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TennisOne Lessons 
Five Secrets to Killer Speed Training For Tennis Paul Gold Have you wondered what it would be like to be fast? Do you want to possess the ability to change direction on the spot? Do you want to dominate opponents with your blistering speed? Do you want to win matches because you are just too quick? Speed is probably the most vital determinant of your tennis performance. If you can get to the ball in a good position to hit it, you stand a great chance to hit the ball well. If you don't - you can't! But Tennis Speed so much more than the ability to run at maximum speeds. In fact if you think about it, because of the distances covered on a tennis court it is almost impossible to reach top speed. Also, tennis is a very different discipline to say the 100 meters which is what many people think about when you mention speed. The 100 meters is run in a straight line whereas tennis involves the player making many different types of movement (not just running) in many different directions. The key to improvement in this area is to train in ways that mimic the demands of the sport you are training for i.e. tennis. It's a principle we call "specificity." So, if you are a tennis player you don't want to train like a bodybuilder (an extreme example I know but I think you get the point). There are five keys to getting your Tennis Speed Training right. Do these and you will be ahead of 95% of the other players out there. 1 – Proper Warm-Up and Cool-Down
Training for Tennis Speed is all about maximum effort and intensity, so a proper dynamic warm-up (no static stretching in the warm up!) is essential as your muscles will be working at full capacity! The rate of muscular contraction is very high during speed training so if you don't take the time to warm up properly you really run the risk of injury. The same can be said of the cool-down period after training. The excessive contractions tend to shorten the muscles and produce waste products as the session progresses so you must perform a proper cool-down as this will help to stretch the muscles back to their original resting length and eliminate the presence of the waste products such as lactic acid. Your cool-down should be similar to the warm-up except the warm up should start slowly at low intensities and build up whereas your cool-down should the be exact opposite (gradually slowing down) – finishing with some static stretching. A proper warm up and cool down will also significantly reduce the amount of muscle soreness that will occur a day or so after the session. 2 – Never Train Just in Straight Lines
Let's think about how you play for a minute! As a percentage, write/scribble rough answers down to the following questions!
Do you understand what I am trying to point out? I hope the answer is yes, but if not, here it comes! You can see that many, many situations occur during the course of a match that require a multitude of movement types, but very few situations call upon you to run forwards as though you were sprinting to catch a bus! So why would you choose to do your speed training in this way? It's just not specific – is it? As I mentioned, if you were training for the 100 meters then straight line running is acceptable, but for tennis (and most other sports), you have to learn how to move quickly in many directions. Straight Line training has its place in your program but should not be the only type of speed training you do! There seems to be no cause for being relaxed; it is our natural state of being. There is nothing we have to do to be relaxed; on the contrary, it seems easier to be relaxed when we are not-doing. 3 – Only Train Over Short Distances
Going back to what I said about only training in straight lines – this was specific to the way tennis (and most sports) is played. Another aspect of your speed training involves the distances you should be doing your training over. Let's think about the game again for a minute! Again scribble the answers down to the following questions.
Again, you get my point. The answers will vary slightly for each person and situation but they certainly are not 100 or 200 meters! So when you are training for speed, you only need to be training over very short distances such as 5 – 10 meters To re-visit our earlier analogy – you are not a track sprinter so don't train like one! 4 – Don't Forget your footwork
It's okay to train yourself to move faster, but at some point you have to get to the ball and be able to adjust your position relative to the ball to be able to hit it well. Too close or too far away and you won't be able to make a meaningful shot. Also, more often than not, you will have to hit several balls in a row which means recovering well after one shot and getting to the next ball which requires good footwork. You cannot have good on-court speed without good on-court footwork! Roger Federer is considered to have the best footwork on tour and therefore the killer speed that comes with it. So get yourself doing ladder drills, cone based agility drills, etc. Anything to challenge your ability to stay balanced while moving around quickly. That is what I call footspeed. 5 – Rest Periods Are Vital One of the most overlooked aspects of speed training is the rest you need to take in between repetitions/exercises. Most people finish a repetition of a drill and begin the next one far too quickly. The reason this is wrong is because for you to be able to impact on your speed, you have to perform all exercises at 110% intensity and for this to be possible you have to make sure you have fully recovered from the exertions before. If you are not fully recovered you will only be able to perform at increasingly less intensity as the session progresses and therefore will only really be improving your endurance and not your speed. You really need to be taking at least one minute (if not more) to rest (although this does depend on the distances involved and the type of exercise involved) between exercises. But as a rule, make sure you feel recovered before starting the next drill. Remember, do not hurry your speed training and you will win the race! Get these five things right and you will become a totally different proposition on the court. You can improve your game greatly without even changing your technique. To learn more and to get your hands on some free videos go to http://www.tennis-speed.com Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Paul Gold's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.
Paul Gold is the driving force behind Power Tennis Training. He has always been committed to utilizing sound scientific based methodology to achieve excellence in the field of fitness training and athletic preparation. Paul has a Masters degree in Sports Sciences and is a Performance Enhancement Specialist and Speed Agility Quickness trainer. Go straight away to www.tennis-training-central.com register your details and receive your FREE Essential footwork drills of the Pros.
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Paul Gold