In last week’s article, I wrote about easing into COD (change-of-direction) type of work. More specifically, I touched on COD drills and some of the best ways of incorporating them into training, especially in the early stages.
Variety was the primary variable I touched on - performing various types of COD drills with differing starts, movement patterns and modes of travel (i.e. shuffle vs backpedal vs linear running).
Intensity was the other big factor - scaling this both with intent (how much aggressiveness we’re using during these tasks) versus picking drills that are inherently less intense (shorter distances, varied modes of travel etc).
Again, the framework that was presented in that article was intended for novice players (developing juniors, club players who haven’t done that kind of work in the past) or for anyone who’s taken some time off because of injury / personal circumstances. So if that’s you, I’d highly recommend reading through that post as well.
But beyond COD drills, we should also be training the underlying qualities that play a role in successful COD performance.
Here’s a diagram that depicts those qualities (Falch et al 2019)
I touched on technique in last week’s post. Here, I want to address straight line sprinting and leg muscle qualities.
While these qualities influence one another (and this is only a model), I will outline them each individually - this should provide a clearer understanding of how movement as a whole is improved by different forms of training.
Linear Speed
Among respected coaches, there’s an argument out there that tennis players are getting a lot of agility + COD training from tennis. So much so that they probably don’t need to train it off the court.
I once thought this to be true but I’ve since changed my opinion. Today, I believe we need a holistic approach - using COD training with and without a tennis ball is ideal in order to develop this quality.
There’s another group of coaches that argue the following; tennis players move in a confined space and only need agility + COD training. In other words, other forms of running and sprinting aren't necessary.
I’m very much against this opinion. Linear sprinting is not only extremely important for tennis players, it’s not trained nearly enough. Here are a couple reasons why you should train it for better on-court movement:
1 - Acceleration
Every single COD movement requires a player to accelerate. Whether that’s a ‘re-acceleration’ - after hitting a wide ball - or a first-step action after a split-step - for example. Given that these movements occur over and over, it’s safe to say that tennis players accelerate often.
So if you’re training linear sprint speed, you’re actually also training acceleration. Every single sprint requires an acceleration to top speed.
And if I’m being frank, most of the sprinting that tennis players should be doing, shouldn’t be very long anyway. I’m talking about 10-30m range for most of your sprint work (and possibly extending out to 40-50m sometimes).
The reason you won’t be accelerating more than this is simple - you don’t need to. The greatest distance you’ll cover on the court is maybe 15-20m (if you’re chasing down a drop shot from the back of the court). And while I still think speed work in the 30-50m range is - at times - useful for other reasons, players need to work up to those distances over weeks and months of training.
In any case, improving acceleration speed will directly transfer to your change-of-direction speed because in both cases, getting off to a fast start (first step ability) is crucial.
Top Speed
Like I said, you won’t be training at top speed often but you should at certain times of the year. There’s a host of reasons why sprinting at top speed will make you a better player (and athlete), but for the sake of your on-court movement + COD abilities, here’s one you may not have thought of…
If you’re faster, you have the potential to reach a higher peak during each movement segment - and especially the longer distances that are now more prevalent than ever.
It’s no surprise that court dimensions have increased - because of this, there are opportunities (albeit limited) to reach top speed on the court (this wasn’t the case 25 years ago).
Think about it, maybe you’ll track down a drop shot from the back of the court? Or get into a better striking position when running down a deep wide ball - compared to your previous, slower, self?
Now, there is a drawback to becoming a faster ‘straight-line’ sprinter - you’ve got to improve your ability to put on the brakes!
Strength & Power
This is where leg muscle and strength qualities come into play.
When it comes to ‘putting on the brakes’ - that’s literally what you’re doing as you’re getting closer to the ball during all these COD tasks. This phase, unsurprisingly, is commonly referred to as the braking phase (sometimes known as the ‘deceleration phase’).
The large muscle groups in your legs are doing a lot of the work in an ‘eccentric’ manner.
Think about the lowering phase during a squat or when you’re stepping into a lunge. Muscles of the legs are working eccentrically - lengthening - during those patterns.
So one piece of advice is that you want to have some sense of control when you’re training this contraction type in the weight room (because it matters for these movement tasks). But in general, improving eccentric strength and eccentric rate of force development (fancy ways of saying ‘improving one’s ability to brake / decelerate hard’) will likely transfer to what you’re doing on the tennis court when decelerating to the ball.
On the flip side, that initial ‘push-off’ / re-acceleration phase - after you’ve hit your shot and need to get back into a better position for the next ball - is highly correlated with your ‘concentric’ leg strength.
Using our squat and lunge example once again - the upward phase of these movements is when your leg muscles work ‘concentrically’.
One tip during these movements is that you should be pushing really hard into the ground (using your entire foot to do so). And not just through the sticking point, but from the moment you start coming up on your squat, until the moment your legs are completely extended - make sure you’re pushing maximally!
Researchers (Falch et al 2019) have found moderate to high correlations between strength and COD ability - particularly when it comes to relative strength (i.e. the ratio between strength and body mass). So if you get stronger, but also add too much weight, that’s likely not going to work out too well.
But if you’ve increased your strength considerably - and maintained or only slightly increased your mass - that’s a tradeoff worth pursuing as you’ll see massive improvements in those instantaneous COD moments.
Plyos
When it comes to plyometrics (and jump training in general), from my experiences, there are both qualitative and quantitative benefits - as it relates to improving COD movement qualities.
First, quantitatively, we want to improve something called ‘reactive strength’. Often measured via some sort of RSI test (reactive strength index), this quality essentially tells us how well we store and utilize elastic energy.
It can feel complicated so let me explain with an example. When you split-step, you’re essentially creating potential energy (as you’re in the air).
If your ability to utilize that energy is high - in other words, you land and ‘use’ it by being very reactive - you cover more court in less time. It provides insights that you’re capable of producing force very quickly - a pretty important quality in a time / space constrained sport like tennis.
Because the other side of the equation means that you can’t utilize that energy and instead, you end up being crushed by it. That basically looks and feels like it sounds - you split-step but get ‘stuck’ as you land, having to re-generate energy from scratch to get moving again.
There are other ways in which plyometrics can improve your movement but I want to briefly talk about the qualitative improvements.
Firstly, when you perform a lot of plyometrics - using a diverse library of movements - you get comfortable being in various positions. But not just comfort, you have this ability to be strong and dynamic in these positions. You can get into a low lunge (to retrieve a dipping volley) and you’re able to quickly/dynamically get back out of that position.
Think about it, in tennis, you might have to get down into that deep stance, as we mentioned, or you might have to react quickly at the net or you might have to absorb the landing on 1 leg during the end of your service motion. There’s just so much diversity in the sport. Plyos can train all these different patterns in a very dynamic (and somewhat controllable) environment.
Secondly, it acts as a bridge between strength training and dynamic movement expression. This is more anecdotal but just getting stronger or just employing jumping drills doesn’t have the same outcome as both strength and plyometric training combined.
Together, they work synergistically - one improves the force profile while the other enhances that force and adds the ‘in a short time frame’ piece that’s so critical in sport.
To Sum It Up…
But that’s the heart of my argument in this 2-part series on COD - most successful programs include a combined training approach.
So you’re not just doing movement drills or just strength training or just jumping & sprinting - you’re doing a mix of all these training types.
What the details of each training look like, how much of each training type is programmed (based on the individual’s unique needs & circumstances) - these are then the important details that elite coaches have mastered.
The way I see it, you’ve now got 2 options…
Either you work with me 1-on-1 - I’ll design a program tailored just for you.
Or, you join my group coaching program.
It’s less personal but more affordable. And you’ll still receive a program that’ll help you meet the movement demands of tennis, but in a group training environment.
Because while I’m obviously biased, unless you’re a coach, you shouldn’t be trying to put these pieces together yourself!