Findings

1. The Doubles-Singles Energy Trap

Aubone identifies tournament doubles-singles combinations as the primary energy management challenge for junior players. The scheduling reality: many tournaments now schedule doubles first, sometimes starting at 8 a.m., with singles following the same day. Players who win doubles can end up playing four full matches in a single day — his example of a player finishing their fourth match at 7 p.m. and needing to play again at 8 a.m. the following morning illustrates the compounding fatigue problem. His prescription: explicitly decide in advance whether this tournament is a doubles priority, a singles priority, or both — and plan energy expenditure accordingly.

2. Strategic Doubles Minimalism When Singles Is the Priority

For players treating doubles as a lower priority, Aubone recommends using the early doubles match as a warm-up rather than a full competitive preparation. His specific protocol: arrive 7:25-7:30 a.m. (rather than the usual 6:45-7:00), skip the extended warm-up, do a brief dynamic stretch and five minutes of hitting, then use the doubles match itself as the warm-up. The logic: the doubles match will serve the same warm-up function and the player gains 45 extra minutes of sleep. His framing: “If your doubles goes bad, what do you care? You and your friend are in agreement that you’re just doing this for fun.”

3. Hydration Starts Two Days Before Competition

Aubone’s hydration rule: the pre-competition hydration window begins two days before the tournament starts, not the morning of. He cites a player who experienced cramping after starting to hydrate “about two hours before the match” — noting that this is a coaching failure, not a player knowledge gap. The protocol for touring professionals (including the Rome Masters reference) is constant sipping from a water bottle throughout the day. He recommends drinks that include carbohydrates and sodium to maintain energy levels and electrolyte balance during multi-match days.

4. The Rome Masters Oatmeal Protocol

Aubone’s most vivid practical example: at the Rome Masters, the tournament breakfast didn’t start early enough for Riley’s 11 a.m. match (given the required 75-minute physio session before hitting balls). Aubone’s solution: carry a bag of oatmeal everywhere, use the tournament’s coffee machines to produce hot water, pour oatmeal into coffee cups, and flavor it with honey from the condiment station. This protocol — planned the night before after asking the tournament when food was available and what the hotel breakfast included — illustrates the level of advance planning that professional performance management requires, even for basics like breakfast.

5. Nutrition Timing and Composition Throughout Tournament Days

Aubone and Lisa outline a hierarchical tournament nutrition framework: (1) avoid sugar-based breakfast cereals that cause 45-minute energy crashes; (2) favor oatmeal (complex carbs + protein), protein shakes, and protein bars as pre-match fuel; (3) snack continuously between matches rather than waiting for full meals; (4) target whole grain carbs + protein for the primary refueling meal (turkey sandwich on whole grain, dates, nuts, blueberries over bananas given digestion speed); (5) eat as soon as possible after each match to begin recovery — don’t wait for the social conversation about the match you just played. Test tournament nutrition protocols at lower-stakes events, not at major tournaments where a failed experiment has maximum consequences.

6. Post-Match Recovery Protocol: The Recovery Jog

Aubone’s end-of-day recovery protocol for multi-match tournament days: a 10-minute very slow jog immediately after the final match of the day. Purpose is circulatory — not cardio. The science: slow movement circulates blood through fatigued lower-body muscles, breaks down lactic acid buildup, and reduces next-day soreness. He references that every professional player he’s observed does some form of bike or treadmill activity immediately after matches for exactly this reason. Static stretching follows — ideally while eating, not as a separate activity.

7. Sleep as the Primary Performance Variable

Aubone endorses Matthew Walker’s “Why We Sleep” framework: sleep is the most powerful legal performance-enhancing intervention available. For tournament players finishing late and starting early, the acute sleep deficit compounds physical fatigue in ways that nutrition and hydration cannot compensate for. His practical recommendation: a 30-45 minute cool-down period (feet elevated, light activity, no video games or high-stimulation media) between dinner and sleep — allowing the nervous system to downregulate enough to produce restful sleep rather than fitful lying-awake time.

8. The Check-In Timing Hack

Lisa contributes an underappreciated tournament management tip: players should not check in for their match until they are ready to walk on court. Early check-in starts the default clock and reduces recovery time. Across four matches in a day, late check-in timing can preserve up to 45 additional minutes of recovery time — a significant difference in the final rounds.

Actionable Advice for Families

• Begin hydration two days before competition — carry a water bottle at all times and sip continuously; two hours of pre-match hydration is insufficient and a coaching failure if not communicated earlier
• Decide explicitly before each tournament whether doubles is a priority, a secondary commitment, or a warm-up tool — this decision determines the energy management strategy for the entire tournament
• Pre-order or pre-acquire food for the tournament day the night before — ask the hotel what time breakfast starts and what’s available; ask the tournament the same questions; never assume food will be available when you need it
• Test tournament nutrition — what to eat, when to eat it, what drinks to use — at lower-stakes events before deploying untested protocols at important tournaments
• Build a 10-minute recovery jog into the end-of-day routine on multi-match days; use static stretching while eating at the same time to compress the recovery window

INTENNSE Relevance

• Professional player welfare: Aubone’s Rome Masters protocols (physio + oatmeal + hydration planning the night before) describe exactly the player support infrastructure INTENNSE needs to provide as a professional league — travel nutrition planning, physio access, and recovery protocols should be standard operating procedure, not improvised
• Match scheduling design: INTENNSE’s format decisions (number of matches per day, match timing, recovery windows between matches) directly affect player performance and health; the energy management framework Aubone describes should inform how the league designs its arc and match scheduling
• Atlanta coach network: Aubone is Atlanta-based — a key INTENNSE market — and works across junior and professional levels; his network and player relationships are a direct community connection for the league
• Player support staff model: Aubone’s description of the Rome trip (coach + physio traveling with a player, coordinated planning) validates INTENNSE’s value proposition: providing professional players with the support team infrastructure that individual touring players must self-fund
• Broadcast content: The practical, science-backed nature of Aubone’s coaching — recovery jog physiology, hydration timing, nutrition sequencing — is exactly the type of expert coaching dialogue that becomes compelling broadcast content when coaches are mic’d; demystifying professional player preparation for fans builds engagement

Notable Quotes

“If you are progressing the right way and you do get to play super nationals, you’ll actually only play one match a day there. It gets harder at L2s, L3s, L4s because you’re trying to squeeze in so many matches in a short amount of time.”

“Sleep is actually the biggest performance enhancing drug in the world and it’s legal.”

“If you only had a little bowl of cereal, you played your two-hour, thirty-minute match, you’re going to get what, maybe a six-inch sub? And then you got to go play again. Play another two hours, thirty minutes — you’re toast.”

“Don’t ask me the science — I’ve had every physical trainer and therapist tell me this. Every pro, when they finish their match, is on the treadmill or the bike. This isn’t a cardio thing. It’s a circulatory thing.”

“Hydration is a constant battle. It’s not something you can start right before a tournament. It has to be taken care of on a day-to-day basis.”