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Written by John Debnam
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Tuesday, 30 January 2007 10:06 |
Todd Scott is one of the nation's most in-demand fitness trainers, he's a training advisor to Men's Fitness and Muscle & Fitness Hers magazines. You can find his articles on newstands today and in nearly every issue of Men's Fitness or Muscle & Fitness Hers magazines for the past 2 years. A high school champion tennis player-turned-fitness expert finally decided, after a little arm twisting by his tennis clients, to allow public access into his Tennis Specific Fitness Databank to help people just like you develop strength and power to hit stronger shots and win more matches. TennisFitnessTips.com is a website designed to help you "Train off the Court to Win On the Court"... Stay tuned, More Cutting Edge Tennis Fitness Information will be available to you in the very near future.
Every month Scott will be giving you TennisZoo readers some tips for that all so important part of your game - fitness
This month its how to increase the power on your serve
I've been getting a lot of inquiries about exercises to increase the power of your serve, so the next several issues will include exercise progressions that will not only increase your serving power, but it will increase your muscle endurance so that you'll be serving just as hard in the last set as you did in the first. Plus, with the right technique, your overall power will increase in a few short weeks allowing you to crush a more aces and winning shots.
Though technique is the #1 factor you should concern yourself with, once you're sure that your mechanics are just right, increasing your strength, strength endurance, and explosion will add velocity to not only your serve, but to every shot. So let's get to it...
1) Exercises To Help Increase the Power of Your Serve
Power, in tennis, is first initiated by your feet driving into the ground. The harder you can drive your feet, the more force and power you can *potentially* transfer to your racquet. I say potentially, because if you can generate a lot of force but can't smoothly transfer it from your legs to your racquet through your hips, core, shoulders, and arms, well, you just ain't gonna have very powerful shots, much less a powerful serve. It's that simple.
As you can see, you must be able to smoothly transfer the force generated by your legs to your racquet to increase the power of your serve. But first and foremost, you've got to be able to generate that force.
Today and in the next few issues we'll concentrate on exercises that increase the strength and power in your legs so you'll be able to generate the force needed to increase your power. And in the following weeks, we'll discuss how to strengthen each muscle up the kinetic chain so that the increased force you're now able to generate is properly and entirely transfered smoothly to increase your power.
Exercises to Increase the Strength and Power in Your Legs:
Progression #1) The Back Squat.
How to do it:
Place a barbell behind your neck accross the top of your shoulders. The bar should be resting entirely on your trap muscle. Be SURE that the bar is not sitting high on your neck and resting on a vertebre. If you're not sure and you feel pain from the bar, re-rack the weight and position the bar about an inch lower on your shoulders. If this is still uncomfortable, you can use a pad or wrap the bar with a towel to add cushion.
Now that you have the bar securly on your shoulders, position your feet approximately shoulder width apart. Keeping your abs tight and your back straight, bend your knees and lower your body toward the ground until your thighs are approximately parallel to the ground. Return to the starting position.
If you're a beginner, use a light weight that you can handle for 12-15 reps and perform 2-3 sets with 90 seconds between each set.
It's important to first develop proper form before increasing the weight. The more advanced trainee should peform 2-3 sets of 6-8 reps with a bit heavier weight to stimulate the fast twitch muscle fibers that are used on the tennis court and to prepare your legs for progression #2
Stay tuned for the next issue, we'll be discussing the implications of progression #2: The Jump Squat, and how it transfers to the tennis court. |
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