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Question: What are the benefits of physical training?
Frank: Throughout my travels conducting workshops, both nationally and internationally, I ask parents of top ranked players an interesting question: “When was the last time your child competed hard for 15 practice sets in any given week?” The most common Answer: Never!
Parents, is your child fit enough to compete at their peak performance level for fifteen sets in a week? If they’ve never done it in practice, do you truly expect them to be able to come through under those stressful, demanding tournament conditions?
To insure that they can compete week in and week out under those conditions, serious off-court tennis specific training is mandatory. The successful high performance players train off court an average of 6 hours a week. In most cases, this is done before school.
The Following is a List of the Benefits of Being Fit:
- Increased Confidence: A physically fit competitor has stimulated brain chemicals that encourage a calming state of mind.
- Elevated Physical Energy
- Enhanced Endurance
- Reduced Fatigue and Soreness
- Improved Flexible Skills Movement
- Increased Acceleration and Deceleration Levels
- Strong Bones and Strengthened Ligaments, Tendons and Muscles
- Reduced Risk of Injury
- Increased “Intimidation Factor”
- Improved Cardiovascular Fitness: Facilitates proper breathing by increasing lung capacity which aids in improved cardiovascular function.
Now that you understand why tennis specific, off-court training is beneficial. Let’s look into the fitness components found in a skilled athlete who just happens to be a tennis player.
Example of Tennis Specific Skills to Develop:
- Up and back movement
- Lateral movement
- Aerobic fitness
- Ability to accelerate
- Ability to decelerate
- Speed and agility
- Stamina
- Recovery time (between points)
- Recovery time (between matches)
- Strength (upper body, core, and lower body)
- Body coordination (gross motor skills)
- Eye-hand coordination (fine motor skills)
- Flexibility and stretching
- Anticipatory speed
Signs of an Unfit Athlete
Being unfit actually affects more than the athletes physical performance. It has serious consequences within the player’s mental and emotional state of play. Parents, if you’re not sure if you’re athlete is fit or not, let me just say that if they aren’t training off-court a minimum of 6 hours a week, then they are most likely not fit enough to win whole tournaments at the high levels of junior tennis.
“The actual cause of a child’s emotional breakdown is often lack of fitness.”
If you have not done so already, consult a fitness expert for evaluation and/or add one to your entourage of coaches. In modern tennis, it’s essential that your child is an athlete first and tennis player second. The top college coaches are looking for experienced gifted athletes that they can mold into champion tennis players.