In-Season Training for Tennis - 3 Strategies to Use Now
Beware, if you read this post, your ideas surrounding tournament preparation might be turned upside down.
You see, there are several strategies employed by top athletes (and tennis players), in order to maximize their performance when they need it most. For tennis, that means tournament time.
In this article, I will highlight 3 of them. When implemented appropriately, they can be powerful.
Strategy #1 - Start Tapering
In case you haven’t heard of the term ‘taper’ before, here’s a definition (Mujika and Padilla 2003):
“The taper is a period of training load reduction intended to decrease fatigue and optimize physiological and psychological adaptations before a competition.”
Seems logical in theory. As we get closer to a tournament, we reduce training load so that various biological systems can recover. This allows the body to adapt from previous weeks (or months) of training stress. Typically, a host of performance metrics improve following a taper. And if timed well, athletes perform at their best during competitions.
But what does tapering look like for a tennis player?
Imagine for a moment that you have 6 weeks until the next tournament (or series of tournaments). Firstly, it would be best to divide those weeks into different phases.
In this scenario, the first 4 weeks are probably going to be preparation weeks. Depending on your setup, you might increase volume + intensity over that time period.
But those last 2 weeks would differ. We probably want to keep intensity quite high - and in some cases, continue increasing this variable. On the flip side, training volume would decrease considerably.
Consider this - research (Vachon et al 2020) suggests that a 41-60% decrease in training volume is best for sports like running, cycling and swimming. While it’s unclear how much is best for team + individual sport athletes (like tennis players), somewhere in that range is likely appropriate.
Let’s use 50% as a benchmark for a moment. Think about it for a second. If we reduce training by 50%, we might go from 20 hours of training in prep weeks, to 10 hours in pre-tournament weeks!
This approach is contrary to what many in tennis do - and that's to increase the time spent on the court right up until the first match of a tourney. And these folks then wonder why they’re underperforming.
But what if we do take this approach? In other words, decrease the volume of work but maintain/continue to increase the intensity - how much a player lifts in the weight room, how explosive they are during their on-court practices and so on. What happens then?
Usually 3 things:
The body gets much needed rest. And is able to adapt to the training stress from previous weeks.
Players feel fresh - not just physically but mentally too.
If we continue increasing intensity, we begin approaching match-like conditions. And match intensities always outweigh practice intensities.
Using a taper requires mental discipline as it’s often counterintuitive for many players and coaches. Take it from me though, it works.
Strategy #2 - Combat Detraining
Detraining is another important sport science concept that both coaches and players should understand.
According to Mujika and Padilla (2000):
“The principle of training reversibility states that whereas regular physical training results in several physiological adaptations that enhance athletic performance, stopping or markedly reducing training induces a partial or complete reversal of these adaptations, compromising athletic performance. In other words, the reversibility principle is the principle of detraining.”
If you’ve ever taken a break from training, you’ve likely experienced detraining to some degree. Whether that be a decrease in strength, explosiveness, sport skill or some other quality - we’ve all been there.
But I’ve seen far too many scenarios where a certain physical parameter becomes detrained. In many cases, it’s not because of injury, illness or a purposeful break. Instead, it’s due to a complete cessation of a certain training modality. Or simply too many events in succession which, as a result, force a player to place off-court training on hold.
The problem with too many events is that many performance measures actually decline. Because not only are we losing certain qualities from playing too much tennis (think of the repetitive nature of the sport), players that compete or play too often aren’t training enough. And thus, not developing any long-term athleticism.
For example, in a 2015 study, Murphy et al tested a group of elite level international juniors during a 4-week competitive ITF tour. After the 4-week tour, the researchers found that acceleration and speed characteristics - over 5m, 10m and 20m - decreased significantly over that time period.
Other than agility and aerobic factors - which tennis-play inherently develops - every other performance metric was trending downwards. After only one, 4 week tour!
Three Key Takeaways:
Be strategic with tournament schedules. I’ve done a poor job of this in the past thinking “oh it’s just one more tournament, let’s play it”. But this type of thinking ends up impeding long-term progress. More than 3-4 weeks (max) of events in a row is simply too much!
Keep training during tournaments. You won’t train as frequently and most workouts will be less intense but strength, power + speed qualities can definitely be maintained. Otherwise, like you saw above, they’ll start to drop off.
Practice less tennis. I know this might sound crazy to some but if you’re making it deep into tournaments, do you need more tennis practice? I’m not saying don’t hit at all but those intense sessions should be used strategically. If you’re not making it deep into draws, then training between tournaments will depend on why you’re not making it deeper. Is it due to lack of tennis skills/abilities? Or athleticism? Or both? Or something else entirely?
The beauty behind training (strategically) all year round is that when you do take a break, you don’t lose much of your previous gains. On top of that, when you restart training, you regain form at a faster rate. This is called the ‘rebound effect’ and is something well-trained athletes take advantage of time and again.
Strategy #3 - Use Pre-Match Workouts to Potentiate
There are a variety of things that can be done the day before a match. Personally - and this goes beyond conventional, I like to do some ‘potentiating’ workouts.
These workouts aren’t your typical type of workouts. We are trying to potentiate, not stimulate - there’s a difference between the two. That means that 2 conditions must be met:
These workouts need to be lighter in volume compared to a normal workout.
They also need to be intense enough where players are getting the ‘neural’ response that we’re after; but not so intense that we’re grinding out reps or contributing to potential soreness + fatigue on the next day.
Typically, I like to include an Olympic lift (usually a snatch variation). The aim is to elicit a high response in terms of the nervous and hormonal systems. On top of that, a snatch contains little to no impact stress on joint + muscular systems - compared to things like change-of-direction drills, repeat jumps or sprints.
Why a snatch instead of a clean?
I have found that the clean disrupts on-court tennis hitting + timing to some degree. My hypothesis here is that it’s more about the weight, and not so much the movement.
You see, the clean can be loaded much more compared to the snatch (because of the different catching positions between the lifts - i.e. catching on the shoulders vs overhead). Because of this, it often becomes more of a strength activity, compared to a power/speed exercise.
Apart from an Olympic lift, we might do some upper body work. Usually a mix of something a little heavier + multijoint (like a landmine press or DB press) and some structural shoulder girdle exercises (like flies, front/side raises etc).
If a player is battling some arm/shoulder issues, I only prescribe the non-dominant arm. Two reasons why you should consider this.
Firstly, studies have shown that even the limb that isn’t working might get up to 50% of the strength benefits (this is a systemic nervous system response).
Secondly, we’re still going to reap the benefits from a hormonal perspective. Specifically, we’ll upregulate testosterone - which is ESPECIALLY important for female players who are already low on this hormone to begin with.
Finally, we’ll include a rotational trunk exercise and some med ball throws - which might be done on the tennis court prior to our on-court tennis warm-up.
The importhing thing here is that we’re potentiating, not stimulating. If we do too many reps, sets and/or load, we might inhibit performance, rather than ignite it.