Tennis Boot Camp?

[Cindysphinx]

I was doing a clinic with my regular pro. Talk turned to how juniors and serious players train compare to how the rest of us practice and prepare. Pro was telling us how he trained back in the day -- a few hours in the morning, a break, some more in the afternoon, then some conditioning, IIRC. Nothing like what we club players do -- a clinic, followed by no practice, followed by a clinic the next week.

One of the players mused about how good we'd be if we ever did something like that. And the pro said there was no reason why we couldn't do something like that.

Now, I don't know how serious he was, but he said that our group could do a week-long boot camp. The idea would be a 2-hour morning session, a 2-hour break, and a 2-hour afternoon session. When he mentioned the 2-hour "break", he pointed to the track behind the tennis courts. Which I took to mean there would be some track work involved in the break.

Has anyone ever done this sort of thing before? Frankly, I really doubt that a bunch of middle-aged ladies could handle that sort of intensity in the summer heat without at least one call to the paramedics. Assuming we could roll it back to something that wouldn't result in a bunch of injuries, how much progress do you think could be made with a week of focused training, instruction and conditioning? How should something like that be structured for maximum safety and benefit?

 

[LeeD]

Wouldn't dat depend.....????
Just how dedicated and in shape are you guys (gals)? Are you planning for future 4.5 thru 5.5 singles tennis, or are you into playing for fun, recreation, enjoyment, and comraderie?
Can't you just play 2 hours of doubles in the morning, then take a brunch talking about tennis, then jog 3 miles, then nap, to play 2 hours again in the PM?
If you can't do that by yourself, without a coach, you prolly can't do that WITH a coach, and paying him beaucup bucks in addition.
You know the normal "get good" practice drill. You can do it all by yourself if you're really into it. If you body breaks down, maybe better to abstain.
Or if you're rich, and you wanna make your local tennis pro rich.....go for it..:

 

[jrod]

Frankly speaking, it's not clear to me that a single week of intense training as he's suggested will result an anything different than your current "club player" training regime, other than the higher cost that is.

My experience is this sort of thing might be "fun", but real improvement requires sustained dedication.

Just my $0.02.

 

[Cindysphinx]

Frankly speaking, it's not clear to me that a single week of intense training as he's suggested will result an anything different than your current "club player" training regime, other than the higher cost that is.

My experience is this sort of thing might be "fun", but real improvement requires sustained dedication.

Just my $0.02.

I've never been interested in doing a tennis camp because I never really believed I would come home a better tennis player. So maybe you are right . . .

 

[damazing]

I think it would be fun to be able to play that much tennis for a week at a time. I'm usually lucky if I can squeeze in 2-3 hits / week.

 

[WhiteStripes]

Frankly speaking, it's not clear to me that a single week of intense training as he's suggested will result an anything different than your current "club player" training regime, other than the higher cost that is.

My experience is this sort of thing might be "fun", but real improvement requires sustained dedication.

Just my $0.02.

Having done an adult program "boot camp" at Saddlebrook last year, and a summer long boot camp when I was at kid at Bollettieri's, I agree with this point. You might notice a slight improvement in play after a week-long bootcamp, mostly due to just being more in rhythm from hitting lots and lots of balls and having a bit better physical conditioning than when you started.

But unless you do the regiment regularly, I'm doubtful it'll magically transform your game. A few months of "boot camp" (rather than just a week), however, can be very helpful though... assuming your body holds up from the pounding.

 

[VaBeachTennis]

I'd say take an hour lesson in the AM, take a break eat some breakfast, take a mile or two walk with your fellow classmates, hydrate, relax and go out later and practice for two hours what you drilled in that lesson. For a warm up/work do some footwork drills. End the session with some match play. That's a pretty good low impact bootcamp.

 

[sureshs]

It may not improve your game, but on the flip side, it will do you no harm. You will have played more, all said and done. For a club player, time is of the essence, so more time you can spend on tennis, the better you will be, at least consistency-wise.

 

[skiracer55]

Yep, been there, done that...

I was doing a clinic with my regular pro. Talk turned to how juniors and serious players train compare to how the rest of us practice and prepare. Pro was telling us how he trained back in the day -- a few hours in the morning, a break, some more in the afternoon, then some conditioning, IIRC. Nothing like what we club players do -- a clinic, followed by no practice, followed by a clinic the next week.

One of the players mused about how good we'd be if we ever did something like that. And the pro said there was no reason why we couldn't do something like that.

Now, I don't know how serious he was, but he said that our group could do a week-long boot camp. The idea would be a 2-hour morning session, a 2-hour break, and a 2-hour afternoon session. When he mentioned the 2-hour "break", he pointed to the track behind the tennis courts. Which I took to mean there would be some track work involved in the break.

Has anyone ever done this sort of thing before? Frankly, I really doubt that a bunch of middle-aged ladies could handle that sort of intensity in the summer heat without at least one call to the paramedics. Assuming we could roll it back to something that wouldn't result in a bunch of injuries, how much progress do you think could be made with a week of focused training, instruction and conditioning? How should something like that be structured for maximum safety and benefit?

...as in, a couple of summers ago, my coach and I would do a 20-mile road bike ride, then 2 hours of stroke work/drills on the court, then an hour in the afternoon of match play stuff. I was then 59 years old, so I think anybody can do it, if you're fit to start with and motivated. And yes, this is the day in/day out training for most top juniors and serious players.

As others have noted, you're going to get some improvement, maybe, in a week, but I think you have to have a routine like this, long term, for any big results. What I'd probably do is see if you can scale it back to a weekend's worth. See what it feels like to train like this, then consider what it might look like long term. There's all kinds of variations on this, obviously. As in, you could do this maybe two weekends a month through the late spring/summer/early fall where the emphasis on those weekends is training...that is, doing drills or whatever to groove the strokes that you've worked on changing or improving at other times during the month.

As I've said before, if you're serious about your tennis, some cross training is in order. As in, I do footwork drills at least twice a week, lift weights, and do about 50 miles a week on my road bike even when I'm practicing and playing a lot of matches...

 

[VaBeachTennis]

...as in, a couple of summers ago, my coach and I would do a 20-mile road bike ride, then 2 hours of stroke work/drills on the court, then an hour in the afternoon of match play stuff. I was then 59 years old, so I think anybody can do it, if you're fit to start with and motivated. And yes, this is the day in/day out training for most top juniors and serious players.

As others have noted, you're going to get some improvement, maybe, in a week, but I think you have to have a routine like this, long term, for any big results. What I'd probably do is see if you can scale it back to a weekend's worth. See what it feels like to train like this, then consider what it might look like long term. There's all kinds of variations on this, obviously. As in, you could do this maybe two weekends a month through the late spring/summer/early fall where the emphasis on those weekends is training...that is, doing drills or whatever to groove the strokes that you've worked on changing or improving at other times during the month.

As I've said before, if you're serious about your tennis, some cross training is in order. As in, I do footwork drills at least twice a week, lift weights, and do about 50 miles a week on my road bike even when I'm practicing and playing a lot of matches...

Thanks for that motivational post! You're one of my heroes! That's an excellent regimen, especially at 60+ years of age. It reminds me of a retired Navy SEAL who at 62 was hauling ass on his mountain bike next to me on my road bike holding 20+ mph for a few miles and talking at the same time. Being in my early 40's, it gives me a a lot of hope and motivation.
The workout I described in my prior post was meant to be more like a daily workout routine.

 

[naylor]

As many people have already said, the main improvement would come from having hit lots of balls in a short period of time.

If you can dedicate that much time during the week to tennis, then you'd be better off structuring the bootcamp over several weeks. If you look at the structure of a week's training at Sabblebrook's or Bolletieri's, it comes in modules/sessions:- serve and return, volleying, forehands, backhands, etc. Therefore, what you can do with your pro is to set up each of those modules as the theme for each week's training session.

Then, each coaching session comprises some 1) technique training - basically, making sure your technique for the shot(s) for that week is sound, say, you can play technically decent both topspin and sliced backhands; and 2) tactical training - when you'd play top, when slice, where would you play your shot back to (cross or down-the-line). And you can add extra tactical variants - placement and depth change radically if you're playing singles or doubles.

All of the above becomes the "theory" part of the session, say, 45 minutes. Then, the rest of the 2 hours is spent doing drills that actually groove the theory into the actual shots, and with some consistency. You can make it competitive also - how many consecutive shots you and your partner hit correctly to the right placement, the winners of the drill get X points, the winners of the day overall get a health drink / can of balls / etc.

The above weekly session then becomes the core of a 4 / 6 / 8 week programme. However, the key to make it work is to fit in extra practices in between sessions - to groove a technical change, you normally have to spend 3 / 4 hours hitting, for every hour of technical work. If you're all committed (and have the time), then you can still do these as a group - the first follow-up session could be a couple of days later to practice the same drills (all chip in a couple of bucks towards winners' prizes); the second follow-up session could be another two days after that, when you play match practice, but you consciously try to bring the "theme shot(s) for the week" into your normal match rallies (say, your topspin backhand return is not too strong, so you try to play most backhands with topspin).

 

[fruitytennis1]

You know it takes like 6 months of muscle training to improve your legs conditioning.

 

[Blake0]

Well, it'll help your stamina and fitness . Tennis wise, it won't be much help (besides the extra practice ofcourse) unless you do something new (like new drills, learn new techniques, etc) or play against better people.

 

[Jay_The_Nomad]

It depends on how much your body can take.

There's no point in having an afternoon session if you guys KO by lunch time.

The principles of diminishing returns.

Its worthwhile having multiple session sometimes because it allows you to really get your groove on, rather than to have to start & stop.

Also, and more importantly, it depends on how dedicated the people in your clinic are. If they're not as enthusiastic as you are, than it might be a waste of time.

 

[GuyClinch]

Has anyone ever done this sort of thing before? Frankly, I really doubt that a bunch of middle-aged ladies could handle that sort of intensity in the summer heat without at least one call to the paramedics. Assuming we could roll it back to something that wouldn't result in a bunch of injuries, how much progress do you think could be made with a week of focused training, instruction and conditioning? How should something like that be structured for maximum safety and benefit?

It sounds similiar to adult tennis camps. Someone women could handle that regimen IMHO but most would balk (especially about any long distance running)

I have seen some improvement in my 40 something female friend who went to about 7 total tennis camps last year (it's a weekend thing). So I believe its helpful.

Tennis camps help but they also tend to have things like video analysis and very well designed drills.. FWIW I would go to an established camp for a week rather then make your regular pro do it. You can learn new and better ways to improve your game from a team of professionals..

Pete

 

[larry10s]

ive been to saddlebrook and am planning a 5 day course at bolittieri's starting monday. i dont expect to jump from 4.0 to 5.0 but i do expect to pick up some things to work on after i get back.having a fresh set of eyes analyzing your game is helpful if for no other reason to hear a different way what they see is you weaknesses and how to improve them. to me to have the time to exercise and hit alot of balls makes it worthwhile. for me its a fun vacation with the added bonus of lots of tennis.

 

[skiracer55]

Thanks much...

Thanks for that motivational post! You're one of my heroes! That's an excellent regimen, especially at 60+ years of age. It reminds me of a retired Navy SEAL who at 62 was hauling ass on his mountain bike next to me on my road bike holding 20+ mph for a few miles and talking at the same time. Being in my early 40's, it gives me a a lot of hope and motivation.
The workout I described in my prior post was meant to be more like a daily workout routine.

...I've been doing stuff like this for so many years that it doesn't seem like a chore, it's just a way of life. Dunno if you've seen any of my other posts; the first half of this summer was pretty much dedicated to the bike, as I was in training for the 2009 Ride the Rockies, a 380 mile ride over 6 days and 3 major Colorado mountain passes. My winter sport is Masters Alpine Ski racing, where I train or race about 4 days a week and do the dryland stuff in between. A lot of the reason I work out so much is that my day job is a desk job...I'm a software technical writer, so I gotta get out. That's not all I write, however, see the following...and thanks much...you made my whole day!

http://www.rmmskiracing.org/snownews/SnowNews-2003Feb.pdf

http://www.rmmskiracing.org/articles/RMalm-2006-03-Goals.pdf

http://www.rmmskiracing.org/articles/RMalm-2006-03-Hotbox.pdf

http://www.rmmskiracing.org/articles/RMalm-2001-10-DayJob.pdf

 

[The_Question]

I don't know if this is to consider as club training, but during my teen years, I enrolled to a tennis camp. The morning starts @ 8AM, 2 miles of running. Then varies of hitting drills from 8:15AM to 11:45AM. Run another 2 miles, then lunch for 1 hour. 1PM, run another 2 miles. 1:15PM, more hitting drills, example, you have to volley, while 2 coaches hits the balls onto deuce and ad court at the same time. 3PM - 4:45PM, rotate single matches with others. Of course, end the day with 2 miles of running and finish @ 5PM. This was a week long session. Pay more for another week...

 

[r2473]

Here is what has worked for me. I use this basic technique for all sorts of things:

1) I made a large sign with the word PROBLEM.

2) I go to the bank and withdraw a large amount of cash.

3) I throw the cash at my sign.