I don’t train as many junior players now as I have in the past. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that I’m in a position right now where older players - those that are playing professionally (either on a full-time or part-time basis) - take up a big chunk of my time.
That said, I still manage to coach a number of younger players (both in-person and remote). The ages range but generally fall between 9 and 15… and all of them are exposed to strength training in one form or another.
The reason I’m bringing this up is because I often get asked by parents… “is lifting weights dangerous?” or “will lifting weights stunt my child’s growth?”...
Over the years, whenever I’ve been in the weight room with young male tennis players, the following question always seemed to come up - “when are we going to bench?”. No surprise here as most teen boys are eager to work on their ‘pecs’ (and in case you’re wondering, it’s not to improve tennis performance).
But is there a place for the bench press in the training programs of tennis players? There are many that believe it’s completely useless; some even take it to the point where programming push-ups for players is taboo (FYI, doing push-ups for tennis isn’t bad; doing poor push-ups, with incorrect technique, at the wrong times, and in excess, is bad...but more on that rant in another post). Others do bench 3x a week, trying to get that ‘pump’ feeling.
