As Naomi Osaka plans to return to the Hologic WTA Tour in 2024, the former world number one is back at the helm of the team after leaving two years ago. In addition to rehiring coach Wim Fissette, Osaka also brought back performance coach Florian Zitzlsberger, who oversees all aspects of her health and fitness.
The experienced Germans relished the challenge.
“It’s been an interesting journey for me because what we started is not quite finished yet. Now we have a chance,” Zielsberger told WTA Insider.
“Naomi is a pure talent and unbelievable. However, I still see a lot of athletic potential that we can realize. First and foremost she has to stay healthy, but on the other hand, there is a lot The potential needs to be nurtured, strengthened and conquered.”
Zizersberger has spent the past eight years treating and managing her body on the ATP and WTA tours. After completing his studies in 2014, he began his career working with Chanelle Scheepers, who later passed the number to fellow South African Kevin Anderson. From there, things escalated quickly.
“Two days later, I was sitting in the Queen’s final, Kevin playing Andy Murray,” Zitzlsberger said. “I want to focus on performance coaching because I love helping people, athletes and humans, reach their highest potential. I want to help them achieve overall health and show them how to live a healthy life and get more athletic ability, One day today.”
With experience on the WTA Tour with Julia Gorges, Petra Kvitova, Petra Matic and many other cross-border athletes from the Integralis clinic he co-founded with Daniel Boll, Qi Zelsberg is now very motivated to help Osaka achieve her goals.
“For Naomi, I’m the head of health and performance,” Zitzlsberger said. “I am a strength and conditioning coach, athletic trainer, physiotherapist and osteopath. I analyze biomechanics and work on improving tennis-specific biomechanics.
“From there, I also introduced nutrition, which is the foundation of building and maintaining a strong, athletic body. As an osteopath, I always try to balance the entire body through my treatments. When I perform as an osteopath When I treat, I’m not treating myofascial muscles or joints. I’m working on a deeper level. I’m treating organs, nerves and arteries.”
Zitzlsberger’s most immediate challenge is to build up Osaka’s fitness and lay a stable foundation for her goal of returning to competition in January.
“The combination of the pelvis and trunk is the center of strength for the entire athlete,” Zitzlsberg says. “[During pregnancy]this energy center is not there to create energy, but to prepare a home for a healthy baby. For the baby to develop properly, the abdominal wall must be lengthened and stretched.
“You lose a lot of core strength. By losing core strength, a lot of the kinetic chain becomes a little bit aggravated. The biggest challenge is getting the core strength back: getting strong hips and getting better stability again.”
While the challenges are clear, Zitzelsberger and Fissette also reveal opportunities. Players rarely spend a lot of time working on their physical or technical fundamentals outside of games. But Osaka will have four months of pre-season preparation before boarding a plane to Australia.
“Knowing her, she just wants to get back out there and play a lot of tennis,” Zitzlsberger said. “But we have a long-term plan. The most important thing is to keep her healthy.
“I really trust Wim because some coaches will be on the court every day to get a lot of tennis time. But he wants the highest quality shots on the court and then we go to the gym and do exercises to try to keep her healthy, Put her in a stable position. We know exactly where we want to be a month from now, two months from now, and beyond. “
The key to getting Osaka back on the winning track is suppressing any sense of urgency. When she returns in January, she will become one of a growing number of mothers taking part in the tour, joining former world No. 1s Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka, as well as the Wimbledon semi-finals Contestants Elena Svitolina and Tatiana Maria, among others. The last player to win a major or become the world’s No. 1 as a mother was Kim Clijsters.
In recent years, the most successful mothers on the Grand Slam stage are Azarenka, whom Naomi Osaka defeated in the 2020 US Open final, and her idol Serena, who reached the Grand Slam finals four times after Naomi Osaka came back. Williams.
“Right now, the biggest focus is not on tennis,” Zitzlsberger said. “The biggest focus is getting her back to real sport and fitness and we can now work on the court. Tennis-wise, Wim now has the opportunity to do things that we always wanted to do but didn’t find time earlier. “
More works by Zitzlsberg:
Q: How did you start your career in physical therapy?
Zitzelberg: I wanted to go into physical therapy because I also wanted to be a professional athlete. I was playing football and skiing and got seriously injured when I was 14 years old. I’m glad I got injured as badly as I did because it taught me what you can really do with your body without injections or pills. How can time actually change the makeup of the body.
After returning home, I educated myself in physical therapy and athletic coaching to become a physician. I want to study medicine. Everyone recommended that I work with the greatest doctor in sports, Dr. Hans Wilhelm Müller Wolfrat. I suggested I do physical therapy first and then you can go into sports medicine.
Q: What attracted you to working in sports?
Zitzelberg: Human beings are born for movement, for movement, for agility, for flexibility. But with our habits today, the only way to truly be natural is through exercise. Previously, the human body was built for running, sprinting, jumping, slowing down, and moving. This is where humanity comes from.
But today we obviously have a completely different way of life. There are many toxins in our lives. I think if you want to challenge yourself, if you want to grow, you have to play sports.
Q: What is your philosophy on working with athletes?
Zitzelberg: My clinic is called Integralis, which is exactly what it sounds like: integrated. We want to integrate all aspects needed for healthy living to allow healthy athletes to perform at their highest level. Therefore, we have physiotherapists, strength and conditioning coaches, multi-sport coaches, yoga instructors, nutritionists and psychological coaches on our team.
First you need a real foundation in movement. So the change in direction is always the same, the linear velocity, lateral velocity, and joint acceleration are always the same. At some point, when the body or athlete has a very strong foundation, you can train for a specific sport, such as a tennis specific sport. Then you can really work on the mechanics of the game of tennis.
Q: How did you start working with Naomi?
Zitzelberg: So I started with Kevin Anderson. He was ranked 28th and a few months later he was in the top ten. At the end of that year, I received an invitation from Julia Goerges. She hasn’t been in the top 50 in five years. She said she wanted to try again and strive for real success. That’s why I started playing on the WTA Tour. Three years later, she entered the top ten.
After five years of working with Julia, I worked with Petra Kvitova. Then I got the opportunity in 2022 to work with Naomi. Last year I worked with Jule Niemeier on tour and for the past five years I have been a distance coach in Regensburg. As I continue to work closely with Michael Gesserer, I have also supported Petra Martic for the past two years.
Now, in September, I got a call from Naomi and her team. I look forward to working with Wim Fisette again and supporting Naomi’s full development.