fitness for tennis?

[borna coric]

I was in Florida last week on a business trip and I stopped by IMG tennis academy to check out the place. Haven't been there for almost two years.

While I was there, I got a chance to talk to several conditioning coaches about they told me that in order to be a good tennis athlete, running 10 miles does not help. What help is to sprint an NFL 40 yards dash under 5 seconds, take a 40 seconds break, then run the 40 yards dash again. Repeat that 40 times. However, stretch for about 45 minutes prior to the sprint. Once you're done with sprinting, stretching for another 30 minutes. After that, you can start practice tennis.

Does that make sense to anyone?

 

[Ramon]

Makes sense to me. That's more of a HIIT type workout. The benefits of that over the 10 mile run include more fat burning after the workout due to the afterburn effect and more muscle mass because you work your muscles harder. You probably lose more weight with the 10 mile run, but you'll look like an impoverished distance runner instead of like an overall athlete.

 

[borna coric]

Thanks. The conditioning coaches said that sprinting needs to be done every other day. They also recommend that some muscle building routines such as push-up and pull up on non-sprinting day. They mentioned that push-up and pull-up will result in massive muscles on both the shoulders and arms and yet maintain the flexibility for a tennis player. I was skeptical about this at first but when they explained about Warinska and Nadal, it makes perfect sense.

One thing they kept saying over and over again is the importance of stretching before and after the workout. 45 mins before working out and 30 minutes after working out.

 

[WildVolley]

Thanks. The conditioning coaches said that sprinting needs to be done every other day. They also recommend that some muscle building routines such as push-up and pull up on non-sprinting day. They mentioned that push-up and pull-up will result in massive muscles on both the shoulders and arms and yet maintain the flexibility for a tennis player. I was skeptical about this at first but when they explained about Warinska and Nadal, it makes perfect sense. ...

With some qualifications, the conditioning coaches were giving good advice.

On the sprinting: Starting out doing a 40-rep 40-yard interval is way overkill and will cause delayed onset soreness, tax the nervous system, and hinder other training. Training should be progressive. Start out doing more like 5-reps of the 40-yard interval and then build into doing higher reps over the training days. Going too hard too early greatly increases injury risk.

The advice on doing both push and pull is important. Building the back muscles and external rotator cuff muscles can help a tennis player maintain shoulder health and hit harder with less risk of injury. Most tennis strokes heavily rely on internal rotation.

 

[Deleted member 754093]

With some qualifications, the conditioning coaches were giving good advice.

On the sprinting: Starting out doing a 40-rep 40-yard interval is way overkill and will cause delayed onset soreness, tax the nervous system, and hinder other training. Training should be progressive. Start out doing more like 5-reps of the 40-yard interval and then build into doing higher reps over the training days. Going too hard too early greatly increases injury risk.

The advice on doing both push and pull is important. Building the back muscles and external rotator cuff muscles can help a tennis player maintain shoulder health and hit harder with less risk of injury. Most tennis strokes heavily rely on internal rotation.

I would qualify this and point out that pushups and pullups are not complete opposites. That is, they both involve internal rotation, so for good shoulder health someone also needs to add a movement that involves external rotation. I'd also like to see some sort of row being implemented for retraction

 

[CT-Topspin]

With some qualifications, the conditioning coaches were giving good advice.

On the sprinting: Starting out doing a 40-rep 40-yard interval is way overkill and will cause delayed onset soreness, tax the nervous system, and hinder other training. Training should be progressive. Start out doing more like 5-reps of the 40-yard interval and then build into doing higher reps over the training days. Going too hard too early greatly increases injury risk.

The advice on doing both push and pull is important. Building the back muscles and external rotator cuff muscles can help a tennis player maintain shoulder health and hit harder with less risk of injury. Most tennis strokes heavily rely on internal rotation.

I'd like to echo this point. Those coaches deal with a very high caliber of athlete that has typically been training from a very young age. The people they deal with have adapted their bodies to be able to handle training both on and off the court without burning themselves out.

Regardless, it's interesting stuff and a cool glimpse into the world of those athletes. I've always been interested in visiting an academy or even spending a weekend training at one just to see what it's like.

 

[borna coric]

Let me qualify what I said earlier. The conditioning coaches did mention that the end goal is to run the 40 yards dash 40 times under 5 seconds and not feeling tired. It means that you start out at the beginning of the summer and finish by end summer. Start out slow at the beginning at the summer and finish like a NFL wide receiver by summer end.

 

[RVAtennisaddict]

Stretching in the traditional sense does not prevent injuries, and in people over 30 may exacerbate/cause injuries. Post work-out stretching prevents injuries. Appropriate warm-up before working out prevents injuries. In may be that some peoples stretching is really a warm up, but stretching cold/tight muscles, ligaments, tendons is more likely to hurt than help.

I have been looking for a good regime for working out for tennis: Monday through Friday.

personally off the cuff, my ideal work out would be:

M/W/F 1mi jog, 1 mi jog/sprint intervals 10sec spring/50sec jog; Agility drills - lateral shuffle, cross stepping, ladder work, jump rope, followed by stretching goal of 45min to 1hr.
T/Th - tennis related weights (hand held dumbells), shadow tennis/points focusing on movement, prep and positioning assuming I hit the shot I wanted, power yoga goal of 45 min to 1 hr.

Skipping work outs on day's I hit/play: typically Sat/Sun and one day of the week.

 

[BornAmish]

I was in Florida last week on a business trip and I stopped by IMG tennis academy to check out the place. Haven't been there for almost two years.

While I was there, I got a chance to talk to several conditioning coaches about they told me that in order to be a good tennis athlete, running 10 miles does not help. What help is to sprint an NFL 40 yards dash under 5 seconds, take a 40 seconds break, then run the 40 yards dash again. Repeat that 40 times. However, stretch for about 45 minutes prior to the sprint. Once you're done with sprinting, stretching for another 30 minutes. After that, you can start practice tennis.

Does that make sense to anyone?

I cannot stress enough stretching before (warm up) & after (cool down) a workout. I'm starting to include a foam roller on my legs/calves as well to loosen the muscles as part of my exercises. In addition, breathing/yoga is being added too. The sprints are okay for a tennis player, but I would focus on HIIT exercises. My routine is M/W/Th/Sa I work on my legs since you'll get the most benefit for tennis (especially Saturday because that's when I expect to play my hardest tennis, i.e. tournaments) and T/Th I work my arms. I throw in the stretching/roller/breathing/yoga for 15 minutes or so at a time when I can.