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QUESTION:
Charles: Most people say you
can improve your tennis game with strength training; however,
I see few top-notch pros with physiques that are above average.
Is strength training harmful for tennis players?
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ANSWER:
It’s true, few elite male tennis
players possess the muscular physiques often seen in other anaerobic
strength endurance sports such as baseball, basketball, football,
etc...
Even more perplexing, some top female
tennis players, such as Venus Williams do possess superior levels
of muscularity compared to their male counterparts.
Is there an
ideal level of hypertrophy for male or female tennis players?
I don’t think so.
I suspect that tennis, the quintessential
gentleman’s sport, may have dodged the no- so-gentlemanly iron
a little longer than other sports and is just now catching on. There’s
no reason that strength training would improve physical capacity
in other games but not in racquet sports.
Michael Chang, who champions the case
study supporting strength training with his well-developed lower
body, developed a hard-hitting baseline game despite a lack of advantageous
height.
Tennis requires high levels of starting
strength, agility, strength endurance, and flexibility. All of these
qualities improve with a properly executed strength training program.
Let’s look at them one by one:
Starting Strength
Starting strength,
or the ability to recruit as many motor units (all the muscle fibers
controlled by one motor nerve) as possible in an instant is required
from the first swing of the racquet. It is technically considered
a component of speed strength.
It should be obvious that 80-140 MPH
serves and furious sprints to the ball are not performed without
quickly accessing high-threshold motor units. Of course, muscle
fibers usually remain somewhat dormant until presented with tension
that "recruits" them in order to overcome the resistance.
This challenge can easily be provided
in the form of a well-designed resistance training program. Once
the motor units have been trained, it becomes much easier to access
them for tasks that require acceleration against small resistances,
i.e., the racquet.
Explosive Strength
Explosive strength
is the ability to keep muscle fibers activated once they have been
innervated— it is the second component of speed strength.
Explosive strength is required for
sprinting after a return, or generally, any rapid accelerative movements.
This presents the most obvious need for strength training which
can be developed in the weight room very easily and safely.
Remember not to mistake strength training
with bodybuilding. The development of force can be greatly increased
without significant gains in mass. Athletes are recognizing the
need for strength training in tennis at a very rapid rate.
Agility
Agility
is the ability to integrate starting strength, explosive strength,
and balance within a single movement or movement pattern.
A common tactic employed in tennis
is to physically and neurally exhaust an opponent by constantly
firing cross-court shots, forcing repeated and rapid directional
changes, debilitating the opponent’s energy stores and strength
levels.
Because it is a complex quality, agility
is a trainable characteristic. A strength training program won’t
make a player look like Flex Wheeler, but the improvement in agility
will save him in the late sets.
Strength Endurance
Strength endurance
is the ability to perform sub-maximal efforts over a duration of
time.
Tennis matches often endure for four
or more hours. Increased levels of maximal strength provide a strength
reserve so that, for example, repetitive tasks which used to require
say, 21% of a player’s maximal strength might now require 17%
of maximal strength. This is what improves the player’s ability
to remain effective for a longer period of time.
Flexibility
A great concern among tennis coaches
and players is that resistance training will decrease an athlete’s
range of motion (ROM). Although resistance training without stretching
might limit an athlete’s ROM, performing regular stretching
exercises will prevent a loss of flexibility.
Although many athletes believe they
are better or healthier athletes when they are more flexible, there
is such a thing as too much flexibility.
Limit your flexibility training to
ROM development specific to performing your sport, with a bit of
room to spare for unforeseen events, such as slipping into a partial
split position as you reach for a long ball.
Two things scare me (and Austin Powers):
nuclear weapons and carnies! Please don’t show me your contortionist
act, save it for the circus.
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