I recently started working with a young 19 year old. As I always do when starting to coach a new player, I took him through some testing (both formal and informal). Part of this process is simply me asking players what type of training they’ve been doing of late, what they like doing and so on. 

Funny enough, this player mentioned that explosiveness is a priority of his. That it’s something he feels has been lacking in his game - he came to the right place ;). I say it’s funny because in almost the same sentence, he told me he was ‘crushed’ from a recent 10k run. 

I don’t want to pick on this player - I too ran long distances when I was his age, thinking that this would improve my tennis (it didn’t). Truth is, he probably had done this type of training with other coaches or groups in the past.

But the longer I coach athletes, the more I notice how different running long + slow (comparatively speaking) is to sprinting. The ergonomics of the two activities are at polar ends of the explosive / non-explosive ends of the spectrum. 

You may have read some of my previous work on this topic. If so, you know that when it comes to improving tennis performance, I’m opposed to training that involves continuous (long-ish) running.

Now, before I continue, I should tell you that I actually enjoy running. I’ve even done some 5k training of my own. And have prescribed some form of running to certain players, at certain times and for certain purposes. 

It’s just that most players (I’d say 99 out of 100), aren’t athletic enough, explosive enough or fast enough…at least not to compete at higher and higher levels.

Running Is Broad

There’s a lot of nuance when it comes to running activities. Broadly speaking, I like the classification system provided by Altis:

1 - jogging: that slow-ish run that can be sustained for a lengthy time frame.

2 - striding: faster than jogging but not quite sprinting.

3 - sprinting: typically running above 90% of a person’s maximum velocity (max or near max).

Here’s a question for you - how much of your training is spent in each of the categories described above? 

If you’re just exercising for health purposes, it doesn’t really matter much - hopefully you’re active on an (almost) daily basis, incorporating all 3 types of running modes. 

If you’re a coach or a serious tennis player, my hope is that the majority of your running activities are spent in category 3 - sprinting. 

Below, I will outline why I believe this is so critical…why it’s my belief that you should be sprinting more often than you currently are. I’ll also divide sprinting into acceleration work and speed work - the 2 subcategories of sprinting I think players need more of - outlining some training variables between each.  

Sprinting is (Mostly) Non-Specific

Here’s my first argument in this post. Tennis players should NOT sprint because of specificity reasons. Sprinting isn’t ‘really’ specific to tennis anyway. I say the word ‘really’ because acceleration work can be highly specific to what players will encounter during matchplay. Court dimensions are bigger than ever so it’s not uncommon to sprint 5, 10 and even 15 meters to chase down a drop shot or cover one end of the court to the other. But overall sprint training is non-specific to on-court movement demands.

You might be saying then, well, tennis is an agility based sport, one that requires players to react to the environment, to change direction multiple times per point and to do this over and over again throughout a match. Shouldn’t we place a larger emphasis on that type of training? 

Perhaps the answer is actually in the question?! If players are already performing lots of agility and change-of-direction movements on the court during matches, practices and private lessons, do we need to beat more of the same into them? Ever wonder why tennis is one of the most injury ridden sports, from an overuse perspective? Because we’re constantly performing the same activities, day in and day out. 

Training contrast is a good thing. And something we should be asking ourselves more often - “what am I (or is this player) not getting on the tennis court, that could benefit his/her game, balance their body, improve their overall athleticism, and so on?”. 

Sprinting is my answer. 

Potency, Inoculation, Contrast

Sprinting, as we defined the term previously, is a potent stimulus. Perhaps more so than any other training activity. It’s a high-force, high-speed movement that will place a large stress on nearly every system in the body. In particular, the muscular, nervous and hormonal systems. 

From a layman's view, athletes that sprint regularly look bouncier, more explosive and more athletic in general. Want to be more reactive off your split-step? Sprint. Want to be more elastic during the service motion? Sprint. Want to get to more drop shots? Sprint. 

On top of that, according to track coaches (those that are a lot more experienced in this realm than I am), sprinting may also help with injury inoculation. This is due to the intensity and tension levels that are produced during this activity. Want to make the hamstrings more robust? Sprint. Want to prep the lower leg for change of direction tasks? Sprint. 

Not to mention that sprinting over distances that are greater than what players typically experience on the tennis court is a completely contrasting movement. I’m not exactly sure what mechanisms are at play here, but this movement diversity seems to help players mitigate injury, remain fresh and perform better. 

Sprinting Types for Tennis

Tennis players don’t need to train like track athletes - I’m in no way trying to convey that. Track athletes are so versed at sprinting, they typically reach max velocity further down the track, compared to non-track athletes. 

From conversations with other coaches - and my own experiences coaching the sprints - it’s apparent that tennis players typically reach max velocities at around the 30-50m mark. I know that’s a wide range but the exact distance will vary depending on the age + level of the athlete. 

In any case, we typically look at short sprints as anything below 30m. This would be framed as acceleration training (because the athletes don’t get a chance to reach top speed…i.e. they are still accelerating). 

From about the 35m mark and above, a tennis player will typically reach their top speed and hold it for about 5 to 10m. So if you were to prescribe 40m or 50m sprints, it’s safe to say that a player will have reached top speed and held it for enough time to receive a potent ‘speed’ stimulus. 

I won’t get into too much detail here but below are my guidelines for acceleration + speed training for tennis players:

Acceleration Training

Distances - 10-30m 

Total session volumes - 200-400m (maybe less if really inexperienced)

Starting positions - varied (see vids above)

Intensity - max (or near)

Rest - 30-90s (less for shorter distances, more for longer ones)

When to use them - all year round with a particular emphasis during a general training period

Speed Training

Distances - 40-50m (give or take 5-10m, depending on level + age of the athlete)

Total session volumes - 400-550m (maybe less if really inexperienced)

Starting positions - normal, see vid below (i.e. 2 point, 3 point stance etc - a forward facing start will allow for higher outputs)

Intensity - max (or near)

Rest - 3-4min (less for shorter distances, more for longer ones)

When to use them - during specific prep training and sporadically at other times of the year (i.e. microdosing). 

Matt’s Final Point

Like with any training modality, context matters. For instance, a 20 year old college player, who’s had a couple seasons of dedicated strength & conditioning training under his/her belt will be able to handle sprint work to a much higher degree compared to someone who’s never included any sprint training in their program previously. 

That said, I currently have players from the ages of 15 to 55 performing some type of sprinting in their training program. Players are never too young or too old to benefit from this activity. So if you’re a player who wants to get faster and more athletic, there may not be a better way than to simply, sprint.

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