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QUESTION: What is drive time training?
Frank: In Southern California, I’m seeing most top juniors that I train spending upwards to two hours a day driving to coaches, trainers, practice sessions, their academy and/or tournaments. A solution is “Drive Time Training”- the training strategies of educating, strength training, motivating, and visualizing while held hostage in that comfortable passenger seat. Taking advantage of the time spent traveling is a great way to handle the frustrations of downtime spent in the car. Below are a few meaningful exercises your junior player will enjoy in the car.
Benefits of Drive Time Training:
Educating
There is a huge variety of tennis CD’s and instructional DVD’s available on the market. (Visit: USPTA.org) Topics include stroke production, tactics and strategies, movement & fitness as well as our favorite the mental/emotional sides of competition. (www.MaximizingTennisPotential.com offers a series of junior tennis workbooks.) And of course, YouTube is a wonderful place to seek free advice on almost any topic.
Strength Training
“How do they strength train in a car?” Most junior players lack upper body strength. Building the upper body will assist them in enjoying more powerful serves, stronger slice backhands and crisper volleys. Remember the old formula for power is: Mass x Acceleration = Power
More importantly, training the upper body will help prevent injuries. Prevention of injuries is a critical factor in high performance tennis. Consider leaving bands under the passenger seat and/or light dumbbells stored away in the trunk and check with your athlete’s trainer to customize your routines.
Motivating
Listen to motivational iTunes/YouTube/CD. Some are so powerful they are literally life changing! My favorite motivators include Jack Canfield and Anthony Robbins. Check the Internet and read the reviews.
Visualization Exercises
Take their head phones off and ask your player to close their eyes and visualize perfect primary and secondary strokes. Then visualize the variety of their flawless patterns used to beat the different styles of opponents. Lastly, visualize walking through changeover and between point rituals. If your child has difficulties beating retrievers here’s a visualization exercise. I call it mental imagery: Ask them to visualize “mock” rallies to 20 with you as you drive. Again, turn off the radio, iPods, video games…etc! The goal is to rehearse focusing on a single topic for a set period of time.
Try this exercise as you drive to your child’s next tournament. They say hit, they then visualize a slow, high arching stroke leaving their racquet, crossing their service line, crossing the net, crossing the opponents service line, landing deep into the opponents court, bouncing high, pushing the opponent back. Now, the parent says hit and they repeat the visualization of the slow, high arching ball passing the opponents service line, passing the net, passing their own service line, bouncing deep on their child’s side. Next, they say hit as the slow moonball rally continues up to twenty. If they can’t focus on a pretend moonball rally, cut them some slack. My bet is that you can’t either. (You’ll laugh because, your mind will wander all over the joint).
SPECIAL NOTE: If they can’t focus intently on a few pretend 20 ball rallies how are they ever going to apply the actual focus skill to do it for a three hour match?
As tennis parents, it is your job to select how and when they program their minds and bodies. Positive programming to and from tennis will lead to increased knowledge, increased power, increased motivation, increased enthusiasm and increased calmness on court. Use drive time training as you enjoy secretly preparing better than all of your child’s rivals.