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Tennis Workout

November 2, 2005 Print This ArticleShare

Author: Michael Greeves


Tennis - The Sport

The game of tennis has seen some significant changes in the way it is played over the past thirty years. Racket technology, training styles and nutrition have allowed top-level players to hit the ball far more aggressively, with serves reaching more than 130 miles per hour in ball speed and both forehands and backhands returning the ball at blistering velocity. Tennis professionals compete in an environment that is fast-pace and explosive, and they must have the physical conditioning to not only excel but to simply stay there.

Tennis - The Demand

To compete in today’s tennis game, players must have explosive strength to not only keep the ball in play but to win the point. Speed is also critical for the player to move into position to return the ball, because perception of ball movement and anticipatory skills are virtually useless if the player doesn’t have the speed to get “there.” Agility allows the player to move forward, backward, side to side, diagonally, and into sometimes unremarkable positions with as little effort and time as possible to be in the right place for the play.

Identifying cues from the opponent’s patterns and tendencies, court position, stroke, and ball spin and trajectory is important for proper anticipatory reflexes and this skill comes with playing time (Saviano, 2001); but, beyond this skill, the ability to quickly maneuver into position to return the ball requires physical agility and foot-speed that must be trained. This agility and speed set the player up for optimal stroke mechanics and a higher potential for a successful play. In the backhand and the forehand, one of the primary energy sources to project the ball with velocity originates from the transfer of weight laterally and returning the power of the in-coming shot (Williams, 2000). This powerful weight transfer comes from the calves, quadriceps and gluteals. Both forehand and backhand typically utilize some trunk rotation (obliques and spinal erectors), and the forehand and backhand swing utilize the muscles of the upper body to a great extent (Roetert & Ellenbecker, 1998). Another study (Chow 1999) shows that, in both swing methods, the leaning of the body and the pushing off from the opposite foot will differ depending on in-coming ball speed; in other words, this motor strategy is based on experience and sport-specific skill. But one thing is for sure, almost any motor strategy chosen in the game of tennis typically demands strength, power, and agility from the entire body.

Each point play averages eight to 12 seconds, with about 12 to 20 seconds of rest before the next point is served. A minimum of four points make up a game and a player must win 6 games (in some cases more) in each set.

Women typically compete for three sets while men compete for 5 sets. The bio-energetic demand is high and can typically last for two to 4 hours. Through this duration almost every muscle of the body is called upon to sprint, shuffle, lunge, jump, twist, strike, and abruptly change directions. These maneuvers are of high-intensity, short-duration bouts interspersed with short rest periods. Studies show that the metabolic demand of tennis is 80% from the alactic acid system (ATP-PC), 15% from the anaerobic system, and only 5% from the aerobic system. Although recovery of high-energy phosphates is achieved through the aerobic process, the numbers above clearly show that traditional aerobic conditioning is not the way to go.

Today’s competitive tennis no longer relies on only skill but also, to a great extent, physical prowess, or the player’s ability to express relentless power, speed, agility and stamina. If skill levels are equal between two players, it’s no argument that the one with greater physical prowess will compete with a greater advantage.

Tennis - Injuries

Tennis-related injuries occur on all levels. The most common injury is the infamous “tennis elbow,” or lateral epicondylitis, an overuse injury to the outside of the elbow. The literature shows that this occur because of an imbalance in strength between the wrist flexors and wrist extensors, the extensors being relatively weaker. The literature also suggests that tennis elbow is caused by improper stroke mechanics, an over-reliance on arm strength rather than leg, hip and trunk power.

Other injuries include shoulder impingement caused typically by overhead movement such as from a serve. This is often due to improper serve mechanics and/or an imbalance of strength in the shoulder girdle.

Other injuries occur because of accidents like falling or miss-stepping which may cause acute injuries like knee sprains, fractures, or tendon ruptures. Improper warm-up can cause muscle strains as can a high level of fatigue.

The Tennis Workout

The Tennis Workout focuses on developing strength, power, speed, agility, and endurance to optimize tennis performance.

A base level of strength is required, on which special strength such as power and speed can be built. Maximum strength is developed in a specific phase, with a small emphasis on power development, in a conjugate method design. After a period this conjugate method shifts to the next phase and peak power development becomes the main focus with a smaller emphasis on maximum strength development. During the third phase equal percentages are given to developing maximum strength, peak power, speed, and agility. The strength-training program at this time becomes a complex method, where all the qualities observed in high-level tennis are exploited with equal attention; this usually precedes tournament time.

Endurance is particularly important, but is trained with a special method. We believe that steady-state aerobic training is an unacceptable method to train for the metabolic-specificity of tennis. Far better methods can be utilized. Strength-endurance, explosive endurance, and speed-endurance should be trained through repetitive bouts of quick and powerful movements interspersed with short rest periods. This high-intensity interval training method not only trains the explosive bursts demanded by the game but also conditions the aerobic system for optimal recovery of high-energy phosphates that fuels these explosive movements. This training style exploits metabolic pathways far more specific to tennis than steady-state aerobics.

A well-designed strength-training program obviously enhances athletic performance, but equally important is that it also lowers the risk of injury. The ability of the legs, hips and torso to generate high power allows the player to rely less on the arm during ball strike, which some studies have suggested may prevent “tennis elbow.” Hyperstrike believes that good swing mechanics combined with sufficient power development from the legs, hips and torso are key to preventing tennis elbow. However, although no scientific literature exists to prove that strength imbalance between wrist extensors and wrist flexors causes tennis elbow, we believe that it is prudent to utilize simple arm stretches after each practice and game, and incorporate simple wrist-extensor-strengthening exercises. A strength and conditioning program can also lower the risks of acute injuries from falls and miss-steps, simply because the body is more conditioned for sharp performance and is structurally stronger.

Although tennis is a game that is said to produce great overall health and fitness and can be played throughout life, competitive tennis today is a different game that requires strength, power, speed, agility and endurance beyond what playing tennis alone can achieve. A successful tennis competitor today needs to engage in a scientifically-based strength-training program to maximize tennis performance.



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