Athletic Training for Tennis: How Functional Training Improves Performance

One of the sports in which it is easier to understand how much thefunctional training in athletic preparation may be the key to the success of the athlete / practitioner, is undoubtedly the tennis.

The tennis player, from the simple enthusiast to the professional athlete, normally dedicates most of his training to the specific practice of tennis. Power and accuracy of the shot, rapid changes of direction, stabilization and deceleration are among the fundamental characteristics of this sport, and it is absolutely correct to dedicate specific technical sessions to them in order to improve executive mastery.

However, like any sport, tennis too must constantly deal with three fundamental aspects:

1. Ability to perform technical gestures in stressful conditions and fatigue given by the match, especially if it is an individual sport, where the slightest distraction can cost you dearly
2. Running movements at high speeds which require maximum precision at the same time
3. Accident prevention joint and muscle

We are talking about characteristics which, although directly affecting the execution of specific gestures in the field, must be built up during physical preparation, with general and gradually more and more specific work, through the three pillars of athletic training:

• Joint mobility (especially of the hips and shoulder girdle)
• Coordination skills (general, specific and special)
• Conditional capabilities (strength, speed, power, endurance)

But let's see how these characteristics are related to thefunctional workout and because, if you train respecting its principles and practical applications, they turn out to be a real one "manna from heaven" for tennis players of all levels and preparation.

Why Functional Training is perfect for preparing for tennis

THEfunctional workout differs from any other training system in one key feature: it aims to train i movements of the human body and everything related to it in terms of health, prevention ed efficiency.

Training the movement means training its globality , multi-directionality so that the whole body participates in every single motor pattern which is performed. From simple standing to running, from a change of direction to the expression of a stroke with the racket. Every single gesture involves the whole body and does so under the constant control of the Central nervous system which, through the Neuro-muscular System (part of the peripheral nervous system), directs and controls its operations in order to guarantee its full success in safety.

This necessarily passes through the construction of the fundamental basic conditions to be able to express the movement of the body in space:

1. Free the articular fulcrums along which the movements will pass (joint mobility)
2. Stabilize the joints involved (proprioception, joint stabilization and the center of the body)
3. Lay the foundations of coordination e totality of movements (control of kinetic chains and development of intermuscular coordination)
4. Increased levels of neuromuscular strength of the person, so as to obtain a greater "lucidity" in the execution of the gestures reactivity, speed, power e resistance

How to train to prevent injuries and improve performance?

If we consider that the specific tennis technical sessions are usually from 3 to 5 per week, it follows that those dedicated instead to athletic preparation and physical conditioning can't be more than two, in order to avoid one overtrained condition (to be avoided for every sportsman and athlete). From this arises the need to find a system to consistently train all these aspects at the same time in every single exercise.

In this sense, if performed respecting the scientific principles of global multi-planar movement (physiology, biomechanics, movement plans, activation and control of functional groups and kinetic chains, management of the control center of the body's center of gravity, the core), functional training turns out to be the perfect solution.

VIDEO: Preparation for tennis with Kettlebells and Si-Clubs

In the following video we see an example of combination of functional exercises suitable for preparation for tennis, to be performed in the central part of a workout (therefore after warming up with joint mobility exercises), in order to simultaneously condition all the required skills.

The tools used are Kettlebell e Si-Clubs, two of the functional training tools that are best suited to the needs described above. This because allow to always actively involve the two primary motor fulcrums of the movement of the person, the also and shoulder girdle, in the three planes of motion in space: sagittal, frontal and above all transverse, which for an athlete of any sport, including tennis, is the one most interested in specific technical motor patterns.

In the video we have seen complex advanced level exercises, but one of the characteristics of these work tools, together with all the others of functional training (such as Flying, Flow Bag, Total-Core Pin, elastic, ropes etc), is the extraordinary ability to versatility ed adaptability at every level and specific request.

The advice is always to rely on a certified trainer on the subject who, through an initial assessment phase of the person, will select the exercises and training programs best for each, in order to allow him gradual increases in technical skills in the execution of the exercises and a gradual increase in his physical abilities, without incurring unnecessary injuries and overtraining.

di Aemilius Trojan

Master Trainer of WTA International Functional Training Academy

La WTA Functional Training Academy forma Trainer of Functional Training since 2009. Starting from April 2019, alongside the historic on-site training courses, it offers the brand new Online training courses rich in practical technical content (over 180 video lessons, ebooks and training cards), for specialize inFunctional Training for Athletic Sports Preparation aimed at increasing performance and preventing injuries from indirect trauma and from stress/overload.

To find out how to specialize in the Athletic Functional Training® training system, click on the banner below and access the info page Athletic Functional Training® Instructor Training course.

Also you can download the brand new for free Application on Functional Training which allows you to create training programs both for physical preparation for various sports, for post-traumatic recovery and for generic physical objectives.

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