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In the year 2000, I was lucky enough to get the job as Physical director at the Sanchez Casal Tennis Academy in Barcelona, Spain. It was a huge responsibility for me at the time as I was young for the role, in such a world renown premier club.

It started me on a journey that has led to many many highlights in my life. But I am not here to talk about myself! I am here to talk about building relationships.

How when you communicate effectively, have mutual respect and care for each other, friendships are forged, results come and as you will see opportunities arise.

As a parent, coach or player, if you are not focused on these areas, there will be plenty of dead end relationships and no one wants to waste time and energy right?

I want to tell you about an experience I had with a player I worked with starting back in 2000.

Carlos Cuadrado was a young Spanish prodigy when I laid eyes on him, he was already labelled a top 10 player at the age of 16. He was on the rise and it was my job to...

Why Cool Down? 
Cooling down exercises for tennis lower the heart rate and bring the body back to homeostasis, reduces muscle soreness and tightness, removes waste products from working muscles and helps prevent blood pooling. 

Effective Tennis Exercises for Cool Down – 2 phases This cool down should take between 20 and 40 minutes, depending on the intensity and duration of your tennis training or tennis match. 
1. Cardio – Jog, bike or swim for 10–20 minutes.
2. Stretching – Has many benefits such as: 
• Helps lengthen muscles back to original length.
• Helps joint mobility and healthy functional joint range. 
• Releases muscle tension, which can help take pressure off or away from joint/s.
3. Foam roller

1. Lower Back

• Lying on your back, bring leg across the other and rotate the lower body bringing the crossed over knee towards the floor and hold into the stretch.
• Keep both shoulder blades in contact with the...

Strengthening up specific areas of our bodies can help prevent many tennis related injuries. Stability, Strength and flexibility play the biggest part in reducing the risk of spending time off court. Strengthening the smaller “stabilising muscles” around joints can eliminate a lot of joint related tennis injuries e.g. tendinitis. Muscle tissue strength helps prevent muscle tears and connective tissue injuries by providing a more robust athlete, the stronger the muscle tissue the more resilient it will it be. Having the flexibility capacity to get into certain positions, more positions and utilise more muscle is what you need to prevent flexibility related injuries (muscle tears, overuse injuries etc.)

Due to the physical complexity (strength, stability, flexibility, agility, power, high aerobic capacity etc.) as players we need to deal with and given the time constraints most players have. More often than not our recovery and injury prevention regimes get put at the...

Among all your match day routines, there is nothing that is more important than an effective pre-match tennis warm up. It not only prepares your body for competition but also reduces the risk of tennis injury and it helps get you mentally ready for competition too.

The obstacle for some players is an understanding of what works best. As tennis fitness trainers, we are constantly hearing from players: I am not sure what to do for a tennis warm up before I play.

The good news is that it doesn't need to be complicated to be structured.

Here are 5 steps to achieve an effective tennis warm up, which should take you around 10-15 minutes to complete.

Perfect Timing- Allocate 10-15 minutes to complete your tennis warm up and then allow that same period of time for a breather before you step on the court.

1. CARDIO

3-5 minutes of either skipping or running (forward, backward and lateral) is the perfect way to start your tennis warm up. Remember the aim is to boost your heart rate...

When you talk important body parts for a tennis player, the shoulder would be right at the top of the list!

Although to become a top tennis athlete you need to be fully abled and without chronic injury. But to put it simply without a fully functioning shoulder joint, you will always be limiting your ability to perform how you should. Without good shoulder mobility, stability and strength it can be futile walking on court. If you are prone to injury and pain symptoms that are shoulder related, you soon realise how important the shoulder girdle is and how much it is relied on during play. It is the one main joint in the body that professionals aim to avoid injuring over everything else.

The shoulder girdle consists of the ball and socket joint, scapula, humerus and clavicle. The important muscles that we rely on to move and support the shoulder joint are; Deltoids, Pectoralis, rotator cuff (Supraspinatus, infraspinatus, Teres minor and Subscapularis) & Rhomboids. These muscles...

Having been a Tennis Trainer travelling on the WTA and ATP for over 20 years, I honestly believe having the right team around you is crucial. Some tennis players will have an entourage that may consist of tennis trainer, tennis coach, physiotherapist, massage therapist, sports physiologist, chiropractor, dietitian, manager, stringer, parents, family, hitting partner, nanny and even dog minder... I’m sure I have missed some! It really could be an endless list depending on the individual and what their needs are (Serena Williams is one player that comes to mind that has a slightly bigger than normal entourage)

Whilst some players play it low key and may only have one person on their team, which is also fine, getting the team right is important. I remember Justine Henin and Lyndsey Davenport travelling with just a coach, that worked for them, others like to have more people around them.  To be honest it’s not the one with the big entourage that is...

We designed this program for you to do anywhere. It is a great tennis fitness workout for home or at the court. A lot of people do not like to work out in gyms, we get this. Although gyms offer a greater range of equipment, the truth is you can still get a great tennis workout exercising anywhere. The exercises in this program are specific for tennis and are a great way to increase your strength, core and power. If you have the capacity to push yourself and be committed, then this free program will get the job done!

Work at your own pace and build up the intensity as you feel you can. There is a verse in the bible that states – You reap what you sow. This rings true with your training. Get the work done, be consistent and do not make excuses.

Being consistent is the key to getting good results. Following this program 2-3 times a week will give you the strength gains, you need to boost your performance. Start with completing 2 sets of 12 reps with 60sec rest between each...

Today we want to give you 3 FREE Tennis Fitness Tests and a practical aerobic training program to compliment it! These are some tests we do with our tennis players.

1 Mobility Test
2 Change of Direction Test
3 Aerobic Test (MAS)

You will have access to the free aerobic program after you have completed your free tests.

At tennis fitness we believe it is very important to assess an athlete and measure where they are at. This gives us the ability to know their current level and establish what level they need to be at (their goal) We firmly believe, if we put all our athletes through a movement analysis, whether that analysis is agility based, speed based, aerobic based or all three. Then incorporate a strength tennis fitness test, we then get a clear cut starting point and an end goal. This is how you educate and motivate an athlete. Check out the tests and give them a go.

If you are lacking motivation this is your starting point. 

"What Gets Measured, Gets Managed"

So if you know...

One of the most common reasons for knee pain is when the knee does not track correctly. This is an example I use to explain it - picture a door hinge that is missing a few screws, this will cause the door to be misaligned, the door will start to rub, jam and not close properly. This is similar to what happens to the knee. We lose functionality of the knee joint if it is not tracking correctly. This can lead to a build-up of muscle tension and connective tissue issues (Tendonitis, damaged ligaments) 

If you have been injured before you know how it feels walking around with pain in your body. What generally happens if you are injured, is that we start to compensate, using other body parts more, walking differently etc. This causes us to create faulty or dysfunctional movement patterns and building up tension in muscle in other areas. The knee joint is one of the main joints that will cause this to happen. Most people who experience knee pain will end up with back pain due to them...

There seems to be a few common threads these days with young tennis athletes. We lose so many kids to other sports, to injury and to lack of motivation. Having close relationships with many junior coaches, working with young tennis athletes over the past decade and attending junior tournaments. I have noticed some common issues with young athletes and the game they play, issues that seem to be sliding in the wrong direction. These issues are in my opinion easy to address, however the attitude needs to be right and the environment the athletes are in needs to be able to sustain the changes.

At Martin Method we are so passionate about what we do and really want to make a difference. For this reason, we want to share with you our core principles, the way we structure our junior tennis fitness drills for kids.

1. FLEXIBILITY

The Value Of A Flexible And Mobile Athlete!
Teaching young athletes how to prepare their bodies for performance is crucial for long term injury prevention and...