Tennis Power Training - Part 2

Build a solid foundation of strength – Start from the Ground Up

Put simply, power comes from the ground up.

No matter what shot it is – the serve, forehand or backhand – you’re trying to create a position for your legs to drive from.

Using the legs requires a high level of coordination and practice.

It’s usually better to have a set of great legs than a great “core” when training.

No, I’m not saying to just ignore the trunk but someone with a great leg program and good pillar strength program will always beat those with a perfect cutting-edge “core” system that has average or poor leg development.

Without a good starting point from the ground up, all of the trunk strengthening exercises or medicine ball drills in the world are never going to make you stronger or faster. This is due to the leg being the key drivers of the "kinetic chain" or transfer of power from the ground to the ball!

An easy example of this is when you hit a ball off your back foot versus your front foot - which one produces a more well-hit and/or powerful ball?

How do I pick my exercises?

Once you develop a solid base, what exercises seem to work the best for rotational sports?

If I had to develop a program around a core set of exercises, it would be unilateral exercises, meaning single arm or single leg exercises.

Unilateral positions allow for me to check so many boxes - that we need to check for rotational sports - its hard to go against it.

However…

Bilateral training is excellent for those just beginning to exercise while also focusing on increasing strength, power, speed of movement and other qualities.

I break this down in much more detail in this article! You can also go to my YouTube page to see a ton of examples of different exercises to try out! (Just make sure to go slowly and if you have any pain or medical problems to get screened prior to performing any exercise program!)

Stay Tuned for Part 3 - Learning to Train the Core off the Floor! If you missed it, here is the link to Part 1

If you have any questions about what exercises may benefit you the most, feel free to reach out anytime at Hunter@starkperformancept.com or call 850-912-9203. If you're in Pensacola or the surrounding area then let's work together to get you a long-term plan to improve!