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The earliest stage of a tennis player’s development is the most important part of their tennis journey. It’s also when problems can arise, so if you work with young tennis players and want them to achieve sound tennis results and maximize enjoyment, it’s critical to understand a few key points:

Kids are not adults… So don’t treat them like one. Coaches, tennis trainers and parents need to be responsible for the volume and intensity of a younger player’s practice and preparation. Don’t compare them to adults or other kids; they all develop at different rates and they cannot do what adults do.

Know their limits If a young player wants more and more, that’s great – but remember that everyone has their limit. Younger athletes often don’t know when it’s time to stop, as they find it hard to read how they are physically feeling and how they will respond to what they are doing. If we want them to achieve good tennis...

Having useful equipment for tennis at hand is important for any player who is committed to tennis training and competing at an optimal level. Many professionals travel with their own training and recovery equipment. Not only do they realize the benefits of various pieces of equipment, but they also understand that those fitness accessories aren’t always available on the road.

Let’s look at some equipment that is commonly used by tennis players.

Resistance Bands
These bands, comprising rubber tubing with handles attached, are one of our favorite pieces of equipment – we recommend that every player has a set.

Weighing around 800 grams, resistance bands are used for strength training and can be used instead of dumbbells. Adding to the appeal is the fact that resistance bands are lightweight and extremely versatile.

You can also add a waist belt attachment for tennis speed and agility work. We highly recommend checking them out – and to assist in that...

Quality tennis footwork could be the most critical element for a solid game. You have to get it right! Have you noticed how well Roger Federer moves? It can be hard to understand how smooth and graceful he moves when you watch on TV but when you see him glide around on court in person, you can truly appreciate why he is regarded as the greatest mover in the game.

While we can’t promise you’ll reach the same standard as Federer, there are proven ways to improve your footwork on court. We’d like to share the ‘Tennis Fitness, Martin Method” movement patterns that we use daily with the players who work with us. Firstly it's important you understand there are six types of foot work steps used on the tennis court. Once you understand this, you can then plan your tennis training around the foot work steps you feel need more work.

1. PREP STEP

Prep Steps are small controlled steps that are used when preparing to set-up for a shot. Instead of taking...

If you are a player, parent, coach or tennis enthusiast that has an influence on a young  tennis player it is important to realize a few things. Having good tennis results in the short term does not equal long-term tennis success. If you are aiming for long-term tennis success and you should be, then following these simple points will help get you there.

1. Losing should be a good lesson - To lose is to learn, or it should be. A young player should be learning more from losing than they do from winning. Everyone loses at some point in tennis. But if you keep losing because of the same reasons and you are not improving, then this is not good. After a loss, it is important to evaluate what happened, what could have done better and what will be changed for the next time. Then move on and focus on the things that can be controlled. Don’t focus on loses, focus on what changes can be made to improve. Losing is part of the game, try to avoid it, learn from it and get over...

I am often amazed how little people know about tournament preparation. Preparing for tournaments is one of the most critical things to get right and finding what works best for you or your players as individuals, is important.

I know some people will be reading this and be saying to themselves "My preparation is, to not prepare“ I’m better off just turning up and playing, that works best for me” Sorry guys that’s the lazy mans approach, and there is a good chance if you follow it, you won’t get far as a tennis player.

There are certain principles that need to be applied in order to get the most out of yourself come match day, here are some key principles;

1. Hydration - keeping yourself hydrated is important for concentration, energy levels and preventing tennis injuries. As a guide athletes can follow this formula; 0.03 x Body weight (KG) = ? Litres of water. This is a base requirement. Depending on weather conditions and how much you sweat Add...

Little Billy (10 years old) loves tennis, he plays everyday and is driven hard by his parents who commit both time and money to see him succeed and MAKE it. After 5 years of playing Billy decides he is done! He is finished playing and wants nothing to do with tennis.
Have you heard or experienced this yourself?
I have seen this happen too many times……
Why?
There are a number of reasons;

1. Kids get pushed or driven too hard.
2. People around players don’t know how to manage the tennis training volume (how much training for tennis and tennis workouts are they doing)
3. They get distracted. As young players get older, they start to want to do different things socially, other things become more important to them. They start to find out about the opposite sex, video games, spending time with friends, other sports etc.
4. Injury. They develop one or a number of tennis injuries that knock the passion out of them.
5. Lack of progress. They don’t feel they are...

Tennis players are all looking for the winning edge.  They are all looking for what is going to give them that edge and get them performing at their best. What many players haven’t looked into is how food sensitivities can affect their training for tennis and their tennis performance.

Food sensitivities are extremely prevalent these days.  At least 45% of people reading this article will be affected by them.  All of the packaged and processed foods, along with overuse of antibiotics and other toxins we are exposed to have caused our guts to get damaged leading to this rise in food sensitivities.  Our body, gut, and digestive system are designed to process real food not this fake food.

So what’s the big deal?

Food sensitivities cause stress and inflammation on your body.  They can lead to symptoms like bloating, fatigue, joint pain, weight gain to name a few.  Not only this, but this inflammatory stress on the body can disrupt the hormonal...

The secret is; that there is no secret for tennis success. I’m sure you have heard it before! But in all reality it is so true, I honestly believe it.

Most of the successful people in the world have 3 things in common and they are definitely not secrets. People succeed in life by doing 3 things; they have passion. They know what they want! Generally their passion outweighs everything else. They work hard at achieving. They learn their craft, they become masters at it. They do this by what I call “Beating on your craft” Relentless work ethic and the willingness to endure whatever it takes. They stop for nothing. Failure is a temporary obstacle. They have the ability to get up, learn more, do it again, do it better. If they fail again, they fail better and eventually they succeed. People believe they need self-belief to make it….

You want to know how to get self-belief. Following these three points is a good place to start! Believing in yourself comes from,...

Most people struggle to improve on a consistent basis, with their tennis and tennis training program. They get to a point where things plateau or even worse tennis injuries occur. Is that you? Maybe you have been there before.

This can be due to a number of factors (coaching, motivation, knowledge, application, attitude). I have found that when some simple questions are asked, players know at least 3 things that they can do better straight away to help them improve instantly.

Finding these 3 things can get players going, boost their motivation and push them forward. They are often simple things (you don’t want to get too complicated). It’s the realization that they can create change instantly, that is enough to shift their thoughts and will get them seeing things differently, and then the motivation kicks in.

Here is run down of how it should work.

1. What are 3 things you could do right now to improve yourself and your tennis? Don’t think to hard, keep it simple...

   

Watching their favorite professionals claim big wins on the world's most famous courts is inspirational for many club level players but it is the hard work behind the scenes that might provide the most powerful lesson. Giselle Martin, fitness trainer to Casey Dellacqua shares her tennis training diary from Birmingham to show how hard the professionals work at their preparation.

Early Challenges
The grass court season officially begins for Casey Dellacqua in Birmingham. With a big day in both singles and doubles, we are up at 7 am, have breakfast at 8 am and are ready for our scheduled pick up at 9 am.

And this is where we face one of our first challenges of the short grass court swing. In England, the rules won’t allow you to hit before 10 am, which means we need to be extremely organised to ensure everything runs smoothly. Accordingly, we squeeze in a warm-up in the gym, including some shoulder rehab exercises, at 9.30 am.

With grass court time so limited, there...