El Gancho

By Joseph Garcia, El Gancho Personal Trainer

When considering a strength training routine, it should be designed with one goal in mind: improve your tennis performance.

Here are a few tips on how to prevent injury, improve your agility and increase your power on the court.

1. Train with Free Weights-

There are many programs out there that include leg extensions and leg curls. Machines limit your range of motion and controls movement. As a tennis player, it is crucial to learn how to stabilize and control your body in all three planes of motion simultaneously.

2. Use Multiple Joints-

Single joint strength (e.g. leg extension machine, bicep curls) develops strength in the wrong areas. If your strength doesn’t transfer to the court, then what’s the point of having it?

3. Train with Explosiveness-

Some people feel that explosive moves are dangerous. If you want quick racquet speed and to hit with power, then training explosively is a must, because it mimics what happens on court.

4. Train Movements, Not Muscle Groups-

Isolated muscle group training (outside of rehabilitation) has no place in your routine. Focus on strengthening specific movements by using your body to work in an integrated fashion.

5. Train Unilaterally and Multi-planar-

Most strength training programs train you in one plane (sagittal) with bilateral, or two, movements. However, the majority of tennis takes place in all three planes simultaneously with many movements. Some 85 percent of the gait cycle (walking, running) is spent with one leg in the air. Most of the shots you play rely on the dominance of one leg.

CONTACT JOSEPH to reserve a session of individualized strength training with a personalized approach.