Strength & Conditioning

The Strength & Conditioning Program facilitates physical development and movement competency for all academy athletes. Below are the components that made up the program.

Physical Literacy and Movement Competency Framework

A physical literacy and movement competency framework was developed to help classify players based on their perceived level of development. A range of movement competency drills allow this classification to occur. Once classified, regular needs analysis based on individual requirements are conducted. This not only helped identify deficiencies in movement and physical traits, but also ranked these qualities based on how readily they needed to be addressed in training.

Annual scheduling and Periodisation of Training

Each athlete and their parents/caregivers are required to sit down with the Director and Strength & Conditioning Coaches in a performance meeting to help plan and orientate training around tournaments and club tennis. Once key tournaments are factored into the schedule, specific training blocks and planned and constructed in building foundational qualities during quieter periods of the year, as well as consolidating physical conditioning when the density of tournaments are high.

Player Monitoring to Inform Readiness to Train

Athlete monitoring practices is used to track and manage training load to best inform player readiness to train as well as acute and chronic fatigue indicators. The collection of a Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) number ranging from 0 to 10 (0 being no exertion, 10 being maximal exertion) after every session helps inform training requirements and if the number of minutes spent on court need to be reduced or increased. When required to travel for tournaments, athletes are instructed to fill out a 5-point questionnaire indicating a rating of how they slept, muscle soreness, mood, stress and general fatigue. This helped athletes inform coaches how they felt during periods of minimal contact times.

Physical Conditioning

Once the player requirements are identified,  a range of physical conditioning exercises are tailored to improvement movement competency, such as the ability to disassociate lower and upper limb and load on a single leg. Exercises are specific to the movement characteristics of tennis and progressed based on the player’s level of understanding and their performance.

 

*please note the Strength & Conditioning Program is exclusively available to High Performance Tennis athletes only.

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