Power Tennis Movement

If you want to emulate the powerfully impressive style of play by world No.2 Rafael Nadal, try training on one leg.

Top tennis trainer Paul Gold explains

Who wouldn't want to site like Rafael Nadal? His muscle-bound physique and awesome talent with a tennis racket means he looks the part and plays the part of a player ranked No.2 in the world. It's hardly surprising therefore that many players are hitting the gym in a quest to emulate their Spanish hero.

Modern tennis is, after all, all about power ' power of movement, power of shot and power of thought ' and Nadal is an undisputed world-class powerhouse in all of these departments. It's clear that the stronger you are the greater the intensity at which you can perform and the less risk you face of injury. But can you be too strong?

Could the new gym rats who want to look like and play like Nadal be doing themselves more harm than good?

There is no question that strength without skill or even good skill levels with low strength will produce less than optimum results. But is it really that important for a tennis player to be able to perform a traditional gym exercise like a squat using a 200+kg bar? It could be argued that a squat of 100kg along with great stability, power, body control and skill is a far better combination.

This begs the question, "Why not have all these and a 200+kg squat?" Although this sounds like the ideal solution, discussion of this nature is totally misguided. The main problem is that when it comes to weight training, players (and their coaches and fitness trainers) are often guilty of using old, non-sports-specific bodybuilding principles that focus on building size in isolated muscles through use of exercises that operate in only one plane of motion.

In tennis you need to be able to convert muscle strength into explosive power very quickly. Although traditional weight training will make you stronger, it won't necessarily enable you to convert that strength into power quick enough for maximum tennis performance.

Let's face it, in a multi-skilled sport like tennis, the objective is to improve sport performance and reduce injury potential, not build entrants for bodybuilding competitions! You may possibly start to look a bit like the heavily muscled Nadal, but you still won't be much nearer to producing his level of power ' that's assuming you haven't injured your back in along the way!

Let's examine the example of the 200+ kg squat.

To work on the squat in the traditional way means at best the player loads up the bar to the point where they need a 'spotter' (someone who provides support) for safety reasons. Alternatively, they use a cage that is safer but because the bar is fixed it does not allow them to work in a multi-plane environment ' which after all is how the game of tennis is played.

One of the biggest problems with both of these scenarios is that the excessive loading that occurs to the spine and joints on an ongoing basis impacts on the risk/safety ratio over time. The greater the loads, the greater are the chances of injury. Often players get to the point of 'failure' because of the physical and mental pressure of the bar on their backs rather than because of fatigue in the legs.

There is no doubt that for a player to improve strength they must train at intensities high enough to elicit a strength response (the principle of overload), but there is a better way to increase muscular loading AND nervous system loading ' thus improving core stability and balance in the process and lessening the strain on the spine and joints.

This can be achieved using single-leg exercises ' replicating the game of tennis that's played predominantly on a single-leg basis anyway. You can still do maximal lifts just as you would with traditional double-leg squatting, but without the excessive loads on the spine and joints.

Note - You can also use this type of training on the upper body with the use of dumbbells.

This kind of training means that unlike traditional weight training you are working more muscles ' the primary muscles (big muscle groups) as well as the smaller stabilisers.

Furthermore, this kind of strength training also provides an added skill component to your physical training that will reap rewards when transferred to the court. As far as Nadal is concerned, he is clearly a very talented player who was born with great tennis skills, which he has honed over the years.

His physique and the physicality of his style of play only go to enhance his considerable racket skills, without which he would not be the same player. Try incorporating some single-leg and single-arm exercises to help maximise your tennis performance while staying injury-free.

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Bringing Up the Soccer Skill Level for the Coach and Manager - Article 4, Part 1

Coaches and managers must have a highly effective plan in order to develop young skillful players and a championship team that can contend in competitive leagues. Every coach and manager wants to win games, but to do so requires the proper site of players' skills and should be or must be a priority. If your objective is to develop players and a highly competitive team, winning more games will eventually follow. This occurs if the player skills taught in training are required-to-be-put-to-use in game play. Following this plan, you will achieve greater success. Players will develop a useful self-confidence in soccer and possibly in other aspects of life. The self-confidence gained by being excellent in the sport such as soccer (under my coaching supervision) has proven itself to be highly beneficial to my children.

Before I go any further, it is necessary for me to offer my disapproval of coaches that are coaching young teams with only the desire to win games. Too many times I have seen coaches contradict themselves by chastising players during competitive matches. This chastising takes place as a player attempts, but errs, to apply (maybe for the first time) some newly learned skill in a competitive game, such as trapping and shielding under pressure: The player endeavoring to apply the training received by the coach, loses the ball to the other team, and is scolded. Often, this player is strongly told something silly such as "Pass the ball!". Following that, the player is often quickly removed from the game.

In addition, high quality soccer is also not the aim of some youth leagues. So, it is best to take the time to get to understand the people in your league and their objectives. As a coach or manager, you need to be aware of strong selfish politics that pervade some leagues. There may be those that just do not understand quality soccer and may not support higher standards necessary for the development of higher level play. If it is not a priority, then their objectives may be political and or have a single desire for winning games. Of course, and of primary importance, they are misguiding young people. This misguidance can cause much frustration to those that are knowledgeable on the finer points of the game. If this is the case, attempting to educate them is generally fruitless, and wastes your valuable time. Once this is recognized, consideration should be given to moving over to another league, possibly in another town. This may seem difficult, but if you desire to develop players (including your own children) that can compete at high levels, it may be your only choice. Furthermore, with this aim, as a coach or manager, you will have winning teams down the road.

With this said, where does one begin?

It goes without saying that every coach and manager desires to have a full team of strong players for a successful season; however, the typical team has only a few exceptional players, several mediocre players and a few poor players. Every coach is wrestling with this same problem, so what should you do to develop the team into the strongest one possible? To be a winning coach or manager you begin by reinforcing the basic skills of each and every player on your team such as trapping and shielding, kicking the ball low, and the strategy of correct defending (starting with the goalkeeper). It is of utmost importance that you must not dwell on just the next game, but have a vision of the future. This vision comes in the form of developing skillful players. Developing new skills takes time and patience along with an atmosphere that rewards skillful play. With expectations for a high level of play, players will approach your standards and elevate their skills--slowly but surely. You are not going to perform miracles over night, but if your team players are not aggressive, teaching them to correctly apply the shoulder charging tackle drill makes timid players more competitive.

Self-discipline, along with an understanding of all aspects of the game, is necessary to be an excellent coach. This self-discipline comes in the form of knowing that there is no substitute for rigorous and repetitive training. An understanding of all aspects of the game is derived from reading books written by experienced winning coaches or managers. But it should be understood that no coach or manager is going to read an article or book and improve his or her team's skills immediately. No article, guest coach or book will perform this task overnight, but reading them is still necessary. But what else is necessary to propel one's team toward winning more games in the future and maybe a future championship? Become more aware of the game and skills necessary to compete in top-notch soccer.

Here are some points on awareness. In my opinion, while there are many good soccer coaches and managers, there are also a few that are inexperienced and teach poor quality soccer. They just do not truly understand what is necessary in top-notch play. Some of these poor coaches and managers come from the ranks of having playing experience while some just retain coaching certificates with little or no playing experience. While many coaches do a decent job of coaching, there are a few what should not be coaching children. So it is necessary to comprehend the difference between good and bad coaches. Visual knowledge of top level tactics can be understood by watching top international teams at the first division level. While it is great to see a live game, watching them frequently on TV develops an unsurpassed awareness of the quality of skills and players abilities. As a potentially good coach or manager, you will get to recognize that modern soccer is a game of controlling the ball's movement--usually on the ground. While there is still some long ball soccer played in the world, most top rated teams play a short ball passing game. This is the type of soccer coaching that I recommend.

This topic is further discussed in Bringing Up the Soccer Skill Level for the Coach and Manager--Article 4, Part 2.

Coach Al is Formerly a NJ, RI and Canada Soccer Coach, Manager, Referee and League Organizer, and Coach of a RI state championship teams. He has also played all positions in several adult soccer leagues. One son (Al) became a RI All State goalkeeper and two other sons (James and Anthony) were top players in high school and in their state.