Physical Attributes of a Youth Tennis Player- Demands of the Game

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APA coach Konrad McKenzie will be doing a weekly guest blog looking at topics related to Tennis and the youth athlete.

In today’s blog Konrad gives an overview of the the physical demands of the game using the APA framework of the 5 S’s of Athleticism.

Physical Attributes of a Youth Tennis Player

 

I am passionate about training youth athletes, I have had the pleasure to work in the sport of Tennis and have been fascinated at the athleticism it requires.  When we pause and think about it, Tennis players need to display high levels of perceptual-cognitive skills along with the physiological characteristics of endurance, strength, power & Flexibility to name a few. Athletes will display these qualities simultaneously within a game of Tennis. Whilst this topic deserves a book, this blog will briefly talk about some of the physical attributes of a modern day Tennis player (Endurance, Strength, Speed, coordinative Skill & flexibility) in the youth game.

 

At APA we refer to these as the 5 S’s of Athleticism- Skill, Suppleness, Strength, Speed and Stamina.

 

Energy system characteristics [Stamina]

Tennis is one of the few sports which is unpredictable in terms of point length & match duration, this means that matches could last for a few hours. Typically, the average rally length in junior players is 4.8 seconds with a rest interval of around 10-30 seconds (LTA, 2019). Research papers have concluded that the majority of time is spent in the lower- intensity zones (Kovacs, 2006) suggesting to the reader that Tennis is predominately an aerobic based sport. However, due to the explosive nature of the sport (serve, change of direction and ground strokes etc) it would be wrong to disregard the large demands placed on the anaerobic system. I would argue that actually it is predominantly Anaerobic and high levels of aerobic conditioning will aid the athlete recovery in between points. Thus, high levels of anaerobic and aerobic capacity are reported in high level junior players. Lastly, the style of play will dictate how much emphasis is placed on a specific quality for example, counter punchers will usually have superb fitness levels.

 

Strength & power characteristics [Strength]

Tennis is a sport with a large amount of accelerations (average 4.0m/s) and decelerations (average -5.2m/s) (LTA, 2019). Also, a junior level athlete may perform an average of six changes of direction per point in a competitive game, meaning that he or she will experience forces up to 3-6 times their body weight on the change of direction leg. In the elite women’s game, some findings suggest that players are asked to brake 6 m/s in 2 metres! (LTA, 2019)

Which is interesting if we are in the area of youth development and preparing aspiring professionals! These requirements need high levels of strength to perform these tasks efficiently, gaining a competitive edge over their opponents! Tennis has the added characteristics of being a rotational sport and athletes will perform a repeated number of serves, which require a create deal of strength and power to produce high quality shots but also, to tolerate the repeated loading and shear forces placed on the joints, especially around the shoulder and wrist. In addition the tennis athlete will need the capacity to rotate in multiple ways and speeds to play the shot they want.

Speed

Speed kills in a number of sports, particularly Tennis! Players will need to possess the accelerative, predominantly lateral, qualities in getting to the ball but also recovering after a shot has been played. Whilst top speed is rarely attained in Tennis a player could reach up to 75% of their peak running speed within 9 metres from their start point (Kovacs, 2016); mean figures at Junior Wimbledon showed accelerations at around 4m/s (LTA, 2019). Interestingly, figures have shown that it takes around 2.7seconds for an elite male player to get from the middle of the baseline to outside the tramlines, play a shot and get back to the centre of the court (LTA, 2019). Pretty fast if you ask me.

“Play the shot you want to play instead of the one you have to” Matt Little.

Moreover, athletes need to high levels of quickness and response time to maximise the time they have to set up for a shot.

Flexibility [Suppleness]

As you can see in this picture Tennis will require you to hit some shots from awkward positions! You will see players hitting balls from some pretty extreme ranges of motion. Whilst not every shot will require the splits (or extreme ranges of motion), moving from a split step is an important component of tennis and requires good flexibility. Whilst we want athletes to be display good levels of flexibility we also want athletes to express strength in those ranges, this will build suitable capacity to support the loads placed on the body during a game of tennis.

Coordination [Skill]

This is a big topic and will fall outside of the scope of this blog but to try and put it into simpler terms “Coordination is when the central nervous system organizes the body to solve a movement problem” John Kiely. Coordination can be further broken down into subcomponents such as Balance, Differentiation, and Adaptability. Whilst I believe all the aforementioned qualities will impact coordination; Tennis is an early specialisation sport therefore, youngsters from a very young age will take part in some major junior competitions. Now, with access to athletic development youngsters are exposed to a wide variety of movement problems through physical literacy and global movement skill sessions for coordination and injury prevention.

Great tennis players will display finesse, smoothness an elegance when they play the majority of their shots and a player will have to produce excellent coordination in activities such as crossovers, hitting and decelerations in a variety of conditions.

 

 

Whilst I don’t want this blog to sound too reductionist I want to give the reader a taste and inspire him or her to do more reading around physical preparation for Tennis. I have worked in a few sports and Tennis has fascinated me, due its athletic requirements.

 

Thanks for reading

Konrad McKenzie

Strength and Conditioning Coach

(instagram @konrad_mcken)

 

References:

  • Kovacs . (2006). Applied physiology of tennis performance. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 40 (5), 381–386
  • Kovacs et al (2016). Complete conditioning for Tennis. 2nd ed. United States of America: Human Kinetics . p1-304.
  • LTA Presentation 24th October (2019)

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…we have a small favor to ask.  APA aim to bring you compelling content from the world of sports science and coaching.  We are devoted to making athletes fitter, faster and stronger so they can excel in sport. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — APA TEAM

 

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Guest Post – Training The Core

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This week’s post is a guest post from APA coach Konrad McKenzie looking at the role of the Core.

Core training

The Core is a broad term that is used frequently in the fitness industry. However, I feel we should give it the respect it deserves by considering its anatomy and function – rather than ‘chucking in a few sit ups’ at the end of a session. Once we have an idea of this, we can begin to train this region with intent, purpose and focus.

Muscles associated with the core

At the muscular level, muscles of the core include; QL, Rectus Abdominus, internal/external Obliques, TVA, Gluteals, spinal erectors, and more. These muscles provide a base to transmit forces and are often seen as the vital link between the upper & lower body.

Photo taken from: https://www.yoganatomy.com/why-you-should-understand-your-core-muscles/

Muscles and the myofascial matrix

Before delving into the operation of the core musculature, it is important to understand the complexity of the myofascial slings (or trains) that connect the body and surround the core. Myofascial tissue is made up of layers of fibrous connective tissue, muscle, and tightly packed bundles of Collagen. Although I do not want to delve into too much detail in this blog, a significant proportion of this Myofascial tissue surrounds the core – similar to a Serape.

Picture taken from: Logan et al (2013) The serape effect

This has large implications when we are considering the transduction of forces. It fortifies the idea of muscular and fascial chains driving movement as opposed to individualistic muscles functioning independently.

A further look into the Sling systems

Muscles and myofascial tissue are linked. They operate within interdependent subsystems called ‘Slings’ which, when stimulated, synergistically contract to produce efficient movement – these subsystems are named the Anterior Oblique sling, Posterior Oblique Sling, Deep longitudinal sling and the Lateral sling.   

Photo taken from: https://caseycolemanpt.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/walk-the-walk/ highlighting the anterior oblique and posterior oblique slings.

I want to focus on the Posterior (POS) and Anterior Oblique slings (AOS) – notice how they work in a diagonal pattern. Muscles within the POS include the Gluteus Maximus, Latissimus Dorsi, and Thoracolumbar fascia. The AOS includes the external and internal Obliques, opposing leg adductor complex, and hip external rotators. Both of these systems work synergistically to produce movement and stabilise the lumbo-pelvic-hip complex.

Myofascial slings transfer force from the point of origin to other parts of the body. They are interconnected and organised in a way that allows an optimal transfer of forces. Additionally, dysfunction and pain in one area may be caused by another area of the body.

‘It is the victims who cry out, not the criminals’ famously expressed by Diane Lee.

 

These slings also operate to stabilize the pelvis and spine during movement particularly important if you participate in rotational sports.

Photo taken from: Altis, highlighting the rotation of the shoulders and hips happening in opposite directions. Notice the trunks anterior musculature is pre-stretched in a diagonal pattern.

Acknowledging the human body as interconnected and operating as one system is important – especially if the goals are to increase athletic performance or to improve health.

**This discussion will not go into the depths of myofascial lines and meridians, if you want to find out more, a great book that I am digging my teeth into is Anatomy trains by Thomas Myers **

Training considerations?

When it comes to training the core, I am a huge fan of Mike Boyle’s methodology. He does a great job in explaining the function of the core in athletic movements and provides a bank of exercises in the second edition of his book – Functional Training for Sports Performance.

During Athletic tasks, we want the core to have sufficient levels of strength and stability to transfer forces through the entire kinetic chain; this enhances performance and reduces the chances of injury. During high intensity movements it is evidenced that the natural function of the core is to resist motion in the hips and spine. It is impossible to imagine fluid, efficient movement if these segments of the body are excessively moving, thus ‘leaking’ force, due to an inefficient energy transfer from the ground up. Also, a significant number of lower back injuries occur due to the inability of the core to tightly control rotation at the L5- S1 level. Would you rather be a stiff spring or a tomato?

When looking at programming core exercises my approach has definitely changed over the years. I like to focus on the ‘Anti’ Exercises; I look at selecting exercises which challenge anti-rotation, anti- extension and anti- lateral flexion.

Some examples:

  • Anti-extension exercises – Serve to reduce excessive spinal extension during athletic movements such as sprinting, throwing, or weightlifting activities.
    Exercise examples: Plank, Deadbugs and Barbell rollouts.
  • Anti-rotation exercises – I want to be a little clearer with this, rotation is an important athletic quality – particularly for rotational sports!! However, it seems prudent that we learn to control or prevent rotation before we can fully express our rotational potential!
    Exercise Examples: Palloff press, Bird-dog rows and Renegade rows.
  • Anti-lateral flexion – Many running based sports require frequent changes of direction including cutting, turning, and manoeuvring. These movements often require frequent adjustments in response to a number of perceptual interpretations. The aforementioned movements will cause an element of side to side bending in the spine, if this becomes excessive these tasks become inefficient. Moreover, injury risk is increased.
    Exercise examples: Side plank, Single arm carries and Overhead Palloff press.

    Now, the requirements of the sport will dictate which core exercises will have emphasis but a healthy dose of all the core exercise categories would be considered in a fitness program.

    I hope that gives you some more ideas when thinking about training this important region of the body.

     

    Thanks for reading!

     

    Konrad McKenzie

    Strength and conditioning coach.

     

    Remember:

    • If you’re not subscribed yet, click here to get free email updates, so we can stay in touch.
    • Share this post using the buttons on the top and bottom of the post. As one of this blog’s first readers, I’m not just hoping you’ll tell your friends about it. I’m counting on it.
    • Leave a comment, telling me where you’re struggling and how I can help

    Since you’re here…
    …we have a small favor to ask.  APA aim to bring you compelling content from the world of sports science and coaching.  We are devoted to making athletes fitter, faster and stronger so they can excel in sport. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — APA TEAM

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