Training the youth tennis athlete - Callum Jackson

It has to be fun

When looking at the long term athletic development model it is broken up in ages.

6-9 years old - Fundamentals (building physical literacy)

9-12 years old - Learning to train (building technique)

13-16 years old - Training to train (building the athlete)

Today i want to focus on learning to train. The all important bridge between having fun and doing the necessary training for your chosen sport. This is the stage in which we lay the foundations for the all important training to train phase. But if we don't have fun along the way then this is where we lose young athletes. As a coach it is my responsibility to build my young athletes technique through a variety of fun progressive skill based training and drills.

So with that being said i would like to layout how i like to structure my sessions, ideas, hints and tips. After trial, error and experience this particular system works well for my young athletes. Pairing enjoyment and physical literacy. I will be covering the following five areas.

The warm up

Speed

Power

Strength

The warm up - I save the heel flicks and high knees for another day. Yes a dynamic warm up is important, especially on game day. I make sure my athletes have this in the bag ready to go if they need it. But with the short amount of weekly time i have with my players i prefer to warm up whilst simultaneously building skills. Reaction drills combined with low impact movement are my favourite way to start a session. This can be done visually or auditory.

During this session with Charlie we paired up a scarf with the same coloured cone. I shout green, he hits his ready position, knocks down the cone, spins 180 and chases down the green scarf before it touches the ground. Straight away hes engaged, were also developing that mind, body connection from the get go.

In this photo we have louis, straight away what i like about this particular reaction drill is the ready position. Wide stance, hips back. From here we begin the drill, it involves 6 coloured cones and 7 tennis balls, the player will always have one in their hand. On command i will begin to call out different colours, from here they will replace the the ball in their hand with the ball that sits on the coloured cone in which i have called.

Speed training - 70% of all on court movement in tennis comes in the form of lateral movement. With that being said a large amount of our speed drills will incorporate tennis specific movements such as the lateral shuffle and the lateral run step/crossover step. This doesn't mean i neglect linear sprint training, far from it. Junior players love to sprint, and they love to sprint fast, linear sprinting is the foundation for learning how we create force from the ground and proper body mechanics. The average rally is no longer than 7 seconds with on average 4 changes of direction per point, this is where the SAID principle comes in. Specific adaptation to imposed demands. I want this to become second nature, speed starts in the heart, wanting to get to that ball. Whether it be spiriting for a drop shops or scrambling out wide shot after shot on the baseline i want my players to not only get to the ball as fast as possible, but also to recover as efficiently as possible, creating efficient movers, only use top gear if you really need it.

In this picture we have Martin performing a reaction based lateral speed drill. This can be performing with or without a bungee harness/resistance band. In my experience youth athletes love to put on the bungee, they find it exciting and fun to use, if we keep get them working hard but keeping smiling you know your onto a winner. Once Martin hears the colour i call, he gets into a low position, snatches the cones and performs a hard and fast lateral shuffle to the cone stack out of the picture.

In this second photo we have Albert, he is performing the same reaction drill as Martin but instead he is working on linear speed, them all important explosive first few steps. This is a great drill for mirroring a player being on the baseline and then having to chase down that unexpected drop shot.

Power training - Developing power is high up on the priority list for a tennis player. There are many methods and tools in which we can do this. For the youth tennis players first recommend mastering their own body weight when developing power. This can be done by skipping, hopping and jumping. Once a player is technically efficient and confident is using their own body weight to absorb/use force then we our ready to introduce equipment. Some of my favourites are plyo boxes, hurdles, cones and medicine balls. Once i feel a player is ready then this aspect of training is one of the most enjoyable for a young athlete. Whether is be jumping as high as possible or throwing a medicine ball as fast/far as they can its guaranteed to put a smile on their face. Here are some examples that i like to use when developing power.

Medicine balls throws, in this particular picture, the trophy throw. This is a real favourite amongst junior players. Firstly because they get to throw a medicine ball as high as they can, but secondly it gives them a good understanding of where power comes from. The player is given instant feedback once the ball is released. Its a great visual tool for promoting power starts from the ground. We can also mimic forehands and backhands, open stance and closed stance ground strokes.

Plyo boxes. Once again, lots of fun for the youth athlete to train with. Soft boxes are a very safe piece of equipment to use. Before jumping on the box i would recommend coaching a depth jump, first test the athlete and make sure they can land (absorb force) with sound mechanics before they begin their box jumps. The variety of jumps we can perform using two feet or one foot is extremely vast and easily scaled to a players ability.

Strength training - Technique technique technique. This phase is all about laying the foundations for the next training to train phase. When we start to increase load later on down the line we need to ensure the foundations of the house are strong. We keep the load light, body weight is usually enough for the majority of exercises during learning to train, but once a player gets a little bit older and their training age increases i will begin to introduce a medicine ball or kettlebell between 1kg-3kg. Funnily enough by adding a small amount of external load I have seen this polish up techniques time and time again. A young athlete may find a body weight squat tricky to perform, almost awkward, but then i hand then a light kettlebell and they demonstrate a spot on goblet squat! During my session i'm looking to lay the foundations for the following six movement patterns. Squat, hinge, push, pull, brace and rotate, here are some of the exercises i use that youth athlete enjoy. Lets first look at the squat/hinge pattern.

Before going on to using any of the training tools you see here, first players would have mastered the body weight squat and split squat position. Developing unilateral strength is crucial for tennis and will help the player with injury prevention later on down the line. The trx, the slider, the barbell landmine and the vipr are all excellent to use as they all incorporate balance and co-ordination and will give the player plenty of feedback when it comes to their technique and positioning.

When it comes to push and pull, i heavily lean towards prioritising pulling exercises. I like to think of it as a car, the muscles in the front of the body (chest/anterior shoulder), the pushing/hitting muscles act as the horsepower. The muscles in the back (posterior deltoid, rhomboids, traps) are the brakes. Players spend hours hitting tennis balls, enhancing their technique to increase more power into their shots. Lets build the brakes so we can support that power under the hood! Don't get me wrong, we still do push ups from time to time. But if we do i use handles (look after the wrists) and focus on a slow eccentric (lowering phase) to build up core strength.

Brace and rotate. Tennis is a rotational sport, so it makes sense to train the technique of rotation. Being able to create hip and shoulder separation to generate power is an important skill to master. This can be achieved through resistance band work and medicine ball throws. But running alongside this, is the all important skill of being able to turn on those muscles which brace and stabilise the trunk. Being able to resist rotation or hip extension. Enhancing performance is key but learning injury prevention techniques and exercises early is just as important.