'How To Train for Tennis'

When designing an agility program for tennis, you must first have an understanding of the body’s physiological make up and how this influences movement.

Three key physiological components need to be understood: the proprioceptor network and how the proprioceptors influence the body’s movement pattern and subsequent muscle activation, the body’s tri-planar nature and the fascia system and how this knits together the whole system. Once these physiological components are understood, you can then apply training principles and techniques to better enhance movement and function around a tennis court. The training principles examined in this article will be plyometrics, reaction training, movement and the transformation zone.

Physiological Principles

Proprioceptors

The body’s proprioceptor network is responsible for the way we react and move. Because of their location all throughout the body, it is these rather than the central nervous system that create muscular contraction. Proprioceptors communicate to our body as one unit, creating the appropriate motor sequencing to the human form to work together as a coordinated unit, which is vital in executing any tennis shot. The proprioceptor network responds to movement and momentum. Once the power of what the proprioceptors do can be appreciated, you can start applying movements that create subconscious reaction of the muscular system via the proprioceptor network, which will enhance tennis agility and function. Below is a table that summarizes the role of the proprioceptors in human movement.

Pacinian Corpuscles	Located in the fibrous layer of the joint capsule
	Exist in all joints
	Respond to high momentum changes in joint position and to rapid contraction of adjacent muscles
Golgi-Mazzoni Corpuscles	Located along the inner surface of the joint capsule
	Have a sensitivity to perpendicular compression and stretching of the joint capsule
Ruffini Endings	Located in the fibrous layer of the joint capsule in extrinsic ligaments
	Sensitive to the speed and direction of capsular stretch, to the amplitude and momentum of joint positional change and to pressure shifts of intercapsular change
	Have an enhanced reaction to rotational movements
Golgi Ligament Ending	Located in the intrinsic and extrinsic ligaments of joints
	Sensitive to tension or stretch on ligaments
Golgi Tendon Organs	Located near the musculotenconous junction
	Respond to a contraction and stretch of the muscle
Muscle Spindles	Located in the middle of the muscle belly
	Sensitive to the magnitude and rate of change in the length of muscles (momentum dependent)
	Provide kinesthetic sensibility by measuring dynamic response, adaption and linear directionality
	Joint mechanoreceptors project directly onto the muscle spindle system and set the on-going threshold of the spindle gammer efferent neurofibers
	Muscle spindles have both a sensor and a motor

*Source: Gary Gray’s “Proprioceptors - The Spirit of Function” Functional Video Digest Series

It is important to realize that when dealing with the body’s proprioceptor network that the proprioceptors are also responsible
for protecting the body from injury. In the presence of any excessive force production or end-range movement that could disrupt or injure the system, the body’s proprioceptors begin to inhibit the muscular system so that the body doesn’t run the risk of injuring itself. For this reason, it is vital to train within the tennis player’s natural limits and do not move into positions where the player becomes unsuccessful, otherwise the very system that we are looking to enhance function begins to work against the player and begins to inhibit performance. So ensure that all movements your client completes can be done successfully.

Tri-planar System

Even though the anatomy text books tell us that the knee is a pure hinge joint and operates only in the sagittal plane, it soon
becomes apparent when watching any tennis player at any level that the rotational forces at play at the knee joint in a back or forehand are massive. In fact, it could be said the transverse plane is the most important plane to train for an improvement in tennis function, since there are enormous forces being loaded through all joints in the transverse plane during all ground strokes. For this reason, when conditioning a tennis player, it is important to create all movements through three planes and, in particular, the transverse plane.

Fascia

The body’s fascia system unifies the body, creating a continuous link through the entire living matrix. It is due to this connective tissue and the fact it is located all through the whole system that the body effectively works as one unit. All of our muscles, ligaments and bones effectively grow into fascia that connect our body from head to toe, effectively providing a complete link through the system, meaning that you cannot move a body part without effectively creating movement through the whole system. This point is vital when looking to improve tennis movement and agility, since this will negate pretty much any form of isolated movement. To truly improve tennis agility, one must look to improve the whole system of the body by asking the body’s proprioceptor network to respond to a subconscious reaction, while integrating the whole system together by applying integrated movements. The strategies model below can summarize the physiological principles.

Training Principles

Let’s take the above physiological principles and investigate three exercise modalities that will take advantage of the above system to enhance tennis function and agility: reaction ball, plyometrics and transformation zone training.

Reaction Ball

A ball is a simple tool to improve coordination and hand speed, both vital for tennis. Stand five meters apart from the client and throw a reaction ball (a ball that, when bounced, will move into an unpredictable direction - click here to purchase one) with varying speeds into the ground. Make your client react to where the ball is heading by catching it in two hands. Notice as you do this how the rest of the system reacts to where the ball moves. You will notice how the knee begins moving in the frontal plane a lot as the body reacts at pace to where the ball moves. You can adjust this drill by adjusting the distance at which you stand or the starting positions of your client’s feet to be close, wide, internally or externally rotated. Try getting your client to close an eye or start side on. The body’s proprioceptive network will fire in response to where the ball moves.

Zone of Transformation

The zone of transformation is the area of the body where all the force production gets generated. For example, in the forehand, the starting point of the stroke is the transformation zone, the zone just between the loading in preparation for the swing and the beginning of the actual swing. The rest of the shot is completed through momentum. We can enhance this zone by working with various tools that aim to increase the load on this zone. One such tool is the core stick, which has weighted beads located inside a container that is housed on a stick. This device is perfect for tennis since the beads at the end of the loading phase of the forehand suddenly rush to the end of the container, further increasing the load right at the transformation zone and creating a large end range kick. This increases the range of movement through the required joint and plane of motion. Just as you go to start the forehand, the beads hit the end, making you react to a force that loads you even further, just before you go to begin the forehand. Thus over time, force production in this critical zone is remarkably improved.

Forehand Core Stick: Left foot anterior lunge, bilateral arm drivers, right rotational at pace, look left as if looking at on-coming tennis ball.	Serve Core Stick: Bilateral posterior overhead arm driver to maximum, up on toes.

The end range kick is shared through the whole system, not just located at the shoulder joint, and is shared all the way through the body from one extremity to the next, thus improving force dissipation.

Backhand Core Stick: Right foot anterior lunge, bilateral arm drivers, left rotational at pace, look right.

Plyometrics

Plyometrics work by improving the body’s elasticity, the stretch reflex and length/tension relationships and by inhibiting golgi tendon organs, which act as force reducers in the muscle. Plyometrics improve the body’s amortization rate, the time difference between an eccentric and concentric contraction, which of course would be useful in improving foot speed. Any movement or foot pattern that you complete with your tennis player, remember to do it at maximum pace, adjusting the foot placements.

A great foot speed drill that encompasses multidirectional foot placements is the caricona at full pace, with unknown change commands, so that the athlete doesn’t know when you ask him to change directions.

Sagittal One Leg Hops	Frontal One Leg Hops

Improving agility for tennis requires understanding of how the body moves. When you appreciate the proprioceptor network, the tri-planar nature of the body and how the fascia integrates and unifies the body as one unit, you can begin applying these key strategies to various training tools such as reactor ball, plyometrics and the shaker to enhance tennis ability and function.

References:

1. Dalcourt, Michol. Training Laws - Part 1: The Design of the Human Form, http://www.PTontheNET.com
2. Dalcourt, Michol. Isolation to Integration Training? http://www.PTontheNET.com
3. Gray, Gary. The Sport of Function. Functional Video Digest Series. Functional Design Institute.
4. Myers, T. Anatomy Trains. Churchill Livingstone. 2004.
5. Schultz, L. and Feitis, R. The Endless Web. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. 1996.
6. Steve Jack
   

Forwarded By, Natalie Pyles

Fitness & Nutritional Expert, Author, Speaker

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