CROSS-TRAINING IDEAS FOR TENNIS TRAINING SUCCESS

Author: Paul GoldWebsite:www.tennis-training-central.comEmail:paul@spsci.freeserve.co.ukebooks available atwww.footwork4tennis.com&www.tennis-strength.com There are many components that contribute to an effective tennis-trainingprogramme but whilst most people will readily mentionstrength, endurance, agility,speedetc one of the most important yet understated components is variety.Your body is fantastically adaptive in as much as if you repeat the same thingover and over you will adapt and it will become the norm (an important factor in learning), however if you perform the same workout routine (no matter howgood it is) if there is too little variety it will eventually prove counter productiveas all initial gains you make plateau, there will be no overload and any gainswill be reversed. Think of it another way, if you play your favourite song over and over again for too long it will eventually lose its early appeal.This is where using other sports and methods of training (or cross-training asit is known), can be important.For the pro players that I work with, participating in other sports keeps themphysically and mentally fresh (they obviously play so much tennis) whilst stillpromoting a training stimulus. For my junior players (minis included) as wellas my recreational adults (some very serious and not too recreational by theway), it is a way of training many of the fitness components critical for tennisaway from the tennis environment whilst still retaining a competitive games -based edge. This is especially true of the “mini” juniors for whom early“specialisation” in a single sport has been shown to be counterproductive.

I have found that it really good for thempsychologically as well as physically! Here are some ideas to either spice up or enhance a program you arecurrently doing, or to get you started on a new one.

1. Participate in sports such as basketball, soccer, baseball or volleyball.

All these sports have the stop-start repeated sprint tempo that tennis requireswith soccer providing a multidirectionalagility-training stimulus that is vital for effective court coverage. Although basketball and volleyball include manydirectional changes as well, they have a large leg power component to themthrough the repeated jumping that takes place.Baseball has many useful tennis related aspects to it such as pitching andgetting the ball from base to base (which are throwing actions like the tennisserve) and sliding to make base can be very useful when you come to play onclay where sliding is a vital component for success.

2. Use outdoor activities

Cardio trainingcan be achieved by running, hiking (also good for legstrength), skating (balance andagility), skipping (co-ordination), cycling andswimming, to mention just a few. If you are in a park you could improvestrengthby using equipment such as benches, balance beams, monkey bars,rope climbs etc. to do body weight driven exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, balancing, step-ups, squat jumps, tricep dips, calf raises, etc.

As always start slowly and at your own pace and progress slowlyincreasing the length and/or intensity as you improve.

So, with a little thought and creativity you can combine all the fitnesscomponents necessary for improving tennis performance into workouts thattake place away from your normal tennis environment, thereby allowing you tobe physically and sometimes more importantlymentally fresh every time you step back on the court to play a match or have a lesson.