How to Train Beyond Endurance & Conditioning

12. Beyond Endurance & Conditioning.

Our final section in Millennium Tennis is called Beyond Endurance & Conditioning. You see, tennis is among the most physically challenging sports in the world. The player of the next millennium will be more fit, pound for pound, than players of previous eras, and unique to the next millennium, players and coaches will focus on simple endurance and conditioning.

The player of tomorrow will take a holistic approach to the evolution of his or her entire energy system development. Areas of focus will expand to include endurance, power and speed, plus balance agility, and high end reactions and reflexes. Here are few drills that may become common place exercises for the player of tomorrow. First let's use the consistent feeds of a programmable ball machine, to work on one of the toughest, yet most traditional conditioning drills. The overhead and volley combination. We have formed two lines of players with alternating lob and volley feeds. The rules are that no balls are allowed to bounce, and each player hits eight balls before rotating.

Setup target areas as we have to provide clear feedback, as well as an opportunity to score points to allow the players to compete, either individually or as teams. Now let's see our players working on foot speed with the power ladder. After every two volleys have the player recovers and fix step through in an agility ladder. Another benefit of this type of exercise is that more than two players can be easily and productively occupied by using a ball machine. This is an example of multitasking at its best. Another high purpose training development is to combine resistance training with hitting tennis balls. Here we see two of our players hitting shot high balls while moving against heavy resistance. Still another natural option, is to use the same power band to work on closing end of the net for volleying. These are the type of exercises that will make tennis conditioning more fun, and highly effective for the next millennium.

So after covering these 12 cutting edge tennis developments, just what is Millennium Tennis? It's clearly a global approach helping players to master the most efficient technique, to employ the most effective tactics to develop the greatest physical speed, strength and agility, and to establish the strongest possible mental components, alert, positive, and join the battle, and perhaps equally important Millennium Tennis is fun. Thank you for joining us.