AUTUMN. Use early autumn for injury rehabilitation and rest, focussing particularly on ankles, knees and hips. Mobilise the hips and low back sitting on a gym ball, and spend time doing yoga stretches for functional flexibility and joint stability and strength. Specific exercises such as kneeling superman positions, held for extended periods of time, will condition postural muscles particularly in vulnerable areas like the shoulder, hip and pelvis/low back area. Towards the end of November and December, the stability and balance created in the late summer and early autumn will allow you to safely work through a phase of 2-4 rep lifts, to develop neural strength. Maintain low impact cardio fitness using rowing machines and swimming during this time.
WINTER. Early in the New Year, use a circuit format in the gym, taking minimal rests and completing multiple sets of a wide variety of exercises, low load and high reps to build endurance. Moving into February, keep the circuit format, completing 3 sets of 8-12 reps of each of a decent number of general exercises. Include multi-directional movement in your exercise selection. In March, cut to 3 sets of 4-6 reps of tennis specific exercises (multi-directional lunges, cable pulls, jump-squats, cable pushes, medicine ball throws and dynamic gym ball exercises) and shorten and intensify your cardio reps.
SPRING. A weekly session of plyometric training throughout the spring will follow on from the strength training in late winter, developing high speed, well-coordinated muscle recruitment to prevent injury. This should include intense sprint drills in the court for multi-directional movement skills and specific match fitness. In April, a couple of weekly sessions of 3 sets of 8-12 reps, performed slowly, will further help to prevent injury by making sure the joint-stabilising muscles are conditioned. Speed up the tempo through May, and in June split to one slow session and one intense session of medicine ball training. Make sure one key exercise at this time is one-arm cable pulls, performed at various speeds to engage the rotator cuff to protect the shoulder after ball impact.
SUMMER. Injury prevention is again the key as the season peaks. Hamstrings and glutes are massively important for the health of the entire leg, since they guide the leg’s placement and control on the ground, so definitely work on squats and hamstring dead lifts. Keep a weekly session of intense medicine ball jump lunges and throws and catches in multiple directions. Sprint drills around the court should prioritise quality of movement over cardio intensity. Stretching will start to take on a more important role as increased playing load rules out too high a training load. Spend a long time warming up with dynamic stretches and spend time learning yoga stretches for functional flexibility.
LATE SUMMER. Core stability becomes a priority at this stage as the one sided nature of the sport starts to take its toll on the balance of the body’s development. Start to select exercises that challenge your stabiliser muscles, like squats with more load on one side of the bar than the other, and plenty of gym ball exercises that allow you to work each side individually. Side bends over a ball work well, anything on one leg, and extended yoga sessions will engage muscles around the spine and pelvis that will help to restore balanced muscle conditioning. Keep up a weekly plyometric session that involves mid-movement direction changes to simulate a sporting environment.