Are There Any Bad Exercises For Tennis?

Over the last few months a number of sport science, strength & conditioning, athletic training, physical therapy and tennis coaching conferences have occurred all over the world. In all these conferences exercises and drills are presented for performance, stability, injury prevention, recovery, strength, speed, power, flexibility, etc. With so many exercises available to the Tennis Performance Trainer (TPT) or the Certified Tennis Performance Specialist (CTPS) one of the great discussions includes if there any bad exercises for tennis or exercises that should be avoided? Tennis has some unique requirements and the repetitive movements cause some significant imbalances over time. As a result, certain exercises are needed to offset these imbalances - but do certain exercises in the gym, on the court or on the track/field - do more harm than good for the tennis athlete? Some of the most discussed topics over the past few months have been around the following:

-              long slow distance running (>5miles, etc)

-              bench press & push ups

-              bicep curls

-              leg extension machine

-              Olympic lifting

-              weighted rackets for stroke practice

-              overhead shoulder pressing

Very interested to hear the thoughts about whether any of these (or other) exercises should NOT be implemented in a tennis athlete’s physical conditioning program. Knowing what to do is just as important as knowing what not to do.

Exercise: Slalom Agility Run in Sand

The “Slalom Agility Run in Sand” exercise shown in the video is one of the best overall movement exercises for any athlete who is looking to improve his/her ability to change direction quickly – especially in lateral and multi-directional movements. The exercise can be performed on grass, hardcourts, claycourts or sand. The exercise shown is performed on sand and this increases the recruitment of the larger muscles to help the athlete push forcefully into the ground and also stresses the smaller muscles of the lower body to help stabilize during the forceful eccentric muscle actions involved in the deceleration required at each of the cones. Then the athlete needs to push forcefully into the sand to be able to re-accelerate to move to the next cone. This is a challenging exercise for most athletes; it is rather common for athletes to feel some muscle soreness (DOMS) the first 48-72 hours after performing a series of sand movements. Start this exercise performing 6 cones spaced at 10 yards apart in a slalom pattern. Perform 10 repetitions of the sprint from cone 1-6 proving 60-120 seconds rest to work on explosiveness. If using this exercise for tennis-specific endurance work, then perform 20 repetitions with 20-30 seconds rest between each repetition.