How fast are tennis players?

1

1477aces

Hall of Fame
I heard nadal, one of the fastest on tour can run only a 10.95. I thought players on tour condition really well. A 10.95 is really slow, I have a 15 or 16 year old friend who plays running back for football and can run a 10.4 or 10.5. Are tennis players this slow because they need to do a lot of running so they require a different type of muscle for all that running?
 
Well, firstly - being able to run a fast 100m doesn't really matter. Change of direction, explosive burst over 5-10 yds, flexibility are all far more relevant.

I would also suggest that your friend starts preparing for the Olympics - your 15 yr old pal is already as fast as the quickest college wide receivers....and faster than carl Lewis was at the age of 15.
 
Tennis players are good sprinters to cover up to 30m on a single run, not 100m. They rely on footwork and anticipation, thus they don't need to be super fast runners, although I think they are fast enough already. And if you could provide a source on these data it would help too.
 
1477aces said:
I heard nadal, one of the fastest on tour can run only a 10.95. I thought players on tour condition really well. A 10.95 is really slow, I have a 15 or 16 year old friend who plays running back for football and can run a 10.4 or 10.5. Are tennis players this slow because they need to do a lot of running so they require a different type of muscle for all that running?
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Meters or yards? In U.S. football it is probably yards, in Spain it is probably meters - about a 10% difference, so your friend would be over 11 1/2 seconds.
 
NLBwell said:
Meters or yards? In U.S. football it is probably yards, in Spain it is probably meters - about a 10% difference, so your friend would be over 11 1/2 seconds.
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Exactly yds VS meters 110 yds equals 100 meters.
Also heard Brad Gilbert say Nadal ran 4.2 sec for 40 yards and this equals the fastest pro football players
Also other points well taken 100 meter time in tennis almost meaningless anticipation the first 20 yards being able to change direction on a dime
If his(OP) friend is running a 10.4 100 meters at 15 he has a heck of a future FYI OJ Simpson before he became infamous ran a 10.4 100 meters
 
By the way, the huge powerful John Riggins of the Jets and Redskins was also the Kansas state high school 100 yd. track champion twice.

If your friend can get down to 9.8 seconds and grow to be 230 lbs eventually, he might be a really good pro.

1966 Kansas High School Championships Results:
100-Yard Dash - l. John Riggins' Centralia; 2. Tom Wilson, St. George; 3. Harold Terpening, Morrowville; 4. Mike Nulty,Jewell;5. VonHoss,Weskan. Time:9.8.
 
It may be just me but I'm surprised Rafa can go under 11 secs. I'd have thought possibly Monfils would be the only sub 11 second tennis player. Sub 11 seconds is phenomenally quick for anyone in my opinion. Rafa doesn't seem built to sprint, his legs are extremely strong but seem big and heavy.
Where did this info come from?
 
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1477aces said:
I heard nadal, one of the fastest on tour can run only a 10.95. I thought players on tour condition really well. A 10.95 is really slow, I have a 15 or 16 year old friend who plays running back for football and can run a 10.4 or 10.5. Are tennis players this slow because they need to do a lot of running so they require a different type of muscle for all that running?
Click to expand...

Who cares. They are tennis players, not track and field runner.
 
1477aces said:
Not a close friend. But he broke the school record so that's why I know and he was in my grade so I know he's either 15 or 16 at the time he broke it.
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The world record for under 18 is 10.19 and the medium for top sprinters at that age in finals around 10.4. Similarly, the fastest 16 year old result I can see is from the 2011 USATF National Championship by Khalfani Muhammad who ran a 10.55.

So, you're basically claiming your friend is amongst the top in the world of runners aged 2+ years older than him.

I call horse excrement on your claim.

Tennis players are lightning quick at what they need to do which is explode sideways for 2-5m the change directions and do it again, and again, and again. No track and field athlete could transfer over to tennis style movement and be as quick as any of the top players. The movement in tennis is too sport specific for linear runners to excel at just because they're super quick. Bolt for example never needs to slow down abruptly in any of his races but tennis players have to do it all day long.
 
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Bobby Jr said:
The world record for under 18 is 10.19 and the medium for top sprinters at that age in finals around 10.4. Similarly, the fastest 16 year old result I can see is from the 2011 USATF National Championship by Khalfani Muhammad who ran a 10.55.

So, you're basically claiming your friend is amongst the top in the world of runners aged 2+ years older than him.

I call horse excrement on your claim.

Tennis players are lightning quick at what they need to do which is explode sideways for 2-5m the change directions and do it again, and again, and again. No track and field athlete could transfer over to tennis style movement and be as quick as any of the top players. The movement in tennis is too sport specific for linear runners to excel at just because they're super quick. Bolt for example never needs to slow down abruptly in any of his races but tennis players have to do it all day long.
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yeah it's looking more like I confused it for a 100yd dash.
 
Haven't seen a monfils reference once.

Well let me posts fact.

Monfils the goat ran a sub 10.0.

Fact

It's on the paper
 
TennisMD said:
Also heard Brad Gilbert say Nadal ran 4.2 sec for 40 yards and this equals the fastest pro football players
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So, Brad really thinks Nadal is as fast as Bo Jackson? I need whatever he's smoking. It must put Acapulco Gold to shame.
 
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NLBwell said:
I guarantee Ferrer would beat Bo Jackson at over 10 miles. Bo hated to run one mile.
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Over 10 miles ?? He would get smoked at 5k's by guys like Ferrer.
Anybody that specialized for sprinting will NOT have the type of endurance needed to compete with top tennis runners over longer distances.
And by longer I mean anything over 1500 m...not the marathon.
Do you see any 100 kg men running the 1500 m in the Olympics ??
 
Sumo said:
Absolutely not.
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"Monfils was considered an athletics prodigy at school and won the French under-13 and under-14 100m championships. It was only his love for tennis that stopped him going on to compete at a higher level. His coach is on record as saying that Monfils could have made the Olympic 100m final such was his talent."
Source: wikipedia
 
sdont said:
"Monfils was considered an athletics prodigy at school and won the French under-13 and under-14 100m championships. It was only his love for tennis that stopped him going on to compete at a higher level. His coach is on record as saying that Monfils could have made the Olympic 100m final such was his talent."
Source: wikipedia
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Oh. My fault. Of course, the coach of a 14yr old says he has world class talent, and having the most objective of opinions should be believed without question. I'm a believer now!

MONFILS.......WOULD HAVE BEEN THE FIRST MAN TO BREAK THE 9sec BARRIER!!!!! ALL HAIL MONFILS!!
 
Running on a track becomes a skill more than atheleticism when you re talking about hundreths of a second or even tenth. These guys have no desire to prove thenselves. NFL guys usually gear for this in the combine when they are trying to get drafted you can see a guy increase his 40 time significantly in some cases. And Jerry Rice is actually a guy who had terrible 40 times coming out of college and was the best WR in football history.
 
Sumo said:
Oh. My fault. Of course, the coach of a 14yr old says he has world class talent, and having the most objective of opinions should be believed without question. I'm a believer now!

MONFILS.......WOULD HAVE BEEN THE FIRST MAN TO BREAK THE 9sec BARRIER!!!!! ALL HAIL MONFILS!!
Click to expand...

Winning the French under-14 national championships would be the definition of world-class talent (for his age).
If he'd stuck with track, he probably would have ended up a 400m guy given his height. No telling whether he would have been great at track or not in the end, but he was on the right path. Don't know why that would induce mocking.
 
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