Resisted Tennis Footwork Drills For Speed | Kbands Top Speed Tennis Drill
A great way for athletes and coaches to improve their speed and range on the tennis court is by practicing resisted and unresisted tennis footwork drills. Building fast and efficient tennis footwork will help tennis players to be more efficient with their movements when they are moving around the tennis court. Tennis exercises, particularly tennis footwork drills, will help athletes to practice how to properly move their feet, hips, and legs to not only move smoothly across the tennis court, but to also put their bodies in good position to make a tennis shot. Adding resistance to these tennis exercises allows for more muscles in the hips and legs to be activated and used during athletic movements. After performing several rounds of the tennis exercises with resistance, removing the resistance and performing the tennis footwork drills with no resistance maintains the high amount of muscle activation, with less resistance or outside force. This allows for the athletes to greatly increase the speed at which the legs, hips, and thighs operate and is also a great time to perfect tennis form and footwork.
Most Effective Resisted Tennis Exercises
To perform the Kbands Top Speed Tennis Drill athletes will need one set of Kbands Leg Resistance Bands, one Speed and Agility Cone, a tennis racket, and a tennis coach or partner to service the tennis balls to the athlete. Tennis players or coaches will place the Speed and Agility Cone at the midline of the baseline and attach the Kbands Leg Resistance Bands just above the knees. For more information and guidance on how to properly attach the Kbands Leg Resistance Bands for tennis exercises go to the Training Section.
A key component of effective resisted tennis exercises is to ensure that proper resistance has been chosen for the tennis footwork drills. Just as a novice weightlifter would not try to bench, squat, or dead lift an enormous amount of weight on their very first weight training day, tennis players practicing resisted tennis exercises should not use an amount of resistance that will be to challenging for them. A key component in the success of resisted tennis exercises and tennis footwork drills is the athletes’ ability to continue to move through their same natural movements, but using the Kbands Leg Resistance Bands to make the movements more difficult and challenging for the tennis player. Therefore, if tennis coaches witness a breakdown in body or hitting mechanics, the amount of resistance used during the resisted tennis footwork drills should be lowered until athletes have gained enough strength in their hip flexors and thighs to properly move through the tennis exercises with greater resistance.
Kbands Top Speed Tennis Drill
Once athletes have properly placed the Speed and Agility Cone and attached the Kbands Leg Resistance Bands they will begin the Kbands Top Speed Tennis Drill. For this particular Top Speed Tennis Drill athletes will only be performing a forehand hit as they move to their dominant side. Tennis coaches or partner serving the tennis balls to the athletes performing the Top Speed Tennis Drill should be aware of this and keep the placement of the served tennis balls at a challenging distance for the athletes. After tennis players have shuffled out and performed a forehand tennis shot back over the tennis net the tennis player will quickly shuffle back to the Speed and Agility Cone placed at the midline of the baseline. This shuffle back to center will mimic a match like scenario in which a tennis player has made a great tennis shot, then has quickly moved back to the center of the tennis court to be in position for the return from their opponent.
Athletes will perform 2-4 resisted rounds of the Kbands Top Speed Tennis Drill for 30-45 seconds. After athletes have completed all resisted rounds of the Top Speed Tennis Drill they will remove the Kbands Leg Resistance Bands and perform 1-2 unresisted rounds of the Top Speed Tennis Drill tennis exercise. When performing unresisted sets of the Top Speed Tennis Drill it is important athletes focus on accelerating the speed their feet are moving, while maintaining good body control, body positioning, and footwork. Coaches and partners serving the tennis balls to the athlete during the Top Speed Tennis Drill should also try to increase the tempo and pace at which the tennis balls are served. Unresisted sets are a great chance to take advantage of the resisted sets of tennis exercises to increase overall speed, particularly foot and leg speed.
Well Rounded Tennis Workouts With Resisted Tennis Exercises
The Kbands Top Speed Tennis Drill is a great way for athletes to work on their court range and speed while incorporating a tennis specific movement, the forehand tennis shot. However, a well rounded tennis workout should included a wide variety of resisted, and unresisted, tennis exercises which also challenge and incorporate the backhand tennis shot, volleys, and overhead smashes. Using resisted tennis exercises with a multitude of tennis shots will allow tennis players to remain fast and mobile on the tennis court while being able to fluidly move into a wide variety of different tennis shots. Practicing these tennis exercises with different shots is a great way for a tennis player to effectively compete during a game. A quick and agile tennis player makes it difficult for an opponent to decide where to serve or return a tennis ball.
Tennis coaches and athletes can go to the Tennis Training Section to learn and explore more tennis exercises that incorporate different types of resistance, speeds, and tennis shots. Some tennis exercises found in the Tennis Training Section take the match like aspect of tennis exercises to the next level by incorporating multiple tennis shots into the tennis exercises. Tennis players and coaches can also find great warmups in the Tennis Section that include dynamic warmups, static stretching, and rolling techniques used with the Recovery Foam Roller.