Blog

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...

I have long regarded the French open as the toughest grand slam to win. But to win it 10 times takes a Herculean effort.

We were fortunate enough to work over in one of the best Tennis Academies in Spain. During this time we were able to watch Rafa practice. You could see then he was a very special breed. His work ethic and focus to his training was amazing, even as a 14 year old.

Having spent years on the tour, we have been lucky enough to watch him evolve, we have seen his game progress and admire the risks and changes he made. He has become a lot more aggressive, changed his serve.... he has worked on becoming a more complete player. The one thing that hasn't changed, is his intensity he works at and the attitude he possesses. He has had the same people around him for a long time. Uncle Tony has coached him from the age of 3 and it wasn't too long ago that people told him he needed to make changes, I think we could all agree, we are glad he hasn't.

It was great to see him...

Where do you start when you want to transform your Tennis Strength and Conditioning?

It is a challenge every tennis player faces. Knowing your starting point and having something to aim for will help.

To gain a better understanding of a player’s Tennis Strength and Conditioning level, we ask them to perform specific tennis fitness test twice a year. These tennis-specific fitness tests have been developed to provide insight on a player’s strengths and weaknesses.

Understanding weaknesses is vital to improve Strength and Conditioning levels, as they highlight the areas that need the most attention.

This is a more effective approach than training the same way day in, day out without enough focus on the specific areas that need attention. Many players and tennis trainers make this mistake and wonder why attributes such as speed, reaction times and strength are not improving.

Identifying the areas that need to improve is the key and fitness testing is the method...

When it comes to tennis exercise and preparing your body to play your best tennis, it is important to do the right things at the right time. That includes resting and changing what you do, even if you feel your current routine works. Tennis training variety is often overlooked.

Some people prefer consistency, so do the same things all the time then often wonder why they are not improving. Others jump from tennis program to another without allowing the body time to adapt.

Whatever your "training personality", it is vital for long-term development (at any age) and performance to phase the tennis training you do. Often known as periodisation, phase training is as important as your actual tennis exercises. This is how it works ...

PREPARATION

General: High training volume and low intensity. Focus is on endurance and strength. Your tennis training can be general and non-tennis specific at the start (cross-training). This is a good time to work on tennis training techniques. 

...

There are few players who step on the court without a match plan in mind. To make the most of your training time, that same structured thinking should reply to your fitness too. The best fitness strategy is a balanced one. Getting balance into your tennis fitness plan will improve your performance, help keep you injury free and give you the variety you need to stay motivated. Here is a rundown on how to do it.

Build
Build up your fitness by completing a variety of tennis training. This will ideally incorporate:

• Cross training
• Strength training
• Cardio
• Agility
• Speed
• Core

It is always best to attack your weakest link first. Fitness testing is the best way to find out what requires the most attention. Many people do very little to improve their tennis fitness, they think hitting more is the key, which is far from true. If you are...

The most common question we get asked as tennis strength and conditioners is, "When can my daughter or son, start tennis strength training and what strength training should we do?"

One of the biggest misconceptions people make is to train young tennis players like they would an adult.

Tennis training for kids should be totally different than for adults.

This can be dangerous and often leads to tennis injuries. Players under the age of 16 should steer away from weights and heavy loading. Alternatively, they should use body weight exercises, resistance bands and medicine balls (5-10% of their body weight).

At ‘Martin Method Tennis Fitness’ we recommend all young players aged 16 and under start out by performing these 6 fundamental movement patterns- Lunge, Squat, Bend, Pull, Push and Rotation. When young players can consistently complete all the 6 movement patterns, with good form, only then should their tennis program progress.

Performing these basic fundamental...

How important it is to periodise your training for tennis?
Periodisation is simply, structuring on and off court tennis training into phases or blocks of time.

The basic phases include:
• Preparation (general and specific)
• Competition (pre competition and competition)
• Transition (off season)

Each phase focuses on different aspects of tennis fitness and tennis conditioning (cardio endurance, strength, power, tennis speed, agility and recuperation) in conjunction with on court work, specific for the phase.

Here is a brief explanation of each phase.

Preparation (General and Specific)

General: High training volume/ low intensity. Focus is on endurance and strength. Training can be general and non-tennis specific at the start of the phase (cross training) good time to work on tennis technique. Ratio 30:70.on court : off court training Phase length 4-6 weeks.

Specific: Low volume/High intensity. Focus on more specific tennis training variables (anaerobic...

In order to improve your tennis performance it is important to physically work hard, but it is just as important to rest and recover hard! Vigorous, prolonged tennis exercise breaks down muscle tissue, fatigues the nervous system and overall places the body under stress. It is during the rest and recovery period that the body gets the positive physical and emotional gains (cardio vascular, strength, mentally etc.).

If there is an overload of tennis training volume and intensity (level of energy used) with inadequate recovery time between sessions, a player will start to develop, physical, behavioural and emotional issues. This scenario can be classified as a condition called Overtraining. Overtraining or burnout is a common problem for many athletes of all ages in many sports. It is often seen in young tennis players. Possibly due to the fact that they find it harder to communicate how they are feeling and they are not as in tune with their bodies as adults.

Working with the right...