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Junior Tennis Strength Training

Jun 04, 2018
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At Tennis Fitness we believe - Strength is ‘King’

Before you start trying to get faster and more powerful, you need to build a solid strength foundation. Performing a strength, mobility/ flexibility and stability plan for a young tennis player should always be the first step.

Ever since 2003, we’ve been very passionate about Junior Tennis Strength training, and one thing I can promise you if you don’t do it correctly from the start, you are going to have problems down the track!  (Injuries and physical frustration stop most young athletes from playing)
In case you missed part 1 of Tennis Strength Training for Kids 

We had a player come to us a year ago who was always injured, they said, we were their last chance, they wanted to stop playing. 

We looked at what they had been doing (it wasn’t much) with their off-court training and the first thing we did was implement a junior tennis strength and flexibility plan. 

6 months later they are injury-free and playing great tennis. 

It isn’t rocket science, it is getting the basics right and then knowing how to build on top of that! 

Common problems we see are;

  1. Hypermobility/flexibility – e.g. Being too flexible with no stability
  2. Reduced mobility – e.g. Not being able to touch their toes
  3. Foundational strength – e.g. No foundational strength base established
  4. Incorrect lifting technique – e.g. Bad technique 
  5. Lifting too heavy too soon – e.g. Kids training like adults
  6. Tennis specificity – e.g. Kids doing the wrong kind of training

Education and building a pathway to becoming a better young tennis player is very tricky, getting it right, is important for long term success!

It is imperative you do it the correct way and take it by a step by step process. Lifting weights at a young age can be dangerous and often leads to tennis injuries. Players under the age of 16 should steer away from weights and heavy loading (unless they are working with a professional tennis strength and conditioning trainer, who is monitoring their progress). Alternatively, they should use bodyweight exercises, resistance bands, and medicine balls (5-10% of their body weight).
 
We are so passionate about helping and educating tennis coaches, players, and parents, we said to ourselves, we can do two things…either sit back and cross our fingers and hope players can get educated and get the correct advice from somewhere or we can do something to help prevent the above issues from continually happening. Platforms like youtube worry us as players jump online and see something someone is doing, and it may be too advanced, not specific, or simply dangerous.

You need to always ask these 3 questions –

“What” do I need to do?

“Why” am I doing it?

“How” do I do it?

Because of this, we designed a Junior Tennis Strength Development Program.

 

Junior Tennis Strength Training

Is all about building up a young tennis athlete's total body strength in a safe and effective way for ages 8-18

We have Levels 1-3. 1 being the easiest, 2 intermediate and 3 advanced. You will see how all the levels progress from 1-3. Getting level 1 right first is important as it will allow you to establish a good technical movement/strength base. Due to the 3 levels of programming we have designed, the programs can be performed by anyone above 8 years old.

We encourage everyone to start off following level 1 and progress to level 2 once they can perform all the level 1 exercises with ease, whilst remaining pain free and maintaining the correct technique.  

This program will EDUCATE players and coaches on how to start 
and progress a Junior Tennis Strength development plan. 

To get you started we wanted to offer you our Junior Strength Development Level 1 Program for FREE.
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Please contact us for help and guidance on any of the points above.

As a coach and parent, the best thing you can do is set a young player up for life. Educate – Motivate – Perform.

Step 1, get their technique right, then build their strength base!

Good luck