Improving youth physical fitness is a major objective of city, state, regional and federal government agencies, multiple organizations and trade associations, non-profits and private companies. Below is an article provided by SHAPE America (The Society of Health and Physical Education – formerly AAHPERD). The goal of this article was to provide physical educators and health professionals with new and relevant information about physical fitness. This is a very good resource that covers in greater detail the following 10 Concepts of Youth Physical Fitness.


1)      Fitness education is an important part of the total physical education program

2)      Health-related physical fitness assessment is an important part of physical education and fitness education programs.

3)      The relationship between health-related fitness and health  varies by age, but it exists for people of all ages.

4)      Although the strength of health relation­ships varies for different parts of fitness among youth, it is important to teach about all health-related fitness components in fitness education programs.

5)      Functional fitness is an important consideration in fitness education.

6)      Health-related fitness test items for use in fitness education may differ from those used in research or for national surveillance.

7)      Cardiorespiratory endurance is the recommended term for the fitness component frequently described as cardiovascular fit­ness, aerobic fitness, cardiorespiratory fitness, or cardiovascular endurance.

8)      An understanding of the term aerobic capacity is important for fitness education

9)      Fitness components classified as health-related are also criti­cal to performance in a variety of sports and other activities.

10)   Power, formerly considered a skill-related fitness component, can also be considered a health-related component of physical fit­ness.

 
Information from : Corbin et al. Youth Physical Fitness. JOPERD, 85 (2), 24-31, 2014

Download the 10 Aspects of Youth Physical Fitness PDF HERE

Strategy used to play tennis has undergone a dramatic change within the last 20-30 years. One of the biggest changes is the difference in the need for powerful groundstrokes. The core of groundstrokes has transferred from flat and slice shots to a heavy topspin, high paced baseline game. Conventional groundstrokes were hit predominantly from a square or closed stance, but more and more groundstrokes are hit from semi-open and open stances on both the forehand and backhand strokes. In addition to the changes in stances is the increase in racket head speed due to better understanding of how to summate forces and transfer energy from the ground, up through the kinetic chain and out into the ball.

Synchronized coordination is what you think of when you are watching an old school tennis match. The player’s strokes seem very rigid and structured. They have stiff arms and their whole body follows one motion. Sequential coordination has many movements and actions taking place. The first actions are in the legs and the force they generate from the ground. This energy moves up the body and is transferred to the shoulder by rotation of the hips and trunk. From the shoulder, the energy moves to the elbow, the wrist, and then the racquet head. This generates greater racquet head speed. Having good sound technical knowledge about tennis strokes is very important for both the tennis coach as well any individual who works with tennis athletes from a physical perspective.

Here are some exercises to increase strength in tennis specific techniques for groundstrokes.

1.      Medicine Ball Deep Groundstroke - To create greater force off the ground and to lean into deep shots behind the baseline this drill is perfect. To simulate a deep defensive forehand, have the player start on the service mark. The trainer should toss a medicine ball to the right of the player 3-5 feet behind him/her. The player should retreat back to catch the ball in the same motion as the stroke. After catching the ball, players forcefully throws the ball back mimicking the stroke of a deep forehand or backhand.

2.      Medicine Ball Short Groundstroke - To practice moving to and hitting short mid-court balls. Have the player start on the center service mark. The trainer should toss a medicine ball to the right or left of the player 3-5 feet in front him/her. The player should advance forward to catch the ball in the same motion as a stroke. After catching the ball, players forcefully throws the ball back mimicking the stroke of a short aggressive forehand or backhand.

3.      Medicine Ball Wide - To help create greater power from an open stance groundstroke. Have the player start on the center service mark. The trainer should toss a medicine ball to the right or left of the player about 5 feet from him/her. The player should shuffle sideways to catch the ball in the same motion as a stroke. After catching the ball, players forcefully throws the ball back mimicking the stroke of an open stance forehand or backhand.

4.      Medicine Ball Wall Open Stance - The athlete starts 5-8 feet from a solid wall. Focus on loading the hips and stretching the obliques in an open stance. Rotate the hips as the medicine ball is released as hard as possible at the wall.

5.      Wrist Roller - This is important to increase forearm strength, flexion, and extension. Using a wrist roller device, have the athlete grab the device and extend his/her arms out at shoulder height. Slowly lower the weight by flexing and extending the wrist. Once it has reached the ground reverse the process till the weight is at the starting position.

For more details about tennis-specific education check out the Tennis Performance Trainer (TPT) certification program which is aimed toward the tennis coach to better understand aspects of physical training for tennis focused on improving performance and reducing injuries www.itpa-tennis.org/tpt.html

Fitness professionals, strength and conditioning coaches, athletic trainers, physical therapists, chiropractors, medical doctors and other healthcare providers that train and/or treat tennis athletes should look to become a Certified Tennis Performance Specialist (CTPS) which is specifically designed to help individuals that understand sport science/anatomy/physiology and biomechanics, but are looking for tennis-specific information to help apply your knowledge in a more tennis-specific nature. www.itpa-tennis.org/ctps.html

*iTPA Members: More in-depth article posted on the iTPA Inner Circle Member Only Website.

By Josh Bramblett, iTPA Staff

The modern game of tennis continues to progress and evolve. There are numerous ways for any player at any skill level to participate. Physicality of tennis continually grows along with the demands placed on the body. The focus of the game has changed from finesse to power and speed.

The primary skills needed to play tennis are racquet and ball handling skills along with strokes. Even if a player has fantastic strokes these attributes are not enough to overcome a top-notch opponent. A high level of physical fitness is required to take the game to the next level. “Increasing evidence suggests that motor skills such as power, strength, agility, speed, and explosiveness, as well as mental strength, and a highly developed neuromuscular coordinating ability correlate with tournament performance.” (Fernandez)  Non-conditioned athletes can impair all other tennis specific skills such as technique and tactics if fatigue sets in early into the match. A great article was published a few years ago by Dr. Jaime Fernandez-Fernandez in the Strength & Conditioning Journal. Here is a short summary providing the major practical aspects:

Match activity during tennis play

A tennis match consists of short 4-10 second spells of high intensity exercise interrupted by 10-20 second periods of recovery. Further recovery of 60-90 seconds appears at changeovers. An average tennis match lasts about 1.5 hours. Of this time, a relatively small percentage is effective playing time. Players can run anywhere from 1,300 to 3,600 meters per hour of play depending on the levels of players. Take this information into account when scheduling training.

Factors affecting match activity:

• Court Surface
• Tactical Behavior
• Gender
• Thermal Stress

How to apply this information to a training program?

1. Training players should focus on performing high intensity exercise and recovering quickly. This is because the body gets its energy from anaerobic and aerobic pathways. Therefore, it is beneficial to perform aerobic and anaerobic training. For example, running sprints one day and running several miles the next.

2. It is important to train one’s aerobic capacity because a larger portion of energy needed can be supplied aerobically. This allows players to work at higher intensities for longer periods of time preventing fatigue.

3. Most of a tennis player’s training is focused on low to moderate intensity exercise. These exercises include “technical and tactical on-court training”(Fernandez). Therefore, additional high intensity aerobic exercise must be incorporated into training. Increasing the rate of rise in oxygen uptake is the goal. This can be accomplished by interval training.

Effective training is planned for players to use maximal effort for periods of less than 10 seconds with rest periods long enough for players to replicate maximal or near-maximal effort.

4. Develop a hydration schedule. While every player is unique, all players can take advantage of some general guidelines. While playing in competitions players should drink at every change over drinking anywhere from 1.2-1.6 Liters per hour. It is also recommended players drink a combination of water and sports drink.

5. Acclimatizing to hot humid conditions is critical. Acclimatization can help prevent major physiological problems and heat illness during competition. At least 2-3 days of preparation in hot/humid environments can help before competitions.

Feel free to share any specific exercises for interval training! *iTPA Members: A much more detailed version of this post is now on the iTPA Inner Circle Member Only Website.

References

Fernandez, J., Sanz-Rivas, D., Villanueva, A. (2009). A review of the Activity Profile and Physiological Demands of Tennis Match Play. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 31(4), 15-25.

 A few months ago  we posted a short blog titled Tennis The Best Sport For Education and Health In The Young Athlete (http://www.itpa-tennis.org/1/post/2013/03/tennis-the-best-sport-for-education-and-health-in-the-young-athlete.html) highlighting some of the findings of the report from a study commissioned by USTA. Here are a few more interesting facts from the report. In a very interesting report funded by USTA Serves (The National Charitable Foundation of the United States Tennis Association) were data from over 54, 000 youth in the United States between 8th and 10th grade were analyzed with 4,278 of these youth being tennis participants. The purpose of the study was to analyze various academic, social and behavioral outcomes (Sabo, Veliz et al. 2013).   Achieving an “A” in School The data presented in 2013 seems to show a shifting on the typical tennis youth participant from a history of being an “elite” or “country club” sport to being similar to other non-contact sports in the US demographic. The suggestions in the report that this shift is likely due to greater opportunities and accessibility to tennis over the past two decades (Sabo, Veliz et al. 2013).

The percentage of tennis participants in this study who reported an average grade  of “A” was almost twice as high as non-sports  participants. 48% of tennis players throughout the US reported an average grade of “A” as compared with only 25% for non-sport participants. (Sabo, Veliz et al. 2013). 48% of students in 8-10th grade reporting an “A” is a very interesting statistic. Interested to hear from the iTPA membership what you feel this statistic is saying. Is it how smart tennis players are? Is it a sign of grade inflation in the school system? Is it due to parental/family expectations on academics over individuals that do not play sports?  

Suspensions In School
17% of tennis participants reported being suspended during the past school year, which was considerably lower in contact sports (27%), non-contact sports (23%), non-athletes (27%) (Sabo, Veliz et al. 2013).    “Because youth athletic participation in the U.S. is generally greater among more affluent and predominantly White populations, the discovery of positive outcomes attributed to sport participation are often later found to be owed to socioeconomic differences or racial/ethnic differences (Sabo, Veliz et al. 2013).” What are initially considered the “benefits” of youth sports participation are often more fundamentally owed to larger social forces that flow through sports rather than the primary influence of sports (Sabo, Veliz et al. 2013). However, this study found that positive relationships between tennis participation and academic performance were evident across family socioeconomic levels (low, middle and high) (Sabo, Veliz et al. 2013).  Meaning that at every socioeconomic level, tennis participation was most highly correlated with higher academic performance than other sports participation and non-sport participation (Sabo, Veliz et al. 2013). This paragraph is one of the most impactful findings from the entire report. It clearly shows that tennis participation is linked to greater academic performance even when socioeconomic levels are accounted for.

An interesting finding for parents: High School tennis athletes had lower rates of consumption for alcohol, marijuana and cigarette smoking compared to other athletes and especially to non-athletes (Sabo, Veliz et al. 2013). Interesting tip for parents: One way to reduce your child’s potential for performing illegal activities and using illicit substances is to have them participate in tennis.  

Here is the link for the executive summary of The USTA Serves Special Report, More Than a Sport: Tennis, Education and Health  http://assets.usta.com/assets/822/15/More_than_a_Sport_Executive_Summary-v7-web.pdf 

Here is the link for the full report of the survey data of The USTA Serves Special Report, More Than a Sport: Tennis, Education and Health  http://assets.usta.com/assets/822/15/More_than_a_Sport_Full_Report_2.27.13.pdf

All tennis players want to move faster on court and much of the training that many players perform is focused heavily on improving first step quickness and acceleration. Although training acceleration is vital for success as a tennis athlete, it is just as important to train for deceleration. An athlete who only develops acceleration will be great for one movement to a stroke, but will have difficulties slowing down quickly and then transitioning to an effective recovery movement pattern to change direction and move to a second, third or fourth shot. It is important to remember that:

Acceleration + Deceleration = Effective Tennis Specific Movement

Dynamic Balance

Dynamic balance is paramount in tennis, specifically during the deceleration movement phase before the player makes contact with the ball. Dynamic balance is the ability of the athlete to maintain a controlled center of gravity while the athlete is moving. This efficient energy transfer from the ground up through the entire kinetic chain (from the ground all the way into the ball) will result into a more efficient and powerful tennis stroke - faster racket head speeds and ball velocities.   

Eccentric Strength

Eccentric strength requires training of the muscles during the lengthening phase of the muscle action. Eccentric strengthening exercises need to be performed both on two feet as well as one foot. Nearly all tennis movements require the athlete to load one side of the body more than the other, and it is paramount that these uneven loading patterns are trained eccentrically as well as concentrically. Some great research performed by Dr. Todd Ellenbecker (chair of the certification commission of the International Tennis Performance Association) as well as other researchers have shown that physically trained humans can support approximately 30% more weight eccentrically than concentrically.  Therefore, eccentric focused strength training needs to be incorporated into an athlete’s periodized program to successfully maximize their strength gains. A second major benefit of training eccentric strength is to aid in the prevention of injuries. A large portion of injuries to tennis players are due to insufficient eccentric strength in both the lower and upper body.

Power

Power for the tennis player is what directly translates into greater racket head speed and ball velocity. The power equation is (Force X Distance) / Time. In simple terms, a powerful athlete produces high forces, over the greatest distance, in the shortest period of time. The importance of power training for tennis is well understood by most coaches and trainers; however, power is typically trained with the major focus on the concentric phase of the muscle movements. Most medicine ball drills and plyometric movements focus on developing power. However, training focused on the landing aspect of the plyometric movements or the catching (instead of throwing) aspect of the medicine ball workouts are many times overlooked or not emphasized appropriately.

Reactive Strength

Reactive strength has been defined as the ability to quickly change during the muscle contraction sequence from the eccentric to the concentric phase in the stretch-shortening cycle (SSC), and is a specific form of muscle power. A plyometric training program which utilizes lateral and multidirectional movements while limiting time on the ground will develop reactive strength and subsequent power outputs in the muscles and movements that are seen during tennis play. This type of training directly relates to a tennis athlete in their recovery sequences between shots and also during the times in a point when they are “wrong-footed” and are in need of rapid change of direction.

Summary

Deceleration ability of a tennis athlete is closely linked to successful agility and multi-direction movements. As such, it needs to be trained in a multi-focused training program with appropriate rest periods and loads that are progressed based on the tennis player’s growth, maturation and training stages. From a training perspective the posterior muscles of the tennis athlete needs to be a focus if the athlete is to become a successful player who has great deceleration ability. Training athletes to accelerate and be fast is only half the equation; deceleration before (or immediately after) racket and ball contact is a major link in the chain for successful performance, and if the deceleration link is not trained optimally the athlete will never reach his or her full potential. It is highly encouraged that you work with a certified tennis performance specialist (CTPS) who has the required knowledge, skills and abilities to specifically train tennis athletes as training for deceleration is challenging due the higher forces (predominantly due to eccentric muscle actions) that are applied to the athlete to stop quickly.

Having an accurate way to measure your training intensity (from a player’s perspective) or monitoring your player (as a coach) is one of the most valuable metrics to help design training programs and add/reduce volume and /or intensity. Although much technology exists today, this post is focused on a tried and true technique that has stood the test of time in the scientific literature focused on monitoring an athlete’s intensity.

What is RPE?

The Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is  a very common rating scale used in the scientific literature. It is a simple scale of asking someone how hard or difficult was the exercise or session. It is a good measurement of exercise intensity.

Perceived exertion is how hard you feel like your body is working. It is based on the physical sensations a person experiences during physical activity, including increased heart rate, increased respiration or breathing rate, increased sweating, and muscle fatigue. Although this is a subjective measure, a person's exertion rating may provide a fairly good estimate of the actual heart rate during physical activity (Borg, 1982). Since the 1980s thousands of studies have used this scale to evaluate how difficult the exercise session, training or competition was. Over multiple decades it has held up to scrutiny and is one of the best measures available. Even with all the great technology that is available today, the RPE scale is still the one of the most reliable and accurate ways to measure how intense an athlete feels a workout has been.

From a tennis perspective, the use of the RPE scale is good way to quickly and easily gain a read on how difficult or intense the training session or match was. It has been used by coaches and tennis scientists for decades to monitor athletes to see the perceptions of different types of training programs and to provide insight into when to increase or decrease intensity of workouts. One interesting study has recently been published in Australia highlights that when tennis players and coaches both evaluate the intensity of e a training session, rather good consistency existed when training on hardcourts. However, when playing on claycourts coaches underrate the perception of the training session (Reid et al, 2013). This underrating is in comparison to player rating of the same session.

For The Player:

Monitor your sessional-RPE at the end of each training session and provide yourself a rating of the entire workout on a daily basis. Over the course of a few weeks you will start seeing some trends in the workouts and you can start using this information to adjust the difficulty of the workouts based on your goals.

For The Coach:

Monitor your player’s sessional-RPE daily and have the player monitor his or her sessions daily. Compare the ratings to see how close the player and coach and use this information to effectively adjust training sessions to continue to make weekly improvements.

The Scales

Two scales are commonly used. The original scale was developed by Gunnar Borg and follows a 6-20 range. Whereas, the modified Borg CR-10 scale follows a 0-10 scale..

Traditional Borg Scale (6-20) this information has been adapted from http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/measuring/exertion.html

The traditional Borg scale was designed to coincide with an athlete’s heart rate. Therefore, 6 represents a resting heart rate value (60) and 20 represents a maximum heart rate value (200). Look at the rating scale below while you are engaging in an activity; it ranges from 6 to 20, where 6 means "no exertion at all" and 20 means "maximal exertion." Choose the number from below that best describes your level of exertion. This will give you a good idea of the intensity level of your activity, and you can use this information to speed up or slow down your movements to reach your desired range.

Try to appraise your feeling of exertion as honestly as possible, without thinking about what the actual physical load is. Your own feeling of effort and exertion is important, not how it compares to other people's. Look at the scales and the expressions and then give a number.

6  No exertion at all
7
Extremely light (7.5)
8
9  Very light
10
11  Light
12
13  Somewhat hard
14
15  Hard (heavy)
16
17  Very hard
18
19  Extremely hard
20  Maximal exertion

9 corresponds to "very light" exercise. For a healthy person, it is like walking slowly at his or her own pace for some minutes

13 on the scale is "somewhat hard" exercise, but it still feels OK to continue.

17 "very hard" is very strenuous. A healthy person can still go on, but he or she really has to push him- or herself. It feels very heavy, and the person is very tired.

19 on the scale is an extremely strenuous exercise level. For most people this is the most strenuous exercise they have ever experienced.

0-10 Scale

0 - Nothing at all

1 - Very light

2 - Fairly light

3 - Moderate

4 - Some what hard

5 - Hard

6

7 - Very hard

8

9

10 - Very, very hard

Resources:

Current Comment from the American College of Sports Medicine on RPE - http://www.acsm.org/docs/current-comments/perceivedexertion.pdf

References:

BORG, G. (1982) Psychophysical bases of perceived exertion. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 14 (5), p. 377-81

REID, M et al. (2013) Physiological, perceptual, and technical responses to on-court tennis training on hard and clay courts. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 27 (6); 1487-1495

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.

Photo author credit:  https://traineracademy.org/

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual Meeting is held each year and brings together over 5000 scientists and doctors from all over the world who are experts in sports medicine and exercise science. This year the meeting was held in the home town of the ACSM – Indianapolis, Indiana. Unfortunately this year had very few tennis studies that were presented – only 3 presentations on tennis and 2 of them were case study examples. Fortunately hundreds of studies from around the world were presented on topics that have relevance to tennis athletes.  Below is a short summary providing some of the major highlights. If you are an iTPA member, please visit the Inner Circle Member site (http://www.itpamembers.org ) which has a much more detailed summary with abstracts of dozens of relevant studies for individuals who work with tennis athletes.

Effect of Competitive Match Play on Handgrip Strength in Division III Tennis Players

George L. Hoyt, III, Andrew L. Sykes. Methodist University, Fayetteville, NC.

A rather simple study was conducted looking at the effect of competitive matchplay on grip strength in In Division III male tennis players. The results of the study found that the athletes showed significant ratings of fatigue after the matchplay, but did not show any difference in grip strength. This study is interesting because it highlights that feelings of fatigue does not necessarily show a decrease in grip strength in the population measured.

The take-home is that subjective feelings of fatigue may not be always linked to actually a decrease in performance. It is important to understand that just because an athlete is fatigued, does not mean that they cannot continue to perform at a high level. Just be careful not to overdo this principle which can result in a situation of overtraining or a constant state of fatigue.

Here are some other take homes from research that was presented:

-       Functional Movement Screen (FMS) was shown to be a poor predictor of non-contact overuse injury in college athletes. However, performance on the lunge movement did show some promise in predicting injury.

-       An interesting study evaluating the walking/running mechanics of 2 and 3 year old children found that excellent runners vs inferior runners at that age had different mechanics. This may suggest the need to develop technique at a younger age than first thought.

-       A separate study also on 3 year old children found that children that took longer steps were able to throw a ball further. Also, children with higher motor abilities at that age (measured by scores on 7 different motor ability tests) could transfer muscular strength and power of lower limb to ball speed better than children with lower motor abilities.

-       In a baseball study focused on shoulder strength and power in high school baseball players, a six week training program focused on either:

1) controlled motion exercises (using bodyweight, dumbbells & tubing)

2) explosive motion exercises using constant air resistance machines

3) plyometrics (explosive motion exercises using 4-8lb medicine balls & tubing)

All three programs were effective in increasing shoulder strength & power. Group 1 was most effective in increasing shoulder strength, while groups 2 & 3 were most effective in increasing shoulder. Therefore, it would be acceptable to conclude that a combination of all three training programs would be beneficial for tennis athletes to improve strength and power in the shoulder region.

-       Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has inconsistent results in the literature and may not be a valuable tool to monitor overtraining

-       The Relative Age Effect (RAE) is attainment inequalities as a result of interactions between biological age and age-grouping procedures. In simple terms it is when an older kid (i.e. someone born in February is perceived to be more athletic than a younger kid (i.e. born in December) and chosen for teams or talent squads over the younger kid. A very good study found the influence of the RAE varies across age groups, but is most pronounced  between the ages 9-12. This is very important for coaches and parents to understand that during this time period, a 6-12 month difference in birth month can have a major impact on perceived sports competency.

-       When working with older adults higher speed resistance training (i.e. power training) improves peak power but also shifts the point at which peak power was produced to lower external resistances. This is beneficial for older populations.

-       In a different study also focused on power training in the older population, functional fitness is positively influenced by muscular power.

-       Consumption of leucine-enriched essential amino acids mixture suppressed exercise-induced muscle damage and muscle soreness (DOMS), and aided muscle recovery.

-       In college athletics the majority of the athletes use at least one dietary supplement. However, the overall nutrition and dietary supplement knowledge is inadequate.

-       A study looking at basketball camp found that parents descriptions of an optimal motivational environment involved focusing children on their effort, improvement and positive interactions with other campers and coaches.

Photo credit: https://traineracademy.org/