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Aug 24, 2016

How To Have Complete Tennis Strength Training Protocol

Generally, you don’t see very many “buff” tennis players. The athletes on this sport are more on the leaner side of the spectrum. However, don’t mistake their lack of size with lack of power. Trust me when I say that if you get hit by a tennis ball moving at full speed from an experienced tennis player, it’s going to sting more than just a little.

Build strength like Andy Murray. Image Source (Link)

As you may already know from reading our previous articles, sport-related training doesn’t necessarily translate to bigger muscles and that’s because the sport doesn’t require it. In tennis, at least the physical part of it, the 4 most important traits you need to have are agile feet, a flexible body, powerful arms, and endurance. These four are your bread and butter in order for you to both defend against your opponent and to swing an offensive back the other direction. Read further below to find out more.

THE BASICS

Tennis

Tennis is a racket sport. This means that in order to be good at tennis, you need to be able to handle the racket well too. It’s a game played on a rectangular flat surface either individually (singles) or as a team of two (doubles). On singles, the court is 78x27 feet and 78x36 for doubles and is divided into two by a net. A team or an individual attacks by vaulting the tennis ball with the racket over the net into the other player’s side of the court and scores if the other player is unable to vault it back.

Sounds pretty simple, huh? Just send the ball flying the opposite and you have yourself a game. In truth, however, it’s not that easy to do. The ball often moves faster than your feet and the amount of power it takes to defend and attack is massive. All that moving around is going to take its toll on you and your heart will be pumping like crazy which means you’ll also need huge amounts of endurance.

Agility

According to dictionary.com, agility has two meanings. First, it is described as the power to move quickly and easily. Second, it is the ability to think and draw conclusions quickly. In the world of sports, agility is both. Without the other, you can’t be called an agile athlete. The first description — the power to move quickly — is simply called quickness. Combine quickness and fast thinking and that equals to agility. The more agile the athlete, the lesser time he needs to react.

Tennis players are masters of agility. In a single exchange, it is typical to see these players run the court from side to side, front and back, and diagonal.

Flexibility

As humans, we evolved as flexible beings. We are designed with multiple joints that help us move around to do basic human things like getting off of bed, or brushing our hair, or simply walking. Athletes, however, are especially flexible. Tennis players specifically need to be flexible because their sport requires a whole lot of moving around. The less stiff they are, the better they can move, which means a better chance at winning.

RELATED: PNF STRETCHING FOR IMPROVING FLEXIBILITY

Also, flexibility tends to decrease as a person gets older which is partly why older people get injured easier than young people. That being said, tennis players need to include flexibility in their training to keep the injuries at bay.

Power

In this article, power is described as the rate of doing work and the amount of energy consumed per unit time. This is according to physics so don’t argue with me because you can’t argue with the laws of physics.

Anyway, in sports, this means that the greater the energy output of an athlete in a given period of time, the more powerful is the athlete. In tennis, this time frame is just a matter of split seconds. It happens in an instant when the racket hits the ball and sends it over to the opposite side of the court. The more power the player puts into this instant, the faster the ball will travel, which means that it’ll be harder to defend.

RELATED: How To Gain Explosive Power In Martial Arts

Endurance

The term endurance is generally used as the capacity of your aerobic system to handle stress. Anatomically speaking, your cardiovascular system and your cardiopulmonary system work hand-in-hand to make sure your body can endure extended periods of physical exertion.

The average person will already be gasping for air after climbing up a few flights of stairs. Tennis players, however, are different beasts. In T.V., they can be seen repeatedly running around the court and exchanging blows with their enemies. If they were average human beings, their hearts would already be pumping out of their chests but because of their enormous amounts of endurance, when the camera zooms in on them, it’s like they didn’t even sweat.

TRAINING

The nature of this game includes short bursts of explosive physical exertion with minimal rests in between bursts. According to this article, high intensity interval training (HIIT) is more effective at improving endurance than moderate training. That being said and considering that the nature of tennis and HIIT are pretty similar, HIIT will be your primary weapon in gaining tennis-specific endurance. Also, this research states that it takes about 8–12 weeks for a workout to take effect. So it’ll take you at least 2 months before you can see and feel any huge change.

So, first part of your training will be your cardio. If you’re a beginner, I suggest you start your training with steady state jogging until your tolerance to exercise improves. When you feel comfortable with it, forget everything you learned about steady state cardio workouts because you won’t be using those kinds of exercises in tennis. HIIT will be your best friend.

Sprint as hard as you can for 40 seconds, walk slowly for 20, and then repeat until you can no longer do more. You might think that 40 seconds of sprinting doesn’t sound too long but I’m telling you, it feels like forever in HIIT. After a few cycles, your heart will beat like a gorilla is pounding on your chest and your lungs will feel like they were the size of apples. Take note of how many cycles you did and try to surpass that mark every next training session. Do this 3x a week with 1 day rest in between (e.g., M-W-F).

Next up is power. The main focus of training power would be your arms. Don’t get me wrong though. This doesn’t mean you can skip legs. That part of training is equally as important but your focus on legs will be something else. With power, you’ll be doing a lot of strength training coupled with plyometrics.

Agility. This is the part where your legs will be your main focus. You will train yourself to be quick both on your feet and in your mind. You will train to coordinate your hands, eyes, mind, and legs as one single body. Also, you will still be lifting weights with your legs to train for strength. The momentum you gain while moving your legs will travel up your body, to the shoulders, to the elbows, to your hands, to the racket, and lastly to the tennis ball. Pair this with your upper body power and that tennis ball will feel more like a bullet than a ball.

Last but definitely not least — flexibility. As any athlete and coach would tell you, stretching is and always will be a vital part of training. This may essentially be the most boring part of your training but it is not to be neglected. A stiff athlete is an easily injured athlete. Also, if your muscles are at optimal length, your strength will always be top tier.

Now, with all those words out of the way, it’s time to train. Check out the sample program below. You’re free to change any part of it if it you decide a change is appropriate.

Day 1 (cardio)

WARM-UPTIME Video TutorialDynamic stretching5 minutes http://y2u.be/DkCZym9CT54EXERCISE (HIIT)EXERTION TIME — RECOVERY TIMECYCLEShttp://y2u.be/AvqZvnFr630Sprint — Walk40 seconds — 20 secondsTo failurehttp://y2u.be/pxZ_J_gwghYCORE/ABDOMINALSREPSSETShttp://y2u.be/XKwNk-FBd0kRussian twists303http://y2u.be/NeAtimSCxsYBack hyperextensions303http://y2u.be/vx0jZBEmZcEPlanking45 seconds3http://y2u.be/dz0oFaVGuh4COOL-DOWNTIME Static stretching20 minutes http://y2u.be/iodG6mkbcz4

You are free to modify your HIIT sessions to your liking. If it gets too easy, you may increase the exertion/sprint time and decrease the recovery/walk time. Again, take note of the number of your cycles.

Day 2 (strength, power, agility)

If you thought HIIT was hard, think again because it’s about to become even harder.

WARM-UPTIME Dynamic stretching5 minutes Stationary bike5 minutes STRENGTHREPSSETSBench presses55Triceps rope pushdowns55Lat pull down55Seated row55EZ bar preacher curls55Shoulder press55Dumbbell lateral raises55PLYOMETRICSREPSSETS2-hand side-to-side throw with medicine ball123Depth jump with medicine ball123Clap push-ups103AGILITY/FOOTWORKREPSSETSBackwards/forwards sprint/shuffle53Partner mirror drill30 seconds4Resisted ball catches1 minute4COOL-DOWNTIME Static stretching5 minutes

As you may have noticed, you will be using the 5x5 method to build strength. This will be a whole body workout with at least 1 exercise per body part. Make sure you load up to the heaviest that you can lift for 5 repetitions and to always have a spotter nearby for safety. Check out how to do the plyometric workouts and the agility drills below.

2-hand side-to-side throw with medicine ball — this works out our throwing muscles such as your shoulders and triceps. The muscles you use to throw are also the muscles you’ll need to swing a racket. Start by holding a medicine ball in front of you using both hands with your arms extended. Move the ball above one of your shoulders, cocking it back in the process. When the ball is above your shoulders and behind your head, throw the ball forward as hard as you can and keep your arms in front. As your partner/coach throws the ball at you, catch it and cock it back the opposite shoulder and then throw. That’s one repetition. Repeat.
Depth jump with medicine ball — standing on a box or a bench while holding a medicine ball with both hands, hop forward so you drop out of the box. As soon as your feet touch the ground, quickly bend your knees as low as you can. When you are low enough, jump as high as you can and lift the medicine ball above your head with arms extended. Repeat. Your goal here is to minimize the time your feet are in contact with the ground.
Clap push-ups — this one is pretty straight forward. Assume a push-up position. Lower yourself slowly until your chest almost hits the ground then quickly push back up as hard as you can so your hands leave the floor. When in mid-air, do a clap.
Backwards/forwards sprint/shuffle — starting at the baseline, sprint as hard as you can to the net. When there, shuffle backwards to the starting point.
Partner mirror drill — you and your partner will be facing each other at opposite sides of the baseline. Choose who goes first. When that’s decided, one person will move laterally across the baseline as quick as he can at random directions. The other person will mirror the movements to the best of his ability. This exercises improves reaction speed and footwork.
Resisted ball catches — find a good, sturdy pole like a basketball ring or anything similar. Now, place a long elastic training belt on your waist and tie the other end to the pole. Ask your partner to throw balls at random directions in front of you. Your job is to hit the balls with your racket and send it back to the side of your partner. The elastic training belt will be there to provide resistance to your movement.

Day 3 (rest)

Your body needs to recover from the beating you gave it when training. By now, your muscles must be really sore. Give it at least 1 day of rest so you can recover and work even harder the next time.

If you want to be a successful tennis player, you need to work on your skills and the physical aspects of the game. You may have mastered every racket swing there is to know but without power, that ball will easily be sent back your way. Now, you’re well equipped to train and it’s up to you to go hard or go home.

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