Archive for the ‘Performance’ Category

The US Open has started and it is absolutely beautiful to watch the male and female tennis players move around the court with grace, power, prowess and precision. How motivating it is for us to try to be at least a little bit like them. If you watch carefully, you will notice smooth and quick footwork, strong lower body and core, and many big forehands. The players try to hit each ball with their forehands as much as possible. Rafael Nadal is often hitting his forehands from the doubles alley on his backhand side. This requires tremendous footwork and belief in your forehand. If you don’t have a big forehand, you will get in trouble hitting weak shots from that position.

Any shot you hit, always make sure that you are on balance — before your shot, during your shot and after the shot… this can be easy to do if the opponent hits the balls back to you at a comfortable pace, spin and depth. Nevertheless, as you know, such a “nice” opponent does not happen that often. His or her goal is to make it very uncomfortable for you, and if your strokes have some problems, they will when you have to move around the court in a hurry, such as on the wide ball, deep ball or short ball.

In your off-court training, you want to focus on the leg and core strength, explosiveness and good balance during the dynamic movement. The more you practice it off the court, the easier it will get on the court. You will move fast to the ball and with a good dynamic balance, and the strong legs and core will help you to ground yourself and hit powerful shots from any position on the court. A good balance is absolutely necessary.

Strong Lower Body

To improve your lower body strength and explosiveness, include squats and jump squats into your training regimen. During squat, make sure that you engage the glutes by sticking it out behind you (like there is a chair far back and you want to sit on it) and keeping your lower back neutral or slightly arched. Always keep your chest up, imagining a wire connected from the sky to your chest in any stage of the movement. During jumping squats, lower your glutes as low as your body’s flexibility allows (ultimately, you want get really deep without any strains or aches) and with a powerful muscle contraction explode and jump as high as possible. Land smoothly and slow down the movement with your leg muscles rather than “stomp” hard on the surface. You want to feel and sound quiet like a big cat.

Jump squats variations:

1. Jumping forward, aka “froggie” jumps.
2. Jumping from side to side with both feet together (like a downhill skier).
3. Jump high up, open the legs at the peak, and close them before you land on the ground again.
4. Jump high up and rotate 180 degrees at the peak. Land smoothly. Rotate opposite direction the next jump so you don’t get dizzy.
5. Jump up on the bench or box. Land smoothly. You can step down, or if you feel are well conditioned, you can jump down as well.
6. Split squat jump — one leg is forward, one is back. The landing looks like a lunge position. Explode into the air off both legs, switch them in the air before you land.
7. Split squat jump from side to side.

Perform 30 to 40 seconds of each jump exercise. As you get fitter and stronger, work yourself up to 1 minute. Repeat for 2 to 3 sets for each exercise. As a variation, you can do each exercise just once, and then repeat the entire circle 2 to 3 times.

Strong Core

The plank and its variations are one of the better exercises for your core. They strengthen the abs, obliques and lower back, in addition to the shoulders and hips, and other stabilizing muscles. When performing plank, always make sure that your shoulders are directly above your hands (or elbows if you choose to support yourself on the elbows), the body is straight like a plank with your hips not sinking or pushing up too high. Keep your core always engaged, and breathe deeply during the entire exercise. One-minute plank is a good start, but eventually you want to work yourself up to 2 minutes or more.

Plank variations

1. Plank with arm lifts. Lift the arm straight and forward, hold for a moment, and then gently place it down again. Alternate the sides.
2. Plank with alternating leg lifts.
3. Plank with arm and leg lift. Lift opposite arm and leg at the same time. Hold the top position for a second and gently place your limbs down. Alternate the sides. Make sure to make the movement slow and control, or you will lose your balance.
4. Plank with hip twists. Twist your hips from side to side; gently touch the ground.
5. Side plank. Support yourself on one hand (elbow) only and keep your body straight. Lift the upper leg slowly up and down to add difficulty.
6. Plank with knee-to-elbow touch. You can touch across, or the same side.
7. Plank with elevated feet. This will add more difficulty. You can elevate your feet on any of the above planks.

Perform 1 minute for each plank. Repeat the entire cycle 2 to 3 times, depending how much time you have to spend on your core routine. You can combine the leg and core routine into a full body workout. Do one lower body exercise, followed by one core exercise, and go through all exercises. Repeat the entire cycle.

Big Forehand

As you do your off-court training to create a strong, powerful and flexible body that will make you a great athlete, you also have to take care of your stroke technique — especially the forehand, if you want to dominate your opponent. Make sure that you have a good grip and good finish when you hit your forehands. If you are always on balance at the finish, the chance is that you are on balance during the entire shot as well. Keep your hand relaxed and you will be surprised how much more effortless power you will have.

If you have done all the physical training and yet, your forehand is not where you want it to be, I would recommend to look at the Tennis Forehand Solution program, created by Jeff Salzenstein — one of the best high-performance tennis coaches in the country. Top-100 player once, Jeff practiced with Sampras, Chang, Courier, Rios, Federer, Roddick, Blake, Fish, and many more. He realized how important it is to have a powerful and dominating forehand, and now he teaches students around the world, how to get great forehand. His Tennis Forehand Solutions is full of excellent information, broken down into easy steps, focusing on targets, technique, and footwork in such manner, that it is almost impossible not to improve your forehand. Check out Jeff’s program, learn about the critical mistakes that you may do on your forehand and correct them to get an unstoppable forehand.

If you want to know more about Jeff, you can watch this YouTube interview by Cosmin Miholka at www.webtennis24.com. Jeff talks about his struggle through the junior and college years, gives good advice to parents, talks about the difference between the top 10 and top 100 pro player, and more insights on how a great forehand ground stroke should be developed and what Jeff learned from different coaches in his past.

Because I really like Jeff’s Tennis Forehand Solution, I am confident that you will like it too, and that you will benefit from his videos and advice. Therefore, I would like to offer you a gift of “Tennis Fitness for the Love of it” book if you purchase Jeff’s program, so you can become strong and injury-free athlete with an unstoppable forehand. Just send me an email with a receipt of your purchase, and I will email you the digital version of “Tennis Fitness for the Love of it.”

Feel free to forward this newsletter on your friends and tennis partners… you never know, they may be in need of a great forehand or fitness.

==> Get your Tennis Forehand Solution Program Here <==

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Lunges to Improve Tennis Fitness

…and your overall fitness. Lunges are great exercise that will improve the strength of your entire lower body, balance, coordination, and your tennis fitness. You don’t need any equipment or gym to do your lunges, and to make it more entertaining, there is a variety of different versions of lunges. You will never get bored!

Split-step Lunges

Step a big step far back with your right leg, and sink low. Make sure that your left knee is above your left foot, with pressure toward the heel. Feel how your left glute is working. Keep your right foot pretty relaxed, pointing straight forward, heel lifted. Make sure not to twist it sideways, just because you feel like it will give you better balance. Keep your upper body erect and vertical, with your chest and chin up. Sink low, then push yourself up, feel the glutes working. Repeat 10-20 repetitions and then switch leg. You can have weight in your hands or on the shoulders.

Lunges Back

Just like in the previous version, you step back with your right leg, keep nice erect upper body, sink low, and then push yourself up to standing on your left leg. You can lift the right knee high up in the front, to add difficulty. Do all the repetitions on the same side and then switch legs, or alternate after each lunge.

Lunges Forward

Instead of stepping backward, you will step forward with your right leg, sink low (make sure your knee won’t pass the foot) and then connect with your glute and push yourself back to standing. To add difficulty, lift the right knee high up. Keep your posture erect at all times. Again, you can do all the repetitions on one side and then switch, or alternate between left and right.

Lunges Sideways

Just like stepping forward, you can step to the side, or 45 degrees to the left or right. Make sure to sink low by bending your leg, not your hip and losing your posture. Always stay nicely erect.

Walking Lunges

Step forward with your right leg like in the forward lunge and then instead of returning back to original position, you bring your back leg forward. To add difficulty, you can lift the left knee high up before you step forward. Lunge-walk forward for 20-30 repetitions.

Walking Lunges with Twist

Each time you step forward and sink low, twist your entire upper body to the side of the front leg. You can keep your arms in front of you for better stretch during the twist, or you can hold a medicine ball in front of you.

Walking Lunges with Kettlebell Over Head

You can use a dumbbell or any other weight. Kettlebells are just more intense because of the balance. Hold one kettlebell in one arm above your head. Keep your arm straight during the entire movement and keep doing 20-30 walking lunges forward while keeping the arm up. Pay attention how the muscles in your back are working to stabilize the weight over your head. On the way back, switch your arms. If you don’t have enough space for walking lunges, you can do front or backward lunges with the kettlebell over the head.

Jump Lunges

Get into a deep lunge position and instead of stepping back or forward to the start position, explode from both feet high up in the air, switch the legs in the air and land smoothly (like a big cat) down into a deep lunge again. This is intense and great for improving your explosiveness and tennis fitness.

Kettlebells are great for your off-court tennis fitness training. They will improve your explosive strength, balance, stamina and coordination. The basic kettlebell swing improves your endurance and hip strength, and is very easy to learn. In addition, you will burn a lot of calories and get nicely lean.

When you want to focus more on your hamstrings, you can add a stiff-legged deadlift into your training routine. Make sure to

• keep your lower back straight and bend in the hips rather than rounding your back.
• Focus on pushing your heel up to the sky behind you, and that will bring your upper body down, hinging in the hip.
• Keep your standing leg as straight as possible, but don’t lock or overextend your knee.
• Connect with your hamstrings and glutes on your standing leg when performing the movement.

To add variation, you can use one hand only and switch the hands on the top of each movement.

More articles on kettlebells for better tennis fitness

You have probably seen the colorful rubber bracelets with a magnet, which are supposed to improve your balance, strength and flexibility. They cost around $30.

Can they really help you with your tennis fitness and performance?

The American Council of Exercise (ACE) sponsored a study to help determine if wearing a Power Balance bracelet will indeed enhance your performance. John Porcari, Ph.D. and his research team at the University of Wisconsin tested a college athletes, where each athlete performed two sets of four exercises: balance, strength, vertical jump and trunk flexibility. For one set of exercises, they wore a Power Balance bracelet, and for another set they wore a placebo rubber bracelet for $0.30. The order of wearing the bracelets was randomized and double-blinded, i.e. neither the athletes or the researches knew which bracelet was being worn for each trial. The results of the trial showed no significant difference in strength, vertical jump, balance, or flexibility between the $30 Power Balance bracelet and the $0.30 rubber bracelet. All subjects did better in the second round of tests – a phenomenon called the “order effect” – the athletes were either more warmed up, or got used to the task.

This explains why the public sales demonstrations of Power Balance appear to have an effect on balance, strength or flexibility. In reality, these demonstrations are just a trick. The sales people can easily change the outcome by the way how they apply the force to the body. They can push in certain direction, change the angle a little bit, or push or pull slightly differently.

Power Balance sold over three millions bracelets 2008-2011. If you bought the bracelet and feel cheated, the company promised to offer refunds to the customers who feel they have been misled. If you like how the Power Balance bracelet looks, you can find the cheaper, yet colorful versions anywhere online.

The complete ACE study can be found at www.acefitness.org.

There are no shortcuts to improve your tennis fitness. You need to strengthen your body, stretch after your training and perform myofascial release to let your body heal and recover.

Books and e-books on strengthening, stretching, myofascial release and improved performance are available here, in the tennis fitness love store.

In addition to endurance and strength, good tennis fitness requires a lot of explosive power. You need to have strong legs, hips and core to load, coil and uncoil into the shot. Kettlebells are excellent tool to train your hips, core, legs, shoulder stabilizers and endurance simultaneously. Performing the basic kettlebell swing will get your heart rate high up, almost as high as running 8-minute mile.

Basic Kettlebell Swing for Better Tennis Fitness

Before you start swinging, you need to find a kettlebell that is not too light for you. If it is too light, you may develop bad habits, such as using your arms too much and “muscling” the bell up and down. Yet, you don’t want to have the bell too heavy so you cannot develop a good technique. Women can start with 26 lbs and quickly transition to 35 lbs. Men can start with 35 lbs and transition to 45 lbs, or just do more repetitions. A basic swing with 35 pounder for 35 repetitions gets pretty tiring.

Make sure your chest and chin are always up. Focus your eyes on something far in front of you and don’t lose that thing from your focus during swinging. Keep your lower back neutral or slightly arched. Your stance is wide and the kettlebell hanging between your legs. Bend your knees slightly, push your glutes back and then with a powerful explosive movement of your hips forward (like you want to hit an imaginary wall with your hips), catapult the kettlebell upward. Your arms and hands should remain as relaxed as possible. Hold the bell loosely. Then let the bell descend with a free fall, don’t resist it with your arms. As it is going down, stick your glutes out and immediately explode into another powerful thrust.

Under no circumstances let your chest collapse or bend in your hips. Keep your posture always erect. If you do your hip snap correctly and powerfully, you will feel a little “shake” of everything on the front side of your body. That’s a good thing! Keep swinging until you develop smooth and effortless technique. You will feel how your glutes and hamstrings are working intensely. Your forearms and grip will get stronger as well.

If you handle the basic swing well, you can proceed to a one-handed swing, and you can switch the hands on the top of the movement (the kettlebell’s apex). This will teach you to have your hands relaxed, because if you grab the bell too tight, it is difficult to get the timing of switches right. As you proceed to more advanced stage, you can flip the kettlebell with underspin or overspin at the apex, with both hands or one hand.

In the following video, observe the nice erect posture, relaxed hands, and the power of the hips. A regular kettlebell swinging will improve your tennis fitness dramatically! Watch another video of a more advanced tennis fitness kettlebell swinging.

More articles on kettlebells for better tennis fitness

Kettlebells are great for every athlete, but specially for tennis players. You use the quick power of your hips to catapult the kettlebell up or over the head. You have to engage your core to a maximum, to resist the forces of the kettlebell that is swinging/falling back down. And when you have the kettlebell over your head, because the center of gravity of the ball is behind you, you will engage more shoulder stabilizers. Besides that, it will strengthen your hands and grip, forearms, eye-hand-coordination and flexibility. Last, but not least, it is extremely fun in its challenging way.

Ready to try it?

More kettlebells articles

In today’s tennis game the player’s fitness and conditioning are more and more important. For the player who strives for improvement, the off-court tennis fitness training should be as crucial as the tennis play itself, with the focus on strength, explosive power, balance, agility, coordination, endurance, and injury prevention. In tennis, the key element is great movement—if you move well, you get to the ball fast and on balance and your shots are going to be more powerful.

Strong and powerful legs are not just beautiful but also extremely useful in tennis. Bending your knees will achieve a low base, giving you better balance and better transfer of forces from the ground, through the kinetic chain and upward to your arm, racket and to the ball. As a result, your shots will be more powerful. However, to bend your legs deeply in each shot is highly energy demanding. The tennis players with better fitness and stronger legs will have an advantage.

Having a strong core is extremely important in tennis. It gives stability to your hips and shoulders, which are essential for your stroke production, and it permits a smooth transfer of power from the core to the limbs with perfect balance, strength, and flexibility. A strong core allows your limbs to move more efficiently and independently from each other, and as a result, you will run faster and still execute your shots with precision and power.

In this e-book you will learn how to train your legs, core and shoulder stabilizers efficiently. You don’t need any equipment, and all exercises can be done outdoors – on the tennis court or in the park. A few short routines are outlined as well, you can perform them after your tennis practice. For maximum performance, you should be stretching regularly and perform myofascial release with a foam ball for future injury prevention.

Content

1. Triangle Lift, aka Windmill
2. Walking Lunges
3. Jumping Lunges
4. Functional Crossover Lunges
5. Jump Squats
6. Jump Squats with Open Legs
7. One-leg Squat: The Master Exercise
8. Glute Bridge
9. Hip Flexor Strengthening
10. Burpee: The Ultimate Conditioning Exercise
11. Plank with Knee-To-Elbow Touch
12. Plank with Arm and Leg Lifts
13. Plank with Hip Twists
14. Side Plank with Leg Lifts
15. Upper Back Row with Resistance Band
16. Shoulder External Rotation with Resistance Band
17. Mini-Workout: Legs, Core, and Shoulders
18. Mini-Workout: Legs, Core, and Agility
19. Mini-Workout: Core and Upper Body Stabilizers

Price: $2.99

Trigger points are small, extremely painful spots in your muscles. If you push on these spots, you will feel agonizing pain and will want to pull away. Trigger points can develop as a result of muscular injuries or trauma, improper body mechanics or structural imbalances, poor nutrition, lack of sleep, stress, over-training, and more. Trigger points inhibit proper function of the muscle fibers and therefore create more problems. Generally, once the trigger point is created, it does not want to relax on its own and it needs to be helped.

Trigger points can exist in the muscle bellies or tendons that attach to the bone. Often trigger points create a referred pain— pain that is somewhere else than the trigger point itself. For example, you push on a trigger point in your hip and you might feel pain in your knee. The level of pain depends on the level of irritability of the trigger point. Sometimes a trigger point in the tiniest muscle can cause the most extreme pain. Even tension headaches, migraines or stiff neck can be expression of referred pain. A lot of chronic injuries are caused by trigger points. It is very difficult to diagnose and treat trigger points, as they often refer pain to other parts of the body. Therefore, it is very important for you to be in touch with your body by always looking for trigger points and releasing them before they can create more problems in the future.

Myofascial release will help to get rid of the pesky trigger points. Muscles (myo) and organs in the body are connected or separated by a band of a connective tissue that is called fascia. Fascia is a specialized, tough layer of connective tissue that surrounds muscles, bones and joints and gives support and protection to the body from head to toe. Fascia is extremely strong and usually transmits mechanical tension generated by muscle activity and external forces. When there is a chronic tension, the fascia hardens, thickens, and restricts the free muscle movement and that leads to even more dysfunctions. Micro-tears of the tendons can develop. Myofascial release is a technique where you “massage” and stretch the fascia, so it will return to its original soft and subtle texture. As a result, the stress on the surrounding tissues will decrease and your injury will go away. You can seek a professional who specializes in myofascial release or you can use this technique on yourself with help of a foam ball.

This myofascial release booklet will teach you how to help yourself, especially if you have issues with chronic injuries. Finding and massaging away the trigger points, and performing myofascial release regularly will prolong your athletic career, increase the functionality of your muscles and decrease the injuries that you suffer. Your performance and tennis game will improve dramatically.

Content

1. Trigger Points and Chronic Pain
2. Foot Myofascial Release for Plantar Fasciitis
3. Lower Leg Myofascial Release for Shin Splints
4. Calf Myofascial Release
5. Quadriceps Myofascial Release for Knee Pain
6. Hip Flexor Myofascial Release for Lower Back Pain
7. TFL Muscle Myofascial Release for Hip Pain
8. IT Band Myofascial Release for Knee Pain
9. Piriformis Myofascial Release for Sciatica Pain
10. Hamstrings Myofascial Release for Lower Back Pain
11. Upper Back Myofascial Release for Neck Pain
12. Chest Myofascial Release for Shoulder Pain
13. Myofascial Release Recovery Routine

Price: $2.99

Flexibility training is possibly the least popular and the most underrated element of tennis fitness training. Even though you might have heard a lot of contradicting opinions about the importance of stretching in the injury prevention, it is obvious that the flexibility of the muscles and joints plays an important roll in any athletic movement. The muscles that are not tight can move more efficiently and in a bigger range of motion resulting in better performance and less injuries, because the limb can move further before an injury would occur. A flexible athlete is a supple athlete. With better flexibility your movement and agility on the court will improve. Another benefit of flexibility training is that the stretched muscles get more relaxed, and with relaxed muscles, it is easier to learn new skills. Your body awareness will increase and that itself will help with your movement and performance.

Content

1. Static stretching routine
2. Calf stretch
3. Glute stretch (pigeon)
4. Hamstring and hip stretch
5. Quadriceps stretch
6. Seated groin stretch
7. External hip stretch
8. Supine groin stretch
9. Hip crossover stretch
10. Straight legged hip stretch
11. Spinal twist
12. Rotator cuff stretch
13. Backbend: the total stretch
14. Dynamic warm-up

Price: $2.99

This is The One-And-Only tool that EVERY tennis player HAS TO own.

It will get you out of trouble when pains and overuse injuries could take over.

Trigger points are small, extremely painful spots in your muscles. If you push on such spot, you feel agonizing pain and you want to pull away. Trigger points can develop as a result of muscular injuries or trauma, improper body mechanics or structural imbalances, poor nutrition, lack of sleep, stress, overtraining, and more. Trigger points inhibit proper function of the muscle fibers and therefore create more problems. Generally, once the trigger point is created, it doesn’t want to relax on its own and it needs to be helped. Trigger points can exist in the muscle bellies or tendons that attach to the bone. Often trigger points create a referred pain (pain that is somewhere else than the trigger point itself). For example you push on a trigger point in your hip and you might feel pain in your knee.

This 6 inch, high density foam ball will assist you in a self-massage of your overused muscles. The deep pressure will help the muscles to relax, and the special techniques of self-myofascial release will get rid of the adhesions and scar tissue in the muscles. Your flexibility, function and tennis performance will improve, while the risks of overuse injuries will decrease.

Use the ball daily, preferably after your tennis practice. In the beginning, it will be a painful experience, but the more you use it, the better you will feel and the less amount of time you will need to spend with the ball.

Price: $21.95

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