Coco Gauff’s Unique Warm-Up Routine and Important Changes She Made Before US Open Victory

The 20-year-old athlete is poised for an impressive career.

Coco Gauff / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

In the US Open final last fall, Coco Gauff’s serves were clocked at 125 m.p.h. The eventual champion served faster than anyone else in the field—but her coach, former pro tennis player Brad Gilbert, thinks she’s still got more in her.

Ahead of this year’s Indian Wells Open, which took place at the start of March, the young tennis star proved as much—according to her coach—during dynamic warm-ups. According to a recent TIME interview, rather than stretching or hopping on a bike, the athlete picked up a football and threw a 40-yard spiral. Then she did it again and again.

In other words, she has an arm on her. Gilbert thinks she can put more of that power into her serve. For right now, Gauff is focused more on using the warm-ups as an intimidation tactic. “I do like to show, especially the American guys, that I can probably throw it just as far as them, if not farther,” she told TIME. “I love to get in the American guys’ heads.”

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While she tries to get into other’s heads, she’s simultaneously working on getting out of her own. That was the key change she made ahead of her US Open win last fall. Gauff struggled with anxiety ahead of the French Open final in 2022, and following her first round loss at Wimbledon in 2023. Following that disappointment, in particular, “I was in a really dark place,” Gauff said. “I put my identity too much into tennis. It was taxing to feel awful all the time.”

Rather than leaning into the despair, though, she made the decision to move forward with a different mentality. She vowed to no longer afford mental space to the opinions of other people. After all, “it’s impossible to satisfy everyone,” she reflected. Comparatively, “it is much easier to play for yourself.”

So, that’s just what she’s been doing. The mental shift helped her on the way to her first Grand Slam and to deep runs (and one win) in tournaments since.