Marco Bitran - Fitness Training: The Secret of Success in Tennis

 
By Giselle Martin

Tennis has changed as compared to a few years ago. To excel in this sport, a tennis player needs to undergo extensive fitness training to improve footwork, speed, strength and performance. In order to out-stand the cut-throat competition, tennis players need to follow a tennis specific fitness training program that will help give them that slight edge on court.

Let us have a look at how tennis fitness training assists a tennis player in climbing the success ladder:

Types of Fitness Components

Tennis is a very diverse and complex sport. If you are serious about being successful, training for tennis should address all fitness components, rather than just focusing on court drills, or running fast. Depending on the time of the year, (pre-competition etc.) on an average a professional tennis player should dedicate, 30% of the total work time, to an effective tennis training program. A good fitness program will include strength training, agility training, power training, speed training, aerobic / anaerobic training, core training, balance training, coordination training and flexibility training. For a tennis player to make and see an overall improvement in their game, the key is to address all these individualized fitness components with correct intensity and load.

Develop Overall Strength

Up and coming young tennis players need to work more on developing strength, core, and balance. They need to focus on some basic full-body strength exercises, which will help them gain speed and flexibility.

Players who feel weak, and slow around the court, should dedicate more time on agility, and reaction drills and overall strength. This can help you feel lighter and quicker around the court, placing minimal stress and load on the body, thus reducing injuries.

Tennis is a sport that can last for hours, so tennis players need to have a high energy level as well as persistence. Many players will notice the benefits and a marked improvement in their level of strength and power endurance, deep into the last set, after following a specific tennis fitness training program.

Prevent Injuries

Range of movement exercise's and keeping the body supple should be one of the main focuses with all tennis players. They should incorporate stretching as an important part of their tennis fitness program. Self- myofascial release exercises are also very important, as this will help maintain a healthy muscle. Performing tennis exercises regularly, not only helps in overall performance, but also helps, prevent and reduce injuries within tennis players. Doing some stretching exercises everyday after practice will boost muscle flexibility, this would further decrease the risk of injuries in the future.

The Perfect Solution

Often players can be seen giving excuses that they can not give time to training due to their tight schedules and continuous tournaments. A perfect solution to this is to perform a 20-30 min (Starter) tennis fitness workout prior to your regular tennis practice. Over time this will not only help improve your level of tennis fitness, but these starter workouts will have you warm, get your feet moving, and have you ready to go for the start of each practice. (no more wasting 10mins of your court time). If you can do these starter workouts 3-4 times a week, prior to each practice, you and your coach will be surprised how much more effective your time on court will be.

At Tennis Fitness, we provide training for tennis and tennis programs for players of all levels. We offer specific exercises for tennis fitness and online tennis programs that are proven to work. We help improve tennis footwork, speed, agility, core, power and strength.

Marco Bitran: Tennis Serve Exercises - Improving Your Speed Without Exercising

By Junior Pswarai 

Tennis serve exercises can help you become a stronger player all around, making it harder for your opponent to attack back. There are plenty of exercises that you can do however regardless of what you do you won't be able to add any speed to your serve unless you have the correct form and know what you are doing.

Firstly you will want to make sure that you are in control of your shot. You don't want to add speed to a shot that you can't even keep in, you will want to make sure that you can easily control it and place it in various corners of the court to be a trouble to your opponent otherwise it is going to be worthless which is not what you want.

Once you have got the control under control the next thing you can do is learn how to add more speed into it.

Put the ball further in front

You will want to toss the ball slightly further in front so that you are moving your body more into the shot, with your body weight behind this you increase the power and the speed of your shot but you will want to make sure that you follow through as this can add more power and it also gets you into a position where you are ready for the return that may come back.

Don't spin the ball

Many people add spin to put off their opponents but by doing this you are slowing the ball down. If you are finding the spin to be ineffective then don't use the spin and instead replace it with speed that you can place in the main 3 areas of the court (down the middle, wide and at the body of your opponent).

Rotate yourself

Most power will come from the coil and the rotation of your shoulders and your waist. The serve is a full body process and you will want to make sure that you use your while body for this as it can help contribute to the speed and power of the shot.

A heavier racquet

You can purchase a heavier racquet which can add more power to your shot however you need to realize that a heavier racquet is going to put your arm under a lot of pressure as you aren't going to be used to the weight of it. You can also buy lead strips that you can add to your racquet making it heavier to a weight that you can actually keep controlled (make sure that you evenly distribute the weight).

Hitting down the middle

If you hit the ball down the middle, the ball essentially doesn't have to travel a huge distance meaning that you will have a faster and more powerful serve than trying to aim the ball over at the wide areas of the court.

You don't need tennis serve exercises to increase the speed of your serve, all you need to do is know what things you can do to increase the speed such as the ones that are shown above but there are many various things that you can as well.

Tennis serve exercises are important however to keep you healthy and also to keep your strength up in the game but there are alternatives you can go through if you know how (such as shown above). If you want to make your serve more deadly then something you can do is check out this blog where you can find more information on the serve and how you can improve it.

Marco Bitran: Off Court Tennis Training For Young Players

By Giselle Martin

It is always recommended for young players from the age of 8 years and up, to do a thorough fitness assessment and postural analysis to determine their height, weight, flexibility, physical strengths and weaknesses. It also gives them the ability to look back in subsequent years and see areas they have improved on, track their growth and development etc. After the assessments a tennis program should be designed to target certain areas such as strength, speed, cardio vascular endurance, flexibility etc.

If tennis is the main sport of a young player, then training away from tennis should be structured to help gain benefits for tennis, this is what we call specific tennis training.

Tennis Training programs should take into account the movement dynamics e.g. high speed, agility and power endurance and dimensions of tennis e.g. lateral, forward, backward, up and down, rotational etc.

Strength is the foundation for development in all-young players. Increases in muscle strength will help to improve movement, power, endurance, injury prevention, co ordination and confidence. There have been 100s of times I have had a coach or parent tell me their young player needs to move quicker or have more power. Doing power and agility exercises will help to a degree, but without a solid strength base benefits will be minimal.

Examples of strength exercises for tennis are;

1. Body weight: (push ups, squats, planks, lunges etc.)

2. Suspension training: It is highly recommend for young players and has many benefits and very low risk for injuries. We use suspension training with the majority of our young players and get great results in strength, balance and co ordination.

3. Resistance band training: Resistance bands have been around for decades and are a great way to work certain muscle groups in the body. They are commonly used for rehabilitation from injuries, injury prevention and to challenge the musculoskeletal system (muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments) to promote muscle strength. Resistance bands are low cost and are good to travel with.

4. Muscle loading: It is using weight (dumbbells, weight plates, barbells, machines etc.) to challenge the musculoskeletal system. This form of training has huge benefits for athletes, but for younger athletes it can be very dangerous, particularly on the joints of the body. It is hard for a coach or parent to know when a child should start lifting weights. Research tells us, this form of training should be avoided until the age of 16. In most cases it would be accurate, however we need to take into account the body type, physical maturity and natural strength of young athletes before determining when to start their strength program. Obviously working with a specific tennis conditioning trainer will help make that decision. A tennis conditioning trainer should start all players off by lifting no more than 5% of their body weight for upper body exercises and 5%-10% for lower body exercises. Until you have seen a trained professional avoid using weight training for players under the age of 16 years.

As important as strength is, it is also necessary to look at other areas of training for tennis to help boost a young players development. Cardio vascular endurance (running, swimming etc. ) Anaerobic cardio vascular training (agility) flexibility (stretching), co ordination and core stability should also be targeted and structured into the off court tennis training plan.

Young players should be encouraged to participate in a range of structured sports (soccer, basketball, netball, gymnastics, swimming etc.) and also fun unstructured exercise/play. Participating in other sports (e.g. Basketball, soccer) away from tennis will often give young players an increase in cardio vascular endurance, co ordination and strength.

It is best to consult a qualified tennis conditioning trainer to help structure a plan for off court tennis training. Getting them to work in with the coach is highly recommended, as the coach will have some knowledge on areas of strength and weakness.

We provide fitness training for tennis players of all levels. We offer tennis specific exercises and online tennis programs that are proven to improve footwork, speed, agility, core, power and strength.

Marco Bitran: Tennis For Fitness

By Shem Ouma

The flab around your waistline makes you so much conscious about your looks while dressing for a party.

You feel out of breath when you go for the stairs instead of the elevator. It's difficult for you to keep pace with your young toddler while taking him to his school; you soon start panting. You don't feel motivated running on a treadmill in the comfort of your home. Binging is your hobby and something you can never forgo. And you envy your neighbor's chiseled athletic body. You have tried everything; you feel enthusiastic at the beginning but all your gusto and motivation turn bland with time. You might be feeling a sense of ennui in doing something with a vague purpose of being fit and that too you're not sure if that would work. The end product is despair.

For all those fitness admirers who are victims of lack of motivation, 'cardio tennis' is a new hope. A one of its kind regime, it offers all the goodies of fitness in the way haute cuisine offers exquisite delicacies to a gourmet. A sport with a fun value as much high as its value in fitness, it serves as a complete package for aspiring fitness freaks. It comprises of a variety of engaging activities which are all devised for one purpose-keeping you fit and agile.

Color Blind

This is a warm up activity which urges your nervous system to respond quickly. Two color balls are thrown towards you and the deliverer says aloud a color he wants you to pick first without a bounce and then the other after it bounces once.

Invasion

This utterly enjoyable activity which is done without the help of racquets or balls gets you warmed up before you know. Invading the other team's service box, trying to tag one of them without being tagged yourself, you have to escape. It is fun and you use wit too at the same time while escaping.

Spanish Drill

This calorie burning drill will have you sprinting in a figure eight formation. Fast-paced and challenging, this drill is sure to take a toll on the pouches of fat.

Red Rover

A high-energy tennis-based cardio, it puts your forehand and net skills to test. Sprinting across the baseline to retrieve a running forehand, you have to try passing a shot or a lob to win a point for your team.

Triples

Competitive spirit at its peak can be experienced with three versus three all court play-based activity. Both the teams face each other on opposite ends in a triangular formation, rotating positions after each point ends.

This is really engaging and gets you hooked.

Noodle Whacking

A warm up activity where you tap others with a soft foam pool noodles below their knees. It calls you out for being a sport and sets your heart pumping as well

The focus is on burning more calories than you consume in a fun and engaging way. It employs innovative ways to make you lose flab and keep fit. Like the heart rate monitor being used for tracking the progress of a player and this simultaneously enables the coaches to manage the group according to different fitness level.

For the purpose of making workout more effective music tracks have been made an essential part of the game as it's been proven that people work 33 percent harder with a 15 percent increase in their endurance if they train with music.

Taking out best fun parts from the game and integrating them with cardio practices is what cardio tennis is all about. Those under-motivated fitness lovers can cling to it if they wish to sport that sexy look oozing with confidence not to forget the new socializing platform you'll be getting when playing with others.

Learn to play like a pro with tennis coaching classes. To have more information on the same, click here.