What Tennis Players Need to Know About Physical Training

I’m lucky that I found tennis later in life (at age 42). Not only because of how fun it is but also because I was able to approach tennis from the perspective of an outsider. I’m a Performance Coach, sometimes called a Personal Trainer (the difference is unimportant now). My primary job is to keep athletes injury-free and improve their athletic performance. If I had come into tennis and learned about physical performance training through the lens of a tennis player, I may have missed out on how athletes of other sports train.

Tennis is way behind in terms of sports performance overall. It is overun with agility ladders, resistance bands, and cone drills, all of which have tremendous value, but the benefits are not as advertised. Tennis seems resistant to more advanced training. Most tennis players I observe are only taught how to train the way tennis players have always been trained. Their coach does most of the same things they did as a kid, and it can take decades for them to break the mold and embrace innovation.

Imagine a tennis player who trains like an American football player or fighter. Really, I want you to imagine seeing players as muscular, powerful, fast, and athletic as a football players on the court. Combining their tennis skills with a high level of physical training will make them an unstoppable force. The same has happened with players of every sport that adopted this style of training. Tennis would benefit from this kind of intensity and I predict this will become the norm in tennis one day. I plan to do my part to make this happen, starting with my athletes (and myself).

Most of the best tennis players in the world already kind of train this way:

Andre Agassi, in his book Open, talks about the value of his Strength and Conditioning Coach in his career and life. He was way ahead of the times.
Watching the power and strength of Serena Williams play out on the court should inspire you to train better. She herself admits she was reluctant to train this way at first.
Watch the way Andy Murray trains in his documentary Resurfacing. Possibly too intense.
Watch the way Maria Sakkari works out in Netflix’s Break Point. She gets it.
Most pros are leading by example.

Applying what is done in other sports to tennis feels like it should be top secret, but the training methods are no secret. You don’t have to be a pro to get this training, and better training can turn any player into a secret weapon on the court. Any player who recognizes this will have a major competitive advantage. You can start now or you can wait for a significant culture shift to happen in tennis (it could take 10 years, could be 50, sadly, could be never).

Here are 15 things I want tennis players of all skill levels to know:

You also have to train off the court, in a gym. Two days per week is good enough.
The number one benefit of strength training is becoming more resilient to injury.
Being stronger has no downside. Strength is the foundation of power and speed. Strength increases your muscle’s ability to produce force. The more force you can produce, the more power and speed you will have.
Strength requires resistance beyond bands and bodyweight exercises. Lift to get strong.
Strength training does not make you heavy or bulky. It can make you more explosive and, therefore, lighter on your feet.
Footwork and ladder drills won’t increase your speed. It will improve your agility. Agility is your ability to move quickly and with ease. This is not the same as speed.
Running long distances won’t transfer to tennis much. You should be able to sprint 15 yards in any direction as fast as possible, and how you play is how you should train. In other words, sprint more, jog less.
Warmups boost performance. Do them before every time you play, including practice. 20 minutes would be ideal, but even 5 minutes is a game changer.
Light stretching won’t change much. You need to be doing mobility training, and mobility requires work.
Injuries should not keep you out of tennis for long, if at all.
Being injured doesn’t mean you have to stop training or stop playing. What you do while injured can even make you a better tennis player than if you had never been hurt.
What you do to recover from an injury is the same you should continue doing to prevent it.
Every pro I know of has a strength and conditioning coach and program. Get a Coach. Follow a program.
Nutrition, sleep, and mental performance are essential for physical performance.
The same players who say they know what they’re doing in the gym are usually the ones who need the most help and are dealing with injuries. Check your ego. Being open to learning a better way can only make you better.

I can understand why players wouldn’t want to do any of this. Tennis is very hard and takes a lot of practice on the court. It’s easy to justify focusing your efforts on your tennis skills rather than your physical skills. Another reason I was lucky is to have built a foundation of strength before starting tennis. I would always rather play tennis than go lift, but you got to do the work off the court, too. It will make your time on the court a lot more fun.