Kids: how many hours court-time a week?
 

What would you advise in the case of a kid who wants to play at a national/international level? I've read that Federer played 15 hours/week when he was 14.

You can do a lot less if you spread the % of off-court training between weight training and conditioning .

I would do no less then 8 hrs a week on court if your looking to that level being achieved.

Federer also played squash and did fitness, so 15 hours total with tournament play. That's about 2 hours a day of tennis plus tourneys.

Try this: http://catennis.squarespace.com/most...ours-rule.html

basically, play the kid's age in hours a week. If he's 7, play 7; if he's 8, play 8.

That seems like a good rule. I'm 15 and play about 15 hours a week in school, and spend 5 hours a week in the gym.

That's a good rule, but if you're striving for what the OP is alluding to, that is only the bare minimum.

This question is impossible to answer. Depends, depends, depends.

How intense? I see players practice at wimpy intensities and others go animal.

How focused and well designed is the practice? A great practice design can accomplish in 1 hour what someone else might in 3 hours.

What is being worked on? Some developmental issues require a slow and long practice to work out and other allow for short but intense practices.

Where is the kid in terms of mindset? If they love tennis they might work for many hours with passion, others might be going through stages where tennis is not their #1 priority at the moment. They need less intensity more fun to get them over the hump and not lose them forever.

How about stages of growth? Are they dealing with growing pains and need less intensity? Are they in a teen stage where they need to rest more?

So many factors go into this topic, it is only possible to know the right number of hours on a case by case basis.

^^^^ spot on ,

My player spends 4 hours a week on the court, 1 hour on fitness. He's not going pro. Will play in college, Ivies or equivalent. 4 star. Most juniors, particularly at academies, spend too much time on court. His 4 hours are all out. When he plays tornaments and goes to final, add another 7 hours of play for the week.

You might see a lot of juniors playing a lot of hours of tennis.

You might also see a lot of injuries...

With kids, and growing bodies, sometimes less is better.

My son plays 8 hours a week, but if it is a big test week, it might be 4 hours.

My 11yo daughter is crazy about tennis at the moment. She'll play whenever she's got a court and a partner. Her pediatrician advised us not to let her do too much. She says she has a lot of kids coming into her office with sports injuries, some of them pretty serious. Too much stress on growing bodies. She advised my daughter not to play through pain and not to play for more than a couple of hours a day at the most. As TennisCoachFla said above, the intensity of the workout is probably as significant as time put in in terms of stress on the body.

Solid website .

Totally agree. Repetitive tennis strokes, impact from high speed ball rallying, feet and ankles pounding on concrete, etc have significant effects on their growing bodies and bones. Overtraining and overcompeting might give great results today but .....may lead to injuries, wear and tear and untimely osteoarthritis. I heard of top juniors in our section stopped competing because of stress fracture of the arm, spine or shoulder injury. Growth plate injury of ankles appeared to be common too. Ultimately, parents are the ones that need to monitor hours juniors logged in practice/ play matches. No parents want their children's bodies to worn out before time (I hope).

All great points.

I think the parents are not aware of the dangers of logging so many hours.

The people who earn their livings off the academies are not sharing any of the above info.

My kids are 7 and 9 and I like to follow the every-other-day philosophy. When they do camps or team tennis in the summer, I do as much as possible on clay (Har-Tru) and rest on the weekends. They also play other sports during certain seasons and less tennis. They are not pro track, but tennis is their main sport.

15 hrs a week.

BMC had a very good point about the clay or HarTru courts. They are much easier on the body. Similarly, go with multi (or gut) strings and a flexible racket rather than poly in a Pure Drive to reduce vibration and shock to the arm.

Oh no. I am in my 40s.

Well you are just going to have to bite the bullet and play 40 hours a week if you want to go pro...Oh and spend what 1/3 of that in the gym...I hope you don't have a job :)

Obviously, you need to quit your job and just play tennis!
:-)