Why Off-Court Training Creates an Edge in Player Development & 2 Ways to Test Speed, Power, & Fitness

This is a blog series that we’ve put together in partnership with human performance experts, Edge10.

In part one below, you will learn two ways to test your players’ speed and power. In part two, we will show you how a tennis academy in Oregon improved the explosiveness, speed, and power for 17 of their players by as much as 17.8% in 8 weeks.

Learn More & Enroll in the Edge10 Speed & Power Training Program here.
Enrollment Ends June 6.

Imagine for a moment, you’re playing a match. It’s late in the third set and you’re serving down 4-5, and 15-40.

You serve wide in the deuce court and the return comes back to your forehand. You step inside the baseline to take the forehand early, back crosscourt, behind your opponent as they try to recover.

They stop in their tracks, change direction, and hit a forehand dropshot back crosscourt to you.

You sprint up towards the ball, getting there just in time to scoop it back over the net. Then, they lob you and you can’t recover.

Game. Set. Match.

What if you could have reached that dropshot a split second faster? What would you have been able to do then?

We’ve all had matches late in the third set when our legs just won’t do what our mind knows exactly how to do.

Maybe you could have hit a topspin forehand approach to their backhand instead of a defensive slice. Maybe you could have recovered quicker to hit an overhead off of the next lob.

You knew how to hit the shot.
You knew where to hit the shot.
But physically, you could not hit the shot.

The Only 3 Ways to Improve in Tennis

The way I see it, there are only three ways to improve a player’s game.

• Technique: If you have poor technique and then improve that, your strokes become more consistent and effective.
• Strategy: If you have never thought about strategy, then you analyze your matches with Tennis Analytics to find you are more effective serving out wide, for example, that will translate to more winning.
• Fitness: In a lot of cases, you can have worse technique and strategy than your opponent, but if you run everything down and can last for hours, you might still win. Fitness would include speed, acceleration, stamina, physical strength, etc.

Let’s say, for example, I was fitter than Roger Federer (I’m not), and he was required to hit every shot to my forehand (bad strategy against me). It wouldn’t matter. He would beat me in about 15 minutes just based on technique.

In most cases, the differential isn’t that big though. So every percentage point in any of these categories makes a huge difference. If a player has 5% better technique and we’re level on strategy, but I’m in 20% better shape, I might win.

In the match above, your issue was fitness. You were not fast enough or didn’t have the stamina to sprint to that dropshot in time.

This is, of course, an oversimplification, but it’s a helpful framework when thinking about player development. In this series, we’re looking at what might be the most overlooked category of the three.

Fitness.

Learn More & Enroll in the Edge10 Speed & Power Training Program here.
Enrollment Ends June 6.

How Most Coaches Train Their Players

Whether you coach at a college, a club, an academy, or somewhere else, you likely don’t spend a lot of time working with your players on their off-court training.

Why would you? You’re a tennis coach, not a fitness coach!

So instead, most coaches either have their players run a few ladders after practice, send them to a physical trainer (often the case in college), or ignore off-court training altogether.

One reason coaches avoid off-court training is that they have no system to improve their players’ speed, strength, or stamina. They do know how to improve their serve or forehand though. So, all of their time is spent on that.

This creates a strategic advantage for those coaches and players who do work on their fitness levels.

If your rival college isn’t training with the same efficacy, you’ll win that category. And since most coaches aren’t focused on this as much, it’s probably the easiest edge you can get.

How Can You Actually Improve Fitness for Your Players?

You can have them run a few miles each day, have them go to the weight room, or run sprints after practice. But before you decide on the best training method for tennis players, let’s think about what tennis players actually need.

Some of this is obvious, but it’s important to define what’s needed for a player to succeed.

• Improve power. Much of the power from your serve, and other strokes, is in the legs. If your legs become stronger, you’re adding MPH to the serve, and pace to the forehand.
• Improve speed. You’re constantly running short sprints in tennis. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. If you can accelerate and decelerate faster, you’ll get to the ball quicker, improving footwork and giving you more choices on each shot.
• Improve stamina. In a singles match, you might run 5 or more miles. Is your footwork as good in the third set as it is in the first?

So if we improve our power, speed, and stamina, we will improve our fitness and be better tennis players.

While most coaches will have their players do sprints or lift weights and guess that their players are faster and stronger, at Tennis Analytics, we don’t like to guess.

Instead, let’s measure.

Learn More & Enroll in the Edge10 Speed & Power Training Program here.
Enrollment Ends June 6.

2 Ways to Measure Your Players Power & Speed

One of the best tests for how powerful a person’s legs are is the standing long jump.

To test your speed, you can simply measure your 20 meter sprint.

To improve your stamina, keep doing those sprints and long jumps in a systematic way for long periods of time.

These tests will give you a baseline to improve upon.

Pro Tip: Measure this for all your players and share it publicly among the team. This will motivate them to improve and actually help them enjoy off-court training. More on this in part 2.

In Part 2, Learn how Oregon Elite Tennis made their players faster and more explosive, as measured by these tests, in only 8 weeks.

Learn More & Enroll in the Edge10 Speed & Power Training Program here.
Enrollment Ends June 6.