#Off-CourtTraining Protocol #Barefoot for My Young #Tennis Client:

I introduced you to my young tennis client, Cosmina (Cosmi) a number of blog posts ago. I thought as a new year begins (2023!!!), I would feature her going through segments of an off-court tennis-specific training regime – BAREFOOT – in my gym. Please view, read along and, hopefully, learn something new!!

Below, I am testing the stability of Cosmi’s knees. Her technique is not perfect but she will get better at this. I want her to have the toes flush against the wall and her face and hands almost touching the wall. From upright, she must squat as low as possible, keeping her feet on the floor and trying not to fall backwards. The deeper she can go, the more stable her knee joints. The muscles connected to her knees and her gluteal muscles are getting stronger, thus reducing the risk of tennis knee issues.

Above, Cosmi is balancing at a 15 degree angle on a slant board with her left foot in pronation (by far her weakest angle position). When we started this 6 months ago, Cosmi could not hold the position on either foot for more than 8 seconds. She is now up to 24 seconds on the right and 21 seconds on the left…the goal being 30 seconds on each. Being able to stabilize around the ankle is critical to avoiding needless serious ankle strains, sprains or fractures. We are now doing drills to strengthen all around the ankles but mainly in pronation.

Below (the next 2 photos), are part of the aerobic endurance portion of her training, Cosmi runs the stairs BAREFOOT for 1, 2 or 3 minutes in combination with the same length of time on a rower (Concept II) and footwork drills through a 15 foot long floor ladder (photo 2 below), These are done consecutively 3 times with no rest. She has improved her pace and endurance to where her recovery between points, games and sets is significantly better.

In the 2 photos above, Cosmi is working on her multi-tasking skills – balance, hand-eye coordination, reaction time and strength endurance. The grey ball weighs 2.5 kilograms and the blue ball weighs 1.5 kilograms. I toss the balls randomly high, low, side and middle one at a time. Cosmi must catch either ball in 1 hand and quickly toss it back to me. She could not even balance on the Bosu ball initially. Now, she can do the drill for 1 minute on each leg. She almost never drops a ball even with the pace getting faster each week. This is an exceedingly difficult drill but Cosmi now makes it look easy.

The 3 photos below feature Cosmi doing Plyometric jumps (explosive power) off a box (5 to 7 reps first – see Photo 1) before 1-legged hopping and holding the landing (balance, leg strength and movement precision) over the hurdles (Photo 2) and finishing with full circles around a series of pylons (Photo 3). She then does the drill in reverse. She always does this with her racquet held in the ‘ready’ position and barefoot for improved reactivity. Her level of excellence on the drill is now outstanding.

The 2 photos above show Cosmi working on a quick 1st step – currently, one of her few physical weaknesses. She starts from 1 knee, explodes straight up and immediately pushes off into a rhythmic step to the next pylon. She drops down and repeats the movement from pylon to pylon and back x 4 circuits. The goal is to react faster each week and get to each pylon quicker. She is improving but there is still room for improvement.

The 4 photos below show Cosmi blocking out external distractions in order to perform a specific tennis-related skill (Photo 1 – Cosmi balances on the Bosu ball 1-legged with a tennis ball in each hand facing the wall. I call out “right, left, left, right, right etc” rapidly. Cosmi must respond accurately by throwing the ball from the correct hand and catching it in the same hand. I randomly toss the stability ball with force to her right and left side, head, back, hips and legs). She does the drill now for 2 minutes on each leg virtually never dropping a ball or losing her balance and focus. For the first few months, she failed at certain components every time. The carryover to the court in her ability to block out distractions has been impressive. She now usually shows laser focus!

In Photos 2 and 3 below, she is doing a ‘blind’ reaction drill to improve her brain processing of external information, foot speed and accuracy of movement – all critical to high level tennis performance. I toss or roll a tennis ball past Cosmi from behind. She must get to the thrown ball before it bounces twice or the rolled ball before it reaches the furnace. Cosmi must pick up the ball early and react within milliseconds. We just started the drills and she is already performing them better. I anticipate her getting to shots faster, hitting the ball on the rise and improving her on-court foot speed during lessons and matches.

Photo 4 involves the use of a 6-sided super ball. Cosmi starts by standing 10 feet away from the wall. She then throws the ball against the wall and tries to catch it cleanly. If she does so 19 times in 1 minute, I move her in by 1 foot. The pattern continues until she gets to 4 feet. The caveat is that the 6-sided ball can bounce off the wall in any direction – there is no way to predict the pattern. It took Cosmi 4 sessions to hit a minimum of 19 catches from 10 feet. She is now at 8 feet and improving her reaction time, accuracy of response and hand-eye coordination.

Below (Photo 1), Cosmi does a full core-arm exercise using the roller. From her knees, she slowly rolls herself out to full extension and back. She does this to the right, left and middle 3 times each. There must be NO flinging of the roller back toward the body. Cosmi has to gradually return to her start position. At the early stages, Cosmi could not go more than 1 foot forward without collapsing. I cannot stress how difficult it is to go to full extension and back. It is one of the best core-arm strengthening exercises essential for tennis excellence.

The 2 photos above show Cosmi doing paddle push-ups – Photo 1 turning the hands in and Photo 2 turning the hands out. She is up to 10 reps (from 2 reps 7 weeks ago) of the hands in and 3 reps (from NONE 7 weeks ago) of hands out. The goal is to strengthen the areas around the wrists, elbows and shoulders to help Cosmi avoid the dreaded tendon/ligament/joint issues that plague virtually all tennis players at some point. These are done religiously in our sessions – they are simply too important for injury prevention. To date, Cosmi has been virtually injury-free even as she goes through a growth spurt, hits puberty and plays high level tennis 8 to 12 hours per week.

Simulated dead-lifts shown in the 2 photos above help strengthen Cosmi’s hamstring , gluteal, back and calf muscles (all in the extensor chain). These were areas of weakness that limited her fatigue tolerance during long tennis rallies and inhibited her recovery between points. She now does 8 reps of each of 4 gradually increasing kettle-bell weights x 3 sets with no rest. The heaviest bell weighs 18 pounds. Her technical skill level in this is now off the charts but the work required continues.

Photos 1 and 2 below show Cosmi practicing her jump serve using 3 levels of tension bands. She must be perfect in her technique on each repetition within a 30 second segment against 10, 20 and 30 pound resistance. From not being able to do the action versus a 10 pound resistance, Cosmi can now handle up to 30 pounds without failure. The carryover of the improved strength in the serving motion has allowed Cosmi to serve harder regularly with no shoulder/elbow discomfort.

Cosmi uses different weighted medicine balls in the 3 photos above to improve her forehand-backhand (Photos 1 and 2) and serving (Photo 3) action power. She must toss the ball across her body and send it as far and straight as possible (5 reps per side of 8, 10 and 12 pound balls) while, in Photo 3, she must slam the medicine ball (weights 8, 10 and 12 x 20 seconds per weight) to the floor hard enough to bounce up to her eyes. She started at 5 to 8 pounds initially with difficulty. No such issues now!! I may need to introduce heavier balls soon!!

Immediately below, there are 6 different coloured cones positioned in the ‘box’. I call out a colour (either one of the cone colours or non-existent ones). Cosmi must react to my command from the ‘ready’ position and immediately get to the proper cone while making the appropriate shot. She must retreat quickly to the starting point, ready for my next signal. I gradually have increased the pace of my commands and Cosmi has kept up – seldomly making a mistake now. This shows her ability to process information quickly and accurately with balance and power.

Her tennis coach mentioned to me that Cosmi’s lower body was not strong enough to properly protect her knees from collapsing in when running hard forward, backward and side to side. Even though I am a tad reluctant to introduce weights for Cosmi (at age 11), I have gradually done so only after building her strength endurance performing body weight resistance exercises against gravity over a 15 month period. She does not lift dumbbells heavier than 10 pounds and never in movements that comprise her safety.

She does a controlled forward adapted lunge with 1 foot on a step box and dumbbells held on either shoulder. She steps onto the box and lowers the other knee to the floor before pushing off to an upright position. Two sets of 6 repetitions using 3 different weights (5, 8 and 10 lbs x 2 dumbbells) are completed in each session. We started with NO weights and Cosmi struggled to do 1 set of 8 reps. Her ability to explode onto the ball from her feet to her legs, body and arms has improved along with her ‘uncoiling’ speed (arms, body, legs) to get ready for the next shot.

Cosmi’s favourite thing in our sessions – bar none – is trying to balance on a large stability ball. She has been working on this for over 15 months and can finally balance on her knees for minutes at a time. From there, she tries to stand on the ball. This is a whole different type of challenge. She can stand for 1 to 2 seconds – sometimes! It is a huge challenge for her (or anyone, for that matter!) – one that she will conquer sooner rather than later. Getting good at this indicates that her centre of balance is activated – thus, her ability to stay symmetrical under the pressure of match play will improve.

Each session contains specific stretches to help keep Cosmi relaxed through her hips, pelvis, lower back and gluteals. This is accomplished with 1 stretch – the Bretzel shown in the photo above (it is one of several Cosmi does to further guard against avoidable soft tissue injuries). Cosmi must improve to the point where her shoulders rest against the floor (Photo below). She will get there soon!

This is a programme that young athletes must commit to if they truly wish to perform their sport at a high level. Cosmi has made the choice. Now is her time!!

coach Jeff