If you are not getting the basics right your game will be heavily capped. There are some areas you want to avoid as a tennis player. Below is a list of some that I feel are important to get right.

7 Tennis Training Don'ts

1. Bad Punctuality  

   Being consistently late for training has a lot of negative ramifications for your game. First of all your coach/trainer will get frustrated and can lose motivation and focus, I know it has with me in the past, as a tennis trainer subconsciously when players are showing up late consistently I ask myself how much do they want this and how much do they respect what I am doing.
   
   You also lose precious time that you could have used to improve, if you consistently show up 5min late for 1 year, which adds up to a lot of missed lessons, costing you money and the chance to become a better player. The thing with punctuality is that it is about attitude and you can control when and where you are going, so control what time you get yourself to...

Training with bands is from my point of view one of the most underutilized training modalities going round! Resistance bands are one of the best tennis equipment for players.

They’re lightweight, portable, durable, and have a tonne of uses for the Weekend Warrior, right through to the Seasoned Pro. 

When I train the body I look at it from a number of angles when it comes to exercise and equipment selection;

• What kind of Stimulus does the exercise/equipment elicit? (Strength, Power, Endurance, Stability, etc)
• What kind of Forces do you need to overcome with it? (Body Weight, External Load, Gravity, etc) 
• What specific Body Positions does it teach? (Retracted Scapula, Neutral Spine, Braced Core, etc) 

Resistance Bands have a unique influence on all 3, and that's why I love them and use them on a daily basis. 

If I was to wear my High-Performance hat for a second and think about the tennis scene, there are 4 key areas that a High-Performance...

At Tennis Fitness we are all about education. We don’t know everything, that's for sure, what we have learned along our journey, we like to pass on. We encourage you to do the same! 

We wanted to give you some useful Tennis Tips as well as other helpful tennis information on how you can get the most out of yourself, your coach, and your team. Give them a go and we are sure you will feel the difference!

 Tennis Tips

Tip 1 – Tennis Warm-up 
If you are not warming up before practice or matches you are costing yourself both time and money. An effective tennis warm-up before the start of practice will save you both time and money, here is why. If you walk on court ready to go, instead of warming up with your coach, you will get up to 20% more out of the session.

You might waste 10-15min warming up with your coach, that time could be used more productively. We always have our players implement their tennis conditioning drills into...

When we were running our tennis gym in Sydney, we had many young athletes who would come through the doors. One of my missions with young players was and still is to turn them into problem solvers. 

Some work it out quicker than others, the ones who generally learn this necessity slower are the ones who generally have the parent, coach, or tennis trainer always doing things for them. 

A classic example:  one day a young kid came in for his 3^rd session, he was 10. I was finishing a session and told him to go on the bike for 2min, then skip for 2min, little did he know this was a test for him and his mother.   

He looked around and I said "the bike is down there, do you remember I showed you how to use it the last 2 weeks" The weeks prior I showed him how to set it up and get going.

Was he listening? I ask myself – How teachable is this kid. 

He wouldn’t move, I turned my back and continued to finish the session. 

He slowly...

Having been involved with tennis for over 20 years as a Tennis Trainer and a Tennis Mentor, I have realized how much I have learned from the game and those associated with it.

Having been involved with some of the best players in the world has meant I have also been around some of the best coaches in the world.

In my opinion, the role of the tennis coach is where a lot of the success and answers come from regarding a player’s career.

Outside the family dynamic, a coach should be someone of the highest influence for a player which when you think about it is a big responsibility. Think about this, how did Roger start out as a player?

He was coached by someone obviously very good and moved on to someone else very good. Along his journey, he worked out what works best for him from the knowledge and advice that was shared with him from; Coaches, trainers, and mentors.

As Tennis Trainers and Tennis Mentors, I have conducted 1000s of Tennis Workouts for players of all levels. I...

The global Health and Fitness industry moves and changes at such a rapid rate, it can feel overwhelming for people to keep up. Having been in the industry for 20 years, we have seen lots of things come and go and the good news is, the bad things are the ones that go. Fads and gimmicks fade almost as fast as they come and in the tennis industry, it is no different.

One thing that has always been at the forefront of any successful tennis physical performance plan is “Tennis Strength Training”.

Research shows strength training gives athletes more benefits across the board than any other training discipline.

Here are some benefits of tennis strength training;

1. Build a Good Foundation - You wouldn’t build a house on bad foundations. Strength is the foundation for; Injury prevention, Speed, Power, Endurance, Flexibility/Mobility. Building the strength foundation allows the body to become more adaptable, robust, and protected.
   
   
2. Increase Power - Strength x Speed = Power....

Being a parent (father) myself with very active kids, I am always wanting to do what I can to better their training and competition experience.

Having been lucky enough to have had experience in training young tennis players for a long period of time, I do my best to get the most out of them, although it is never easy when it is your own kids!

I am always one for outsourcing services with our kids. I play guitar, but I get my son and daughter guitar lessons with someone. Giselle is an ex swim instructor, but we put our kids in swimming lessons. 

The one area we do not outsource is anything to do with strength training, flexibility, conditioning, etc. We do this for a living and do it well. 

Not everything needs to be outsourced and there are areas of being a tennis coach or tennis parent that you can really capitalize on. Recovery and preventing tennis injuries is a big one. 

One aspect, in particular, I would put high on the list, I recommend tennis parents,...

Nathan and Giselle operate their world-renowned Tennis Fitness brand and have trained five world number one players over the life of the business.

Through the journey of creating Tennis Fitness, they both developed a passion for the sport after learning the ins and outs of the game. “Being a tennis strength and conditioner, I think tennis is the pinnacle of sport because it is so complex in many ways,” Giselle explained.

Nathan and Giselle have built a breadth of experience working with athletes such as Lleyton Hewitt, Sam Stosur, Martin Navratilova, Jennifer Capriati, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Monica Seles. The lessons learned have inspired them to create their own ‘Martin Method’ brand to achieve success with players of all levels.

According to Nathan, the success they have experienced has come from a unique focus on the mental resilience involved with high-level training. “As much as we use the physical aspect, you also start to realize how important...

If you have been a coach or trainer for a while, you would have heard this question a few times “So do they have a chance of making it”. It is always a tough question to answer.

We believe tennis is definitely the most challenging and complexed sport globally to reach the top in. So many factors to consider! However, I believe there is one factor that stands alone and gives me a good indication on whether a player has the desire to “Make it”

If a player does not have the willingness to do “whatever it takes” they are a zero chance.

I honestly believe that.

Any high-level sports person somewhere along their journey has gone to places few others will, pushing themselves, sacrificing time – money – relationships and never giving up.

Some stay there for years and succeed more than others. 

I want to tell you a story about a young kid. It will give you, a sense of what I believe as a tennis trainer, coach, and parent we should be...

As a tennis fitness coach or trainer, it is important to be constantly learning and growing, without this approach, not much will change. We call this the “Growth mindset”. We strongly encourage everyone to have a growth mindset. We know as Tennis Fitness Coaches we need to be constantly looking for ways to benefit our players, this means being open, willing to try new things, and being creative in what we do.

The past 6 months has seen some changes for us. One of the changes involved developing a structure that gave us clear guidelines on Tennis Footwork and Court Movement. We called this our “7 Tennis Movement Principles”

We did this to give us a clear definition of what we teach our athletes. We have found it has given athletes more confidence in what they are doing and helps educate them on the importance of breaking down movement and focusing on weaker movement patterns.

To keep it simple, we highlighted 7 areas that affect overall movement, ...