13 14 15. From movement characteristics to its development during the execution of groundstrokes, serves and so forth. If you’re just going through the motions OR performing too many reps OR performing reps very quickly (one after the other) this is not developing max power but rather working on power endurance. You can actually make the ball travel out of your hand at speed. These variables, along with others described in this post, are what matter. A further benefit of using a med ball with handles (like the one you see in the video examples throughout this post), is that it provides more degrees of freedom (remember this concept from a previous post?). Anything else will be counterproductive and may contribute to fatigue. if power not then not good game play. Some Balls. Tennis is played on a flat rectangular surface, usually grass, clay, or a hard court of concrete and/or asphalt. If you’ve got an absence of tension and you set your body in a way that creates that elasticity, you’ll generate maximum power. Thus, including strength training in your off-court workout is a smart move. The court is 78 feet (23.77 m) long. Getting it up and over the net – say down the line or cross-court past the net player – was a challenge. This is critical for a number of reasons. "Balance is a key element for any good tennis shot," he explains. As soon as there’s stiffness, there’s an inability to displace the racquet as far as needed. There are countless others that can be used effectively to increase max power output. Power and the social player Power is the ability to move explosively in a coordinated manner, and is an integral part of any sports program. To achieve both requires massive cuts at the ball. Ryan Harrison has described his relationship with Donald Young as almost irreparable after... More, Roberta Vinci appeared on Italian TV and was put to the test - were the grunts she was hea... More, The greatest champions, goes the old adage, are those who leave their sport better than th... More, Tennis is a funny old game. No matter what shot it is – the serve, forehand or backhand – you’re trying to create a position for your legs to drive from. Top Answer. Perform Few RepsThe aim is to have MAX INTENT on every throw - this will provide better assurance that power is being maximized. From the ground up Its width is 27 feet (8.23 m… The height of the ball moving over the net has changed. Over the past couple of decades, there has been a real shift from serve-volley tennis to baseline tennis. Wiki User Answered . The more flexible your body is, the greater effective range of motion (ROM) it will have. Weigh up your options There’s been a transition from yesterday’s era when tennis was all about artistry, comprising a lot of stroke play with continental grips. While that makes it sound like an endurance sport relying primarily on the aerobic energy system, maximal – or anaerobic – energy production is required at many points during a game. Look at form & the resultant velocity of the throw. In a tennis match, each player or team … The key to serving at 100mph plus is to transfer all the power you can create in your body into racquet head speed and then into the ball. Tennis is a very complex game, and there are many reasons why you may not be able to rally consistently from the baseline. Being angular generally requires more strength too, which is why you see most women play with a linear attack on their ground strokes. Later, I’ll provide a video example of an athlete using a med ball that’s just too heavy. But power in and of itself simply means the rate at which work is performed. January 26, 2012 February 21, 2012 Mark Williams . To withstand this force you need both upper and lower body strength. You’ll definitely be limited in the amount of power you can produce from that position. Having this ability is vital in almost every movement scenario during tennis play. A player must absorb the force efficiently and quickly use a reactive/elastic stretch to project the ball back towards their partner. The physicality, the speed and the movement are almost incomprehensible. As you would probably suspect, this quality is quite important for tennis players - every time a player initiates movement, they are attempting to be explosive. From movement characteristics to its development during the execution of groundstrokes, serves and so forth. Agility Training For Tennis A racquet sport training programme has to meet the demands of an all-round physically challenging sport. "Ideally you want your upper body to remain rather straight, your head very still, and then you rotate around this axis which does not move." The serve has obviously always been the most important shot in tennis, given that it’s the one time when you have full control over what you’re going to execute and it’s also the easiest time to get a free point in a rally (especially in the men’s game). These changes don’t mean that you shouldn’t be looking for ways to come in or serve volley, but there is a need to be more discerning when making that choice. To be able to hit winners and finish points early. You can really take some cuts at the ball and be offensive off the return. Like I said, keep it free-flowing. The arms should just feel like they’re coming along for the ride – not driving the swing. In other words, max power development depends on a number of factors, including exercise selection, the implement used and the individual. Here are some suggestions to add power to your game: First, grab a basket of balls, have a friend feed some balls to you and you do the same for them. Mix Up the Angles of Projection When competing at a high level, I assure you that you won’t see the same ball twice. "Balance is a key element for any good tennis shot," he explains. Rafael Nadal’s racquet is at the lower end of the 300 gram mark; Mark Philippoussis and Pete Sampras used to go for 400 grams. Why do tennis players need power? What we’re more concerned with is MAXIMUM POWER - this is the quality that helps when exploding into a big forehand or going for an all out first serve. Insufficient training will lead to a player’s inability to return the ball on the opponent’s court. At first glance it may seem like the main purpose of achieving better flexibility would be to prevent injury, and surely that’s a very important part of it. They can be on the dead run, and you’ll see players nearly doing the splits and creating incredible power from the back of the court. Your first encounter with tennis strategy and tactics probably happened early in your tennis career. ROM is King. Tennis can be played for life because it is a low-impact and non-contact sport. In the past, surfaces were faster and the balls were too. But power in and of itself simply means the rate at which work is performed. Slightly heavier. Don’t add weight or reps, just perform more sets. Elements of power When you’re running at a steady sub-max pace, you’re still producing power - but I don’t think that’s the power a tennis player is … If you can’t throw a med ball powerfully with 2 arms, you can be sure it'll be tough to do it with 1-arm - which is more specific to what you’ll encounter during tennis play. You need to create a torque in your body that in turn allows for an elastic band effect. Other flexibility tests should also be performed. If you’re shorter and more rotational, it’s probably easier to use a slightly lighter racquet. Power is important because it's harder for ur opponent to get the ball; u give them less time to react, reach the ball and to position for their groundstroke. Doing NO MORE than 6 reps per exercise is usually ideal. You will get stronger on the court, your strokes will be more fluid and your confidence will build. Greater ball speeds place more pressure on an opponent by decreasing the time needed to get to and prepare for the shot. You’d never see athletes in the past, such as Boris Becker, being able to do that. Racquets and strings have taken tennis to a new place. Why Balance & Stability Training Is Important Balance and stability training are training components to improve speed economy and agility. The ability to pass is far easier than before. The transfer of oxygen to the muscles is important to maintain the power and speed of each stroke that a player will unleash in the tennis court. Add These Movements to Your Warm-upFor potentiation purposes, these exercises may help improve power during matchplay. This fact cannot be disputed; we need the ground to push off from to achieve power. You don’t have to necessarily rest for 2-3min (you can if that’s what you need) but the feeling should be, "I’m ready to throw the ball through the rough". From this angle, proper tennis form is important since it enables you to hit better. At the same time, accuracy and a sustained ability to slug a ball from corner to corner needs to be extremely good. Tennis is an impact game, and each time you strike or run for the tennis ball your body absorbs serious impact. Each player uses a strung racket to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt (most of the time colored Optic Yellow.) However, becoming more flexible will have positive influences on your actual quality of play as well. 1. 4) This is exactly why the level of intensity of your game is judged more or less with the amount of times you’ve broken, or been broken. And we’re not talking gentle taps. While a player with a one-hand backhand would benefit more from a 1-handed throw (think MB 1-arm snatch above but changing the angle of projection). The important thing to realize is that tennis balls lose more energy than tennis strings. The power chain Scott Draper explains the place of power and some ways you can achieve it. Here are some other ways in which power is prevalent in the modern game. You can still create significant power through your upper half. When we talk about the power game, there is no question that it’s incredibly difficult. If throwing mechanics change, something has broken down. This is ideal. Many coaches and players often speak of the importance of power in tennis. Overall, this is more demanding than simply throwing against a wall. You are able to generate more acceleration of your mass. Check out this post for a comprehensive analysis. The game, once upon a time, was more artistry. The speed at which the ball is stroked is another important variable the tennis player controls. Lets talk about why. The distance between point A and B when finishing the point has changed in today’s game –slugging several ground strokes in to the corners to force a short ball (which is typically put away), is most common. 2) Over the years, he’s found that general movements have recovery benefits - this has something to do with lymphatic drainage (a topic I’m not yet too familiar with). Or at least get the right grip. Tennis is a game of strategy, strength, and fast reflexes. If you’ve got long levers and you’re more linear through the ball, it’s OK to go slightly heavier with your racquet. As a result, I thought both feet on the ground would provide more power when hitting. Because of the string and the amount of revolutions that they put on the ball, not only does the baseline become less of an issue but when you try and pass an opponent, the speed with which the ball can come up and over the net has also dramatically changed. The player on the left is more efficient and coordinated with his throw - you can see his lower body loading first and then releasing this energy into the throw. This is just to create the feeling of hitting with spin, as hitting with depth is important from a tactical perspective. The weight was 3kg - which perhaps gives you an idea of what to use with your player(s). Notice that the player on the far right has more difficulties compared to the player on the left. He's unable to coordinate the throw effectively, forcing him to 'muscle' the throw. More than spin… It’s an especially difficult question given that you’re playing on slower surfaces and with slower balls. Once you’ve determined that a player has the prerequisite power output, adding movements like the ones below could have profound benefits on serve & groundstroke speed. Superior athletes have superior movement and a superior ability to generate power. You can hit … A ball is designed by the rules of tennis to lose 45-47% of the energy that goes into deforming it when it bounces (off the court or strings). They forget that one of the main reasons for missing strokes is playing too fast. Likewise, if a player has a 2 handed backhand, then using 2 hands to throw a med ball would be more realistic and would theoretically have a better transfer to performance. Some research suggests that an unloaded jump squat produces the highest power outputs while others have shown loaded jumps (~30% added load on an individual) as being optimal. 4) This is exactly why the level of intensity of your game is judged more or less with the amount of times you’ve broken, or been broken. Tennis is a life time sport. Tennis originally was known as lawn tennis, and formally still is in Britain, because it was played on grass courts by Victorian gentlemen and ladies. Think of cracking a whip. Timing. Speed is not limited to only running; it is involved in movement of the limbs and body in different actions. A tennis conditioning program with strength training can improve your game. If you can only produce power at waist height, what good is that if you play on clay and have to deal with a high backhand? Explosive strength, in my opinion (no clear consensus via research) is the most important physical quality a tennis player can possess. 2009-11-01 12:27:16. Generating maximum power requires an absence of tension. Flexibility: The sit and reach test can be done for lower back and hamstring flexibility. Starting with the serve Simple steps for power The origins of the game can be traced to a 12th–13th-century French handball game called jeu de paume (“game of the palm”), from which was derived a complex indoor racket-and-ball game: real tennis. Children, teens, parents, grandparents and great grandparents play. The flexibility tests should be specific to the actions of tennis. It’s not easy but experienced coaches can see whether a med ball, for example, is too light or too heavy for an athlete. Many tennis matches can exceed three hours in length and require frequent repetitions hitting groundstrokes and serves and running the court. Keep in mind that tennis shots are unpredictable, chaotic and almost never the same as the ones that came before them. When it comes to power, recall that it's a function of both force and velocity: To achieve max power, we must then find the right blend of force and velocity (graph below) - too much of either and we’re not optimizing power. There’s a fine balance in the power game between enough strength to be able to create the weight of shot that you need to hurt people with but you also need the physicality to have an almost gymnastic-style ability at end range. Tennis can be played as a sport or as a recreational activity with friends and family. You quickly realized that there is more to tennis than just fancy technique. Second, because more musculature is generally involved, these exercises require greater recruitment and activation of type 2 muscle fibers - those that are linked to explosive actions. June 29, 2017 Actually, you realized that technique doesn’t mean anything against experienced players. The power racket is suitable for players more concerned with adequately getting the ball over the net, rather than with the nuances of advanced tennis like spin and placement. Think about it. We’re not able to use the speed component of the force-velocity curve, which limits power output - the goal of this type of training. Developed between 1859 and 1865, tennis is a sport played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). It is important to train agility in the same manner that any other skill would be trained. I’ve seen many players (and I’ve been victim to this in the past) using med balls that are just too heavy. We'll also provide video examples of a number of general & specific exercises for the development of max power in tennis and to conclude, a general framework will be outlined so that coaches and players can program/implement med ball exercises into their training regimes. Be Cautious with Weighted ThrowsWeighted throws have been shown to increase pitching speed in baseball players. They have shaped tennis through their deeds, their example, their behaviour (for better or worse), their playing and personal styles and their character. Nobody does that anymore. Now players hit the ball flatter (but not as flat as when we played with wood and on grass). Here’s a refresher - when a muscle (or group of muscles) produces high velocities (speeds), muscle force is low. The fitness test batteries assist in examining tennis players’ capabilities for performance at different levels in the laboratory as well as in the field, in the junior or elite level. So what speed allows you to … Where players like Albert Costa or Sergi Bruguera – clay court specialists of the 1990s – had a lot more shape in their strokes. In order to paint a clearer picture of this max power topic we should quickly review the science. For example, a study by Genevois et al (2014) compared a 1-arm MB forehand throw versus a 2-arm MB forehand throw. The ability to hit with minimal and maximal revolutions on the ball gives you many options within a rally and is the main reason why the baseline game is so dominant in the modern era. That’s partly because of the court coverage that’s required for sustained periods, such as Djokovic and Nadal’s five and a half hour Australian Open final in 2012. In fact, I recently spoke with legendary track coach Dan Pfaff (he coached Donovan Bailey to the 100m Olympic gold medal in 1996) - coach Pfaff mentioned a couple things about this topic that have relevance here. when catching the ball). As a double-hander, you start with both backhand and forehand grips ready. In tennis, sport-specific technical skills are predominant factors, although a complex profile of physical performance factors is also required. Scott Draper was a top-50 player on the ATP Tour, achieving fourth round finishes at the French Open in 1995 and 1996, as well as the US Open in 1997. And we’re moving into an era where both forehand and backhand are played with absolute incredible power. Since many med ball exercises were performed, we cannot attribute the results solely to throwing. It only makes you a good hitter of the tennis ball. Today’s game incorporates both elements – that is, speed and spin. That’s unbelievably heavy. Standard shelf weights generally range from 250 to 300 grams. This deceleration component requires a high amount of eccentric strength, balance and stability to control a max effort throw. Backhand benefits If you let gravity work, there’s an absence of tension. Reasons why Speed, Strength and Power is important for the game of soccer. Tennis players tend to be on this never-ending quest to hit their strokes with more power, yet they often forget that more power means more risk. June 12, 2012: Nike Tennis Camps sits down with Jay Lapidus, former head men's tennis coach at Duke University to discuss the importance of balance while hitting the ball. Whether you’re a beginner, a social-level player or more advanced, it’s natural to crave a more powerful serve or a bigger forehand. 3) Movements that recruit type 2 muscles fibers increase testosterone - this hormone is associated with improvement benefits across the board (increased strength, concentration, alertness and so on). (Message automatically replaces this text), Check out this post for a comprehensive analysis. Added to that, players were typically using a gut string, so it was a lot harder to hit beneath the ball and with pace. Research on the topic agrees. In this case, the load is probably too heavy for him and should be adjusted. It is a global sport. Get a grip Initiating your legs start a kinetic chain, from which your technique basically unravels. There are basically 2 ways to determine an athlete's so called 'optimal' max power range. Don’t have tension in your upper body (only a strong core) – the arms come along for the ride, Practice hitting with different speeds/spins/ trajectories to see where your balance point is between hitting it hard and hitting it in. Specific exercises are often used too early in the programs of junior and elite players. The more spin on the ball, the slower the ball travels through the air. You need muscle to matter in the modern game. You’d try and get inside to tactically manouevure your opponent around; you’d use a lot more variety because that’s what you had to use to break through. A powerful serve means you’re generating plenty of racquet head speed – and the more speed you can create, the more effectively you’re able to swing, kick or manoeuvre the ball. Asked by Wiki User. Coordination In Tennis … You need muscle to matter in the modern game. And if you’re the one cracking the whip, you need to have a rhythm to it. Throwing med balls from a variety of angles and in a variety of directions will help cover more variability with respect to power production. General exercises are those that any athlete, training for any sport would benefit from, while specific exercises, may have a more direct transfer to the sport in question. These days, players can take huge cuts at the ball, so the ball is faster off the racquet. Success in the game largely comes down to how the racket is wielded. Physicality and power For this reason, along with potential injury risk, throws should be monitored and used with caution. This ‘put away’ ball is usually struck somewhere between the baseline and service line. Furthermore, a 6-week training study by Genevois et al (2013) saw an 11% increase in forehand speed from pre to post. "Ideally you want your upper body to remain rather straight, your head very still, and then you rotate around this axis which does not move." Tennis is now played predominately from the back of the court and it’s harder to hit a winner than ever before. People love you one minute and then want to drop you the next;... More, As artistry evolves so too do players hard-hitting weapons. Even if you were a boxer, it was more about using the jab to set the opponent up for the swinging hook. Using the proper progression is a necessity. We saw earlier that explosive … Let’s briefly explore both types of movements and provide examples. T perform more sets played for life because it is a good player of eccentric strength, Balance and to! Is just to create a torque in your off-court workout is a short ball, they can put away. Ways to determine an athlete 's so called 'optimal ' max power and some ways you achieve... And prepare for the ride – not driving the swing, especially serve. 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