How important is long distance running for tennis conditioning?

If you really do it, it makes everything easier. Tennis, skiing, biking, swimming and just living.

But most people think distance running is only about the distance. They never do the running. Most barely even do distance jogging. Then of course they follow no training plan either. After a week, having jogged 3 miles twice, they expertly proclaim distance running useless.

A few will last a month or so, jogging with horrible form and getting injured. These people expertly proclaim that distance running is worse than useless, it’s also dangerous.

Both of these groups are vocal and confident, so distance running is expertly proclaimed to be bad.

Those that actually run regularly and correctly are typically quiet. They just run. When they hear the aforementioned groups loudly proclaim running is useless and dangerous, they just smile, don’t say anything, and go out for their daily run. Same as every other day
 
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rafaboy1998-2001 said:
And how many pro players do it? One that comes to mind is Caroline Wozniacki. I dont know about the rest.
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Long distance running is primarily an aerobic activity. High performance conditioning for tennis requires both aerobic and anaerobic fitness. Elite singles players might be employing something like 60-40 to 40-60 for competition according to some studies. Long distance running is one way to develop the aerobic system. Other ways to accomplish this as well. Wind sprints or interval training is often employed to develop anaerobic fitness. Some forms of HIIT can develop both aerobic and anaerobic fitness for SOME individuals (high-responders). Non-responders and Low-responders (most of the population?) will requires other activities to develop aerobic fitness.

If you are like TTPS and can play a couple of hours or more every day, you can conceivably develop theses systems by playing and drilling on the court.
 
I would not recommend long distance running with tennis. Tennis is hard on the body enough as it is so to complement that with long distance running it’s just asking for long term injury, even through to your later years. Tennis is stop start - the best activity to compliment it fitness wise IMO is a good intense 20 mins interval run. Much more effective than long distance and you get it down quicker.
 
Every single person I've known who was an addicted jogger has blown out their knee.
Basic common sense says only an fool will pound his knees on artificial pavement,for hours at a time.
Nothing natural about it at all.
If you haven't injured yourself, it just means you don't jog much.

I can guarantee you that no pro tennis player in their 20s/30s jogs like this.

Tennis is already BRUTAL on your knees.
Best way to end your tennis career?
Jog for miles like a mindless fool on pavement, exacerbating the abuse of your knees.

And check out a Marathon finish line some time.
Many of the runners are fat.
 
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Tennis is fairly high-impact, especially on hard courts.

Long-distance running on hard surface is similarly high-impact to tennis, and not ideal IMHO for long-term joint health.

Ideal cross-training, IMHO, is lower-impact activity such as yoga (flexibility/balance/strength), or low-impact weight training. YMMV.
 
TimeToPlaySets said:
Every single person I've known who was an addicted jogger has blown out their knee.
Basic common sense says only an idiot will pound his knees on artificial pavement,for hours at a time.
Nothing natural about it at all.

Best way to end your tennis career? Jog for miles like a mindless idiot on pavement.

I can guarantee you that no pro tennis player jogs like this.

And check out a Marathon finish line some time.
Most of the runners are fat.
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What about running on the grass or trails?
 
rafaboy1998-2001 said:
At least 5km.
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Then to answer your question I would say on a scale of 1-10 it is probably about a 4 or 5 in importance for conditioning purposes.

You train for the sport you participate and tennis isn't distance running or soccer. You'd be much better off doing interval training (including weight training) with the occasional 1-2 weekly runs. I don't think you would ever need to do more than 3 miles unless you just really enjoy running as it would be more efficient to vary your speed and incline. Or is TTPS said, play more tennis.

Personally, the only time I ever run more than 3 miles at a time is if I'm training for a half/full marathon.
 
What about people that do ultra marathon, 100 mi?

In any case, running is better than not running at all. Our bodies were made to be in motion and can take abuse and heal/repair itself with rest. Our bodies are miracles. I always like to push my limits
 
r2473 said:
I don’t respond to them.

You shouldn’t do it OP. The results come slowly. Results are far from instant. Not worth your time, trust me.
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I run 6km and swim. I alternate running and swimming each day for 5-6 days a week. and i can run 6km in 23:20 , but i wonder if it's really worth it for my tennis. Maybe i should do more intervals which are specific for tennis.
 
rafaboy1998-2001 said:
I run 6km and swim. I alternate running and swimming each day for 5-6 days a week. and i can run 6km in 23:20 , but i wonder if it's really worth it for my tennis. Maybe i should do more intervals which are specific for tennis.
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Are you getting winded during tennis matches or what?
 
Roger was asked this in an interview I saw and he said its totally unrelated. Tennis consist of short explosive bursts in all directions. Marathon running won't help you, playing tennis will.
 
rafaboy1998-2001 said:
No, it's not that, i just think i should be more specific with my training. Anyways, how fast can you run a mile?
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Between a 5:45 and 6. That's why I was asking if you were getting tired because 6km in 23:20 is really good by most standards. If you want to be more specific with your training, then agility and interval type drills is the way to go since tennis is a stop/start sport.
 
Wesley J said:
Between a 5:45 and 6. That's why I was asking if you were getting tired because 6km in 23:20 is really good by most standards. If you want to be more specific with your training, then agility and interval type drills is the way to go since tennis is a stop/start sport.
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yeah i need to balance it out, you need to be an all rounder if you want to be great in tennis.
 
Jumping rope is a more fun alternative, at least to me. You can do double unders for time, intervals, long/extended periods. Me gusta
 
rafaboy1998-2001 said:
How do you respond to those who say that it makes you lose speed and explosiveness.
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I think this is true. I like running for a lot of reasons, but I don't expect it to improve my tennis. And I do think it can reduce one's speed and explosiveness. But thoe can be brought back with other kinds of exercise as others have mentioned.
 
rafaboy1998-2001 said:
How do you respond to those who say that it makes you lose speed and explosiveness.
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rafaboy1998-2001 said:
I run 6km and swim. I alternate running and swimming each day for 5-6 days a week. and i can run 6km in 23:20 , but i wonder if it's really worth it for my tennis. Maybe i should do more intervals which are specific for tennis.
Click to expand...
Answer your own question. Just stop and see what happens. Then you’ll know and not have to take anybody else’s word on it.

Be sure to report back what you find.
 
I for one came to tennis after running a marathon or two. Running doesn’t condition you for tennis but I’d argue that tennis doesn’t condition you for tennis.

Running puts a foundation. Strength and agility add. Playing tennis tops the cherry on the Sunday.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
To me, it helped, i run daily 2 miles before go to tennis about two hours, i have a month doing that and it does help, i play on hardcourts on my club, but my favourite surface is clay, (My style of play its already far back from the baseline with power groundstrokes) recently i had a tournament on clay and just crushed everyone in my way just keeping the rallies longer and longer until the others just mereley could move on 3-4 game of the second set, while i would just go on to the baseline and serve the most immediately way i could to grind the others more and more, a year ago i lost in first round to a 14 y/o due to bad conditioning :rolleyes: (I have to be clear and say that i also run in my club trails, so i haven't experienced any troubles in my knees or joints)
 
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Dan Huben said:
I for one came to tennis after running a marathon or two. Running doesn’t condition you for tennis but I’d argue that tennis doesn’t condition you for tennis.

Running puts a foundation. Strength and agility add. Playing tennis tops the cherry on the Sunday.
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Long distance running give you a good aerobic base for tennis. Elite tennis players actually stay in the aerobic zone for much of a singles match. But aerobic conditioning, alone, is not sufficient for tennis conditioning. Need both aerobic and anaerobic conditioning as I indicated in post #4.
 
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r2473 said:
Answer your own question. Just stop and see what happens. Then you’ll know and not have to take anybody else’s word on it.

Be sure to report back what you find.
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How fast can you run a mile, and in your opinion ,what is the minimum number of miles should tennis player be running in the off season.
 
TimeToPlaySets said:
Every single person I've known who was an addicted jogger has blown out their knee.
Basic common sense says only an fool will pound his knees on artificial pavement,for hours at a time.
Nothing natural about it at all.
If you haven't injured yourself, it just means you don't jog much.

I can guarantee you that no pro tennis player in their 20s/30s jogs like this.

Tennis is already BRUTAL on your knees.
Best way to end your tennis career?
Jog for miles like a mindless fool on pavement, exacerbating the abuse of your knees.

And check out a Marathon finish line some time.
Many of the runners are fat.
Click to expand...

I jog every few weeks and only 2 miles and it seems to work well for me. I can barely do 2 miles these days.

I see tons of dummies jogging many miles everyday and many of them will probably drop dead of heart attack by age 55
 
kabrac said:
What about people that do ultra marathon, 100 mi?

In any case, running is better than not running at all. Our bodies were made to be in motion and can take abuse and heal/repair itself with rest. Our bodies are miracles. I always like to push my limits
Click to expand...

Humans are built for long distance but not at a certain age and we're not horses !!
Humans are best built for walking many many miles as our ancestors did tens of thousands of year ago to wear down prey
 
Daniel-San said:
Jumping rope is a more fun alternative, at least to me. You can do double unders for time, intervals, long/extended periods. Me gusta
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Agreed. Jumping rope is a great way to do cardio/interval training.

dgold44 said:
Humans are built for long distance but not at a certain age and we're not horses !!
Humans are best built for walking many many miles as our ancestors did tens of thousands of year ago to wear down prey
Click to expand...

True dat. Many animals can run faster than us but we'll outlast most of them.
 
TimeToPlaySets said:
Every single person I've known who was an addicted jogger has blown out their knee.
Click to expand...

I've run 35 marathons in my life and have run 40-50 miles a week for 30 years and have never 'blown out my knee.' The people who have knee replacements are the overweight sedentary types.

And of course long distance running helps a recreational tennis player. When you regularly do 10 mile training runs, playing three hours of tennis is not gruelling in the slightest.
 
BeatlesFan said:
I've run 35 marathons in my life and have run 40-50 miles a week for 30 years and have never 'blown out my knee.' The people who have knee replacements are the overweight sedentary types.

And of course long distance running helps a recreational tennis player. When you regularly do 10 mile training runs, playing three hours of tennis is not gruelling in the slightest.
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Tennis is short sprints. You have no Sprint conditioning so you're precisely playing Grandma tennis that requires no condoning and pints that don't go past 3 shots. That's my guess
 
TimeToPlaySets said:
Anytime you want to do hill sprints, let me know.
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J
 
"Points are relatively short in duration and even longer ones generally don’t extend beyond 15 seconds - which means that tennis can be categorized as highly anaerobic. Siff (2003) highlights that tennis relies on the ATP-PCr system 70% of the time, the glycolytic system 20% of the time and the aerobic system 10% of the time. Whether this is in fact true or not isn’t relevant. What we need to know is this - improving anaerobic power and capacity will allow players to work at lower relative intensities (i.e. what was 100% effort now feels like 80% effort but at the same absolute intensities and movement outputs).

Working on repeat sprint ability - which can be done more generally with linear sprints, bike workouts or via more specific means like spider drills and on-court drills - is the most applicable way this can be done (according to research on the topic - Turner and Stewart 2013). Essentially you’re performing an all out sprint for time or distance, which is followed by a recovery. This is repeated for a number of bouts.

Slow, long distance aerobic work should be avoided entirely".

From at mattspoint.com (sports scientist and researcher)
 
Coolio said:
"Points are relatively short in duration and even longer ones generally don’t extend beyond 15 seconds - which means that tennis can be categorized as highly anaerobic. Siff (2003) highlights that tennis relies on the ATP-PCr system 70% of the time, the glycolytic system 20% of the time and the aerobic system 10% of the time. Whether this is in fact true or not isn’t relevant. What we need to know is this - improving anaerobic power and capacity will allow players to work at lower relative intensities (i.e. what was 100% effort now feels like 80% effort but at the same absolute intensities and movement outputs).

Working on repeat sprint ability - which can be done more generally with linear sprints, bike workouts or via more specific means like spider drills and on-court drills - is the most applicable way this can be done (according to research on the topic - Turner and Stewart 2013). Essentially you’re performing an all out sprint for time or distance, which is followed by a recovery. This is repeated for a number of bouts.

Slow, long distance aerobic work should be avoided entirely".

From at mattspoint.com (sports scientist and researcher)
Click to expand...

This is contrary to other studies that I've encoutered. The conclusions of MattsPoint appears to be from the findings of 1 study. Other studies (that I've posted in the past) indicate that the heart rate can stay in the aerobic target range for most of a match and account for 40% or more of energy needs for competitive players. See post #4.

I used this very same idea back in the days when I was competing (long before the studies I saw were published). Before competition, I would engage in some steady-state cardio for some 15 mins or so. This helped considerably with any initial sluggishness I often felt w/o the cardio warmup. Once I started playing, after the aerobic warmup, it was very easy for me to tap into aerobic energy stores and stay my target range. Burst mode (anaerobic) was also easy for me to tap into once I was in that aerobic target zone. Recovery after intense points seemed to come easier. Often, when I got myself into my aerobic training zone for a while, I would experience a "runner's high". This made it even easier to tap into energy reserves and easier to recover.

EDIT: Here is a couple of the links that I've posted in the past (Discusses, in depth, the 3 energy systems required for tennis competition) ...

http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/USTA_Import/USTA/dps/doc_437_1373.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2653872/
 
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rafaboy1998-2001 said:
How do you respond to those who say that it makes you lose speed and explosiveness.
Click to expand...

They have a rightfull point there.

However to be able to develop speed endurance and explosiveness, you need to have a solid base.

It is accustomed that an around 6 weeks workout will enhance your performance signficantly and after that changing the regime, you’ll step up to next level.

Since the tennis season is so long it is really tough to build peak performance to cover the whole season, and some are naturally more responsive to different kind of workout.


——————————
On pain meds - all contributed matter and anti-matter subject to disclaimer
 
Pete Player said:
They have a rightfull point there.

However to be able to develop speed endurance and explosiveness, you need to have a solid base.

It is accustomed that an around 6 weeks workout will enhance your performance signficantly and after that changing the regime, you’ll step up to next level.

Since the tennis season is so long it is really tough to build peak performance to cover the whole season, and some are naturally more responsive to different kind of workout.


——————————
On pain meds - all contributed matter and anti-matter subject to disclaimer
Click to expand...
True
 
rafaboy1998-2001 said:
I run 6km and swim. I alternate running and swimming each day for 5-6 days a week. and i can run 6km in 23:20 , but i wonder if it's really worth it for my tennis. Maybe i should do more intervals which are specific for tennis.
Click to expand...
I bet if you run twice a week, and swim twice a week, and play tennis 3x a week, your tennis will improve even more.
 
r2473 said:
If you really do it, it makes everything easier. Tennis, skiing, biking, swimming and just living.

But most people think distance running is only about the distance. They never do the running. Most barely even do distance jogging. Then of course they follow no training plan either. After a week, having jogged 3 miles twice, they expertly proclaim distance running useless.

A few will last a month or so, jogging with horrible form and getting injured. These people expertly proclaim that distance running is worse than useless, it’s also dangerous.

Both of these groups are vocal and confident, so distance running is expertly proclaimed to be bad.

Those that actually run regularly and correctly are typically quiet. They just run. When they hear the aforementioned groups loudly proclaim running is useless and dangerous, they just smile, don’t say anything, and go out for their daily run. Same as every other day
Click to expand...
It doesn't make everything easier.

A friend of mine who runs daily, several marathons a year and countless half marathons, plus orienteering, cannot keep up with me on a road bicycle. No more than I can run. I love cycling and long walks, but detest running other than sprints.

Each to their own, but you do need aerobic conditioning, rowing and swimming are also excellent.
 
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