PART TWO - TRAINING SUGGESTIONS
In part one we broke down the wonders and rigours of tennis from an observational point of view. Observation is the foundation of how we’ve developed our interventions in sport and understanding the demands allow us to develop very precise directions for how one should carry out these interventions.
The following exercises are for fit and uninjured tennis players. If you have any niggles or concerns you should consult a strength and conditioning coach or healthcare professional with an interest in sports and gain clearance before completing them. In the presence of injury, we can work you up to this point and develop work-around strategies to keep you ticking over nicely.
There is an open access paper from Roetart and colleagues (2009) that provides more rationale and detail for these exercises [8]. I suggest that anyone interested in developing their game consults the practical elements of this paper. Just click the following link to access the paper.
Developing Shot Speed
I am not going to talk about the technical intricacies of each shot in this piece. I want to give you value where I feel I can best offer it. That is in the case of force generation and transfer in the lower body and upper body respectively. The following suggested drills should follow a few key principles:
1. Your spine is a pillar and allows for transfer of forces from the lower body to the upper body and vice versa. Aim to keep it straight and strong throughout these exercises.
2. Generate force in the ground with your legs, transfer this force via your weight and momentum in the direction you are going. Push down hard with the legs, lean into the floor and attack the ground.
3. Your upper body is the release or culmination of the forces generated below in this instance. Direct it and follow through well right up to the tips of your fingers.
Medicine Ball Open-Stance Groundstroke Drill
· Using a light medicine ball or sandbag stand side on to a wall
· Toes should point 90 degrees away from the wall. Your outside leg is in front (leg farthest from the wall).
· Rotate your feet, hips, trunk and arms inwards and throw the medicine ball forwards across your body adhering to the key principles I outlined above.
· You should end up facing the wall and ball on the floor with square toes, hips, shoulders and gaze.
· This is a power drill so focus on a lighter ball and the acceleration. 3 sets of 4-6 reps is sufficient here to train the appropriate systems in your body.
Wrist Roller
Grip strength is a focal issue in tennis and is concerns a primary hotspot of injury - the elbow. While this blog is by no means about the dreaded tennis elbow it would be foolish not to mention it. The following exercise is a nice higher-level strength endurance builder in your wrist extensors who are the initial culprit for tennis elbow complaints. It will also work the other muscle groups in the wrist and elbow complex.
· Using a thick dowel of wood, drill a decent sized hole and tie some strong rope through the loop. The other end of the rope should be as long as the height of your shoulders from the ground. On the other end tie a loop around a light weight. Start with 1-2.5kg and see how you get on with it before progressing.
· Using both hands stretched out in front twist and roll the dowel to pull the weight all the way up and down with control. It shouldn’t sway too much.
· 1 rep equals a full sequence back to the floor.
· 3 sets of 3-5 reps is plenty here. Your wrist musculature will have a lot of work to do here throughout 1 rep so don’t overdo it.
Reactive Ability and Coordination
While there is a lot of overlap between these qualities and agility you need to focus on the training of them a little differently to maximise your outcomes. Reactive ability and coordination concern just themselves and you should remove yourself from doing too much movement as you try to focus on improving them in isolation. It should generally involve an intricate task of the limbs to work on the coordinative aspect. It works best with a partner but you can use a wall and reaction ball for these exercises also. We source ours here (https://sportsphysio.ie/140-142.html), you can also do a lot with masking tape and 3-4 tennis balls tightly packed together.
Eyes Closed to Open with Late Catch
· Stand opposite a partner in a ¼ to ½ squat. Eyes closed and hands up.
· They are holding a tennis ball in each hand and command you to open your eyes.
· As they do this they throw a ball from one side towards one hand.
· With reduced time and increased demand, your nervous and sensory systems have to interpret this information and catch the ball.
· You can add layers to this drill in multiple ways to progress it further. These include but are not limited to: a longer pause between the throw and command to release, increased throw speed, increased commands i.e. more levels of information to process e.g. “open, catch with right hand”, a more awkward and difficult pass to catch.
Agility
To improve your agility, you need to shore up your lateral displacement (this is a biomechanical term for how well you can shift your entire body to one side) but it should be always be response to a stimulus. An indecision cut is a lovely drill to work on this quality. You need to do this with a partner ideally and the court is the best environment. Please have a look at the drill outline below.
· The key to success here is to maximise the indecision aspect. Make the partner or coach call late, just as you reach the middle cone.
· An optimal stimulus would actually be a serve left or right into the net as it will mimic the sensory stimulus you will receive on court. You’ll never be told where the shot’s going so there’s not much point in the partner calling left or right.
· You can increase the difficulty very easily - just push the centre cone up in line with the lateral cones.
· This can be trained with multiple considerations. You may be trying to focus on movement technique so slow it down in this case. You may be concerned about improving your agility so time it and try to beat yourself. If you get creative with the emphasis you’ll be surprised what the body can get from it.
· Nonetheless this is about quality not quantity. 2 sets of 4-6 reps each direction is plenty.
Closing Remarks
I hope you’ve gotten some enjoyment and enlightenment from the above piece. If you’ve never given Tennis a go or watched it on the telly I would urge you to do so. It’s a fantastic sport and one’s triumph in it should be suitably celebrated.
References
1. Dinjanski M (2016). Davis Cup 2016: USA’s John Isner breaks serve speed record with 253km.h bomb (https://www.foxsports.com.au/tennis/davis-cup-2016-usas-john-isner-breaks-serve-speed-record-with-253kmh-bomb/news-story/36019d7f91f8276845e70616861ee8a2). Last accessed Fri 15th May 2020.
2. AAP (2012). Aussie smashes tennis serve speed record (https://www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/aussie-smashes-tennis-serve-speed-record-20120513-1ykfk.html). Last accessed Fri 15th May 2020.
3. Wikipedia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastest_recorded_tennis_serves#cite_note-31). Last edited 9th May 2020.
4. Elliott B. (2002). Biomechanics of tennis. In: Tennis. Renstrom AFH, ed. Osney Mead, Oxford: Blackwell Science, pp. 1-28.
5. Knudson D. (2006). Biomechanical Principles of Tennis Technique. Vista, CA: Racquet Tech Publishing, pp. 10.
6. Schönborn R. (1999). Advanced Techniques for Competitive Tennis. Aachen, Germany: Meyer and Meyer, pp. 26.
7. Elliott B. (2006). Biomechanics and tennis. British Journal of Sports Medicine;40:392-396.
8. Roetert PE, Kovacs M, Knudson D, Groppel JL. (2009). Biomechanics of the Tennis Groundstrokes: Implications for Strength Training, Strength & Conditioning Journal; 31(4), pp. 41-49.