4. COMMUNICATIONS. A lack of communications between the tennis staff and the fitness staff is a big problem that can impede positive training and even cause injury. Training and technique in any sport are interdependent, and insufficient development of one aspect limits the progress and potential of the others. You know what I mean. We’ve all seen those athletes with murderous serves who rarely make it through to the finals because they don’t have the physical stamina to perform optimally throughout a marathon match. Borrowing from the ancient Greeks, the goal should be a sound tennis mind in an equally sound tennis body.

To get the best results, the tennis coach must determine which skills the player needs to improve on the court, and then the fitness coach must develop the player’s body to accomplish those goals. You don’t want to be training a baseline player like you would a serve-and-volley player. You don’t just go into the gym and start throwing the weight around. You get a very specific plan, and that’s the challenge of training athletes, because they’re all different.

Justine Henin-Hardenne is a great case study. Her long-time coach Carlos Rodriguez tells the story of when we first met to evaluate Justine. “He (Pat) told me that she played like a #1, but physically she was a #100. Because she was so little, she didn’t have much power. ‘Look at her shoulders,’ Pat said. ‘She doesn’t have any shoulders.’ And it was true. Before working with Pat, after three or four games she would be tired because she had to jump a lot. So the three of us talked and developed a plan just for her, and now she has won four Grand Slams.” Teamwork!  

5. WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH? There are a couple of philosophies on how much time to spend training. One focuses on repetition for greater periods of time, while the other is much shorter in duration but more intense. I have used both. Jim Courier used to spend hours each day working out, while Justine keeps her workouts short but very intense.

I see parents with sons or daughters who are twelve, thirteen, fifteen years old who think their child should be hitting the ball six hours a day. I always feel that if you don’t have quality, you’re learning mistakes. “It’s pretty amazing what we can accomplish in an hour,” Justine once told me. “You can have a really long recovery, but it’s not often that we use a long recovery. In a match we have twenty-five seconds between points, so during a workout it’s very important to keep to that. And if we go forty-five minutes, I have to give 100% throughout.”

 In the end it’s your job as coach to determine which approach and how much is best for each of your players. But in either case, it must be quality time requiring the player’s total dedication to and focus on what needs to be accomplished. 

6. UNDERSTANDING YOUR ROLE. The fitness coach has a critical role to play in the development and success of the player, but he or she is not the person responsible for developing the player’s technique. That is the domain of the tennis coach, and that needs to be understood and respected by the fitness expert. Champions in tennis are created by each coach communicating with the other and unselfishly applying his or her expertise to the betterment of their player. 

7. REMEMBER THAT THEY ARE KIDS, NOT SMALL ADULTS. The least appreciated aspect of developing a championship training program is FUN! Yes, that’s right, fun. Fun and diversity in a training regimen are important. Vary the workouts. Don’t do the same old drills day after day. Or at least don’t do them the same old way. Be unpredictable at times. Introduce new challenges. Mix things up so your players are never complacent. Add enjoyable incentives for achievements.

The most effective drill I can recommend in this regard is probably the simplest, yet my kids – from the teenage years of Sampras and Agassi to today’s crop of rising stars — look forward to it and work harder at it than any other thing I have them do. All you need to do is have them put down their racquets and substitute in a weight-appropriate medicine ball. It’s my favorite exercise because the players are doing tennis specific strength training with the medicine ball, they’re learning patience, and they’re learning strategy. At its heart, medicine ball is a mimicking drill – because players execute shots with more than the usual weight in their hands.

Click here to read Coaching Mistakes 1 Through 3!