Agility Training For Tennis

The tennis game is becoming faster and faster and being able to move well and to be quick on the court is now a requirement to become a great tennis player. Do be quick on the tennis court, players have to be able to move fast to the ball but it is also very important to recover fast in order to be ready for the next shot. Different kind of footwork techniques are used by tennis players and this include, quick and small step, forward, sideways and backwards movements. Quickness for tennis needs to include all those different kind of movements and this should be trained regularly.

Some players are naturally quicker and faster than other but agility and quickness can always be improved and this at any level. To be quick it is important to be able to move in any direction with the right technique and this can be done on court or off court with a lot of footwork drills.

During a match, for most of the shots players have to be on the ball in 3 or 4 steps max and they have to be well balanced when they hit the ball. Balance training for tennis is then an other important part to include in fitness training. This can be done by executing drills on unstable surface or on one leg. Quick and small steps will help the players to be set up in the right position and this can be worked by doing quick feet drills around cones.

The first step is the most important in order to be quick on the court and it should be as explosive as possible. A good and explosive first step will make a huge difference while moving to the ball. To be efficient the first step should be done in the direction on the ball. This seems obvious but a lot of players have the tendency to step backwards first in order to be able to push off better on the ground. Stepping toward the ball in an explosive way is one of the key to improve your quickness.

Once the player is on the ball and hit his shot, he needs to get ready for the next one and this is why recovery steps are also very important. A lot of players are quick and explosive but do not recover as fast as they could do. The best footwork technique for recovery steps is to execute a big crossover step and then to use sidesteps to come back to the middle of the court.

Agility training for tennis can be done most of the time on the court. Having the players move to cones and focusing on the right footwork technique. It is very important to be as intense as possible when doing the kind of drills. Coaches can use bunjie cords to add some resistance and to work more on the explosive power during the first steps. Moving and sprinting on sand is great mean to improve a tennis player explosive power. If a player is able to be quick on the sand he will be even quicker on the court.

Quickness for tennis should then be worked every week and this could be done before practice as a good warm up. This area can always be improved and even some great tennis players who are quick do not use the right footwork and if they focus on a good and efficient technique they could become a lot quicker. This will allow players to reach a lot more balls but moving well will also help them to save energy while running back and forth on the court.

Doing agility training is then mandatory if you want to improve your quickness on the court and to be efficient. Fit4Tennis will help you to work on the area by providing specific fitness programs for tennis.

Patrick Muller is a Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Fitness Director who has been working on different physical activities. He is mostly specialized in tennis and he is leading fitness training for tennis players of any level. Patrick Muller is the creator of http://www.fit4tennis.ws.

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