Work on your foot speed

Tennis players spend a great of time working on their strokes. They will take lots of lessons or practice for hours looking to hone their shots. But a sure way to improve your game without even stepping on a tennis court is to increase your speed and agility. It’s not as glamorous as learning to hit a big forehand or serve, but gaining more foot speed can win you just as many points.

Here are some numbers for you:

• Average seconds per point:
Clay – 10
Hard – 5
Grass – 2.8
• A player averages 4.2 directional changes per point.
• Average distance covered per stroke is 4 meters.
• The ratio of time playing tennis and time walking around the court is 35:65.

By looking at this data, it’s easy to see that tennis is fast game full of explosive movements. You should train your body accordingly. Jogging will give you endurance, which is good for long matches, but when do you ever jog to a ball to hit a shot? You need speed. Practice sprinting short distances in all different directions (just like you would on a tennis court) and then rest. Do a series of sprints where you run for 15 seconds, then rest for 45 more. Simulate the action of a real point. Try to incorporate sets of hops or jumps, or any movement that will increase your quickness and explosion. You want to train your body to be able to run hundreds of short races – not one long one.