Fitness testing for younger athletes is one of the most important areas to help understand how and when to increase training, monitoring progress, evaluating areas in need of improvement as well as provide motivation. Over the past 20 years I have spent a large part of my time researching and testing thousands of competitive tennis players with the goal of better understanding what areas correlate with tennis results, increase/decrease likelihood of injuries, increase movement capabilities and also ball velocity and spin rate (RPM). Testing is so valuable if done correctly and we have learned a lot over the past few decades about the most important areas in need of improvement for tennis athletes. One thing that is certain is that winning tennis matches is a complex interplay of physical, tactical, technical and mental capabilities. It is very difficult to be a successful player if you have major weaknesses in any of these areas. In this article we will be highlighting the need to focus on the physical side and specifically fitness testing as a method to speed improvement and focus on the most important areas for the younger athlete. This is an area that unfortunately is rarely done correctly due to the fact that the needs of the young athlete is very different from an older junior and many times the focus is incorrect. When we say a “young athlete” we are talking about the pre-pubertal age group. This varies based on each individual, but as a general guide it is usually under the age of 14 for males and usually 1-2 years younger for the female player.
So many possible tests exist that can be used, but we recommend to use tests that have been used for a number of years with quality normative data available specifically for tennis athletes and are:
- Specific (designed to assess an athlete’s fitness with an emphasis on tennis)
- Valid (test what it is supposed to test)
- Reliable (capable of consistent repetition)
When testing younger athletes “Pre-Pubertal” athletes for example (usually <14 years of age) it is important to use simple tests, easy to implement and provide good quality insights into performance that are important on the tennis court. We recommend the following areas:
- Flexibility/Mobility
- Speed
- Agility
- Lower Body Power
- Upper Body Power
- Rotational (Tennis-Specific) Power
- Tennis Specific Endurance
- Aerobic Capacity
Although other areas can also be assessed, this is a very good list of important areas that should be monitored on a regular basis. We recommend testing at least every three months to determine if the training program is working, if the athlete is improving consistently in the various areas, or which areas may be lagging. This allows you to put more emphasis on the lagging areas and speed improvement in areas that may need the most work. In many cases once per month testing may be beneficial if you are focused on an area and want to provide consistent motivation and highlight how the training program is making real and impactful change for the athlete.
At the pre-pubertal ages we do not recommend comparing data to others frequently. The big reason is so many factors change as the athlete grows and we know that many of the physical variables at the young do not correlate highly with short term tennis results. However, the development of physical capabilities to correlate with on-court performance as an athlete ages and without the right type of training at the young age, it is very difficult to make up for it later in the player’s development. We have personally tested so many young athletes and fitness testing results are really important to help understand fitness capabilities and the areas to work on, but be careful about extrapolating the results to on-court tennis performance at the younger ages. We understand that winning tennis matches at very young ages has a lot more to do with how many balls you hit in training and how consistent you are. Over time the same areas that help you win matches at very young ages, can actually hold the player back as he/she ages. So working with an experienced coach which can develop both aspects of winning enough matches at a younger age to provide confidence and motivation while also developing proper stroke technique, strategy and building a player who has the areas needed to succeed as they age. As an individual ages we do a lot of comparisons and tracking, but at the younger ages the purpose of testing should be more to highlight improvements, adjust training programs focused on lagging areas, make sure that the athlete is compared to themselves and continues to improve.
TENNIS FITNESS COMBINE
This testing program allows for a personalized and tennis specific program to be developed for each individual tennis player. Based on decades of research, we have specific Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that are needed on these various fitness tests based on age and level of an athlete. For example a top junior player looking to play at the collegiate would need to perform a certain speed test under a set time to be able to compete successfully (from a movement perspective at the collegiate level). We have this data for juniors at different age groups, collegiate players, professional players and adult recreational players. All of this is in our TENNIS FITNESS COMBINE program. This allows for quicker improvements, a greater return on your invested training time, and a correction/improvement of potential areas that may have contributed to future injury. Unfortunately, without effective testing, a generic program will always be limited for each athlete in some areas. A generic program may help improve certain aspects, but may underwhelm in other areas.
To learn more about the tennis fitness combine, here is a nice blog post that we put together discussing some of the important areas. Click Here
TENNIS FITNESS & MOVEMENT WEBINAR If you are a member of the Kovacs Academy you can listen to this great hour long webinar on the topic of Fitness Tennis. In this webinar I break down testing, the best tests and some really valuable pieces of information from experience and the research. Click Here
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