Tennis Conditioning Level 1: Safe Training for Juniors, Beginners & Older Players

A tennis player does two things at the same time. Go and Hit… in this section we focus on the connection of the “go” to the ground. Good tennis involves constant movement, short sprints, and frequent directional changes. 3-5 directional changes can occur per point; with more than 500 changes of direction in any given practice or match. All bodily systems must be prepared for tennis in order for you to enjoy the sport without hurting yourself. Analyzing the inner workings of foot speed, explosion, and multidirectional equality. Yes these are my terms… and in the expansion of all of my courses there will be experienced developments in sports science.

The Lower Body is a combination of solid foundation, acceleration and deceleration, and endurance. Strong legs intimate the kinetic chain on all shots involved in tennis. This program is designed to strengthen your legs alongside proper movement skills. Strong Legs generate power during the serve, ground strokes and can help a player overcome inertia during changes in direction.

The Core is a crucial part of the Human Body in respects to movement and is an obvious asset to all athletic sports. The core transitions rotational movement of the spinal trunk and connects it to movement of the legs. Having a strong core builds strong spinal and back stability, and provides effortless power when coordinated with a proper kinetic chain. These tennis-specific exercises for the core will be focused on stability, balance, posture, performance enhancement, and injury prevention.

Rotational Strength is a focus in this program simply due to the extent of rotational force generated in today’s game of tennis. While the core gives way to stabilize and creating resistance to opposing forces rotational strength gives way to generating topspin along with preparation and recovery purposes. Although you should try to mimic the movement patterns of tennis strokes in your exercises, the focus in the beginning should be on establishing a baseline strength level. As you get stronger,  you can add the eccentric component of training. Try to maintain strength balance between anterior and posterior movement patterns, such as the backswing and follow-through. Muscular fatigue can lead to a greater risk of injury. Balanced training helps protect the joints.

Shoulder conditioning is a necessity in modern tennis due to the level of explosiveness needed to generate a large amount of spin. Shoulders need to be isolated and strengthened in ways that will allow for coordinated technique. The player will also benefit from more power and racquet head acceleration. Many years of continuous serving without proper conditioning awareness has led many players to overuse of the shoulder joint… I hope my program can give these players new life!

The back is the trunk of the upper body in a tennis stroke and it requires of bit of attention in different ways. Tennis requires a back to be strong, flexible, and fast. We will mix up These different training styles to cover this section of conditioning.

The chest provides the balance to the expansion of the back on a tennis player. When given the right conditioning and balance with the entire kinetic chain the chest can provide seamless whip like action on the tennis ball. Some muscles of the chest wrap around and connect with the back so these two sections will be working together while you develop your own personal plan. It is important for tennis players to remember that the chest muscles in tennis are trained for endurance as well.

Arms and wrists can be the icing on the cake to a clean groundstroke or an ACING service motion. While we want to relax these body parts during the swing phases, having them in condition will provide a wealth of snap to all areas of your game. We want arms and wrists strong and flexible. As the last piece on the kinetic chain before the racquet we also want these areas to be able to maintain quick twitch response through the longevity of a tennis match