Happy Holidays Everyone,

In this video, Clay Thompson #2 Men’s Singles at UCLA, is demonstrating one variation of a multi-planar (multiple planes of motion) cone drill. We are in the sand, and even though we would love to be enjoying the nice sunset, we are there for a particular reason. The sand makes movement harder to accelerate and decelerate. It also makes, Clay’s legs burn which I really like.
Now, this also can be done right on the tennis court or on your driveway. Just grab two cones and set them about 10-12 feet apart. Take an athletic position with great posture. Remember to keep your shoulders back and down and your spine straight. As you near the cone, tighten up your core. This will help stabilize your kinetic chain and allow you to explode back to the other cone.

Here are the hand positions:
1. If you start to your RIGHT, your RIGHT hand will reach low to the cone and touch it. Keep your posture straight and don’t slump over to touch the cone. Go to your range of motion. You will then slide back to the other cone reaching low with your LEFT hand.
2. Continuing sliding your feet and this time as you near the cone, CROSS reach LOW with your LEFT hand. Slide back to the other cone and as you near that one CROSS reach LOW with your RIGHT hand.
3. Sliding back again, as you near the cone now HIGH reach with your RIGHT hand. And as you move back to the other cone, reach HIGH with your LEFT hand.
4. Continuing the slide (and legs should be burning!) when you near the cone CROSS reach HIGH with your LEFT hand. And as you get back to the other cone, CROSS reach HIGH with your RIGHT hand.

Repeat this 3 times more taking 30 second breaks between each set.

Enjoy the holidays and burn some calories on the court!

Jon

Happy Wednesday to you!

I wanted to pass along a fantastic exercise, or combination of back to back movements for strengthening the back of your upper legs (hamstrings) and your core. In this video, you’ll see me string together three moves, technically making this a giant set.

Now please understand that doing a giant set for a given muscle group can be considered advanced sequencing but it can be done by someone just getting started.  The key would be to do fewer reps of each move.  Ex…do 6 reps of each…where someone more advanced might do upwards of 15 reps of each.

So let’s get to it…this video will be a demonstration of the Hamstring Triple Threat

Have fun and let me know how it goes!

Adam B

Players,

Who doesn’t want to hit that bomber serve that aces your opponent? I know, I have been working on that for a long time. To be able to hit the big serve, we have to first understand the body mechanics that create power. The serve has almost nothing to do with the arm. I know you are reading that thinking this guy is an idiot. Let me explain. The serve is a full body chain reaction. When I have worked with players, for example, Clay Thompson, we discovered that a left big toe plant was the cause of a loss of power. Clay had an energy leak starting right at the foot. This translated all the way up the body and affected his service motion, thus reducing his power. So, what I wanted to give you guys is an exercise that will connect the whole body. It will teach all the parts to work together.

Here it is: The Overhead Chop
-Maker sure you perform this on two feet staggered like your serve, then progress to one foot.
-Make sure you do this left and right handed (yes, you will feel stupid) for at least 10-15 reps on each side.
-Add in weight, like a 5lb dumbbell, then progress on up. When you start to add in 10, 20lbs you will really feel it.

For my strength people: Start light and then progress up to higher weights. Be careful not to disconnect the core from the movement and make sure you follow the breathing patterns in the video. This can be a really demanding exercise if done properly!

Send us your comments!
Jon

Happy Saturday to you!

I wanted to share with you the mother of all full body exercises…The Burpee.

Now I fully understand that I may have just sent a chill down your back when heard the word Burpee because it is an exercise that is ridiculously demanding and challenging to perform well.  But when it is done properly it has been rated as the top full-body, body -weight exercise for caloric expenditure and total body conditioning, develop incredible amounts of strength, stability and stamina.

Check out the video below for demos of the two most standard versions of the Burpee…one is low-impact and the second is high-impact.

Please understand there are other versions of this move as well but I wanted to get you started.  If you are new to this exercise, I would recommend you begin with the low-impact version and develop your competence and confidence you’ll want to have before you go into the high-impact version.

Start with getting to do 10 reps and work up from there. A way to gauge your progress is to test yourself in your first week of work to see how many GOOD Reps you can complete in 60 seconds. Throw it into your workouts 2-3 times/wk and then 4-6 weeks later give it another go and see what results you get.

Have fun and let me know if you have any questions!

Here’s to you,

Adam Brewer

Players,

I have been away from my computer and actually away from the tennis court shooting videos (really getting my butt kicked) for a new functional product with Jeremy Levine. Jeremy trains and designs the fitness programs for the Navy SEALs, Green Berets, Army Rangers, and “other” top-tier Special Operation Forces.

So…that being said I am ready to get back to some tennis training.

X-patterns are one of the most important primal movements for a tennis players to master. They connect the foot to the hand and activate everything in between. Grab a light ball to start and go slowly, perfecting the movement. Perform at least 10 repetitions on each side. As you get stronger and the movement is cleaner then add weight, and then finally add speed. If you can do this movement in front of a mirror it helps to monitor your form.

And as always, send us comments.

Keep up the good work,
Jon

It’s Saturday morning and like a lot of folks, you may have already hit the courts this morning. I always love starting off the weekend with some form of exercise…tennis, boot camp or yoga.

If you haven’t gotten to your workout yet today, check out the video below for another tennis fitness exercise you can add to your arsenal of killer total body moves for strength and stability. This one is called the Pillar to Side-Arm Balance. What makes this one so great is that it incorporates three planes (what I call 3 P training) of movement into it…sagittal (straight ahead), transverse (rotation) and frontal (to the side).

Like a number of my recent video posts, this is the baseline application of this exercise…we will be adding more moves to it in time to turn it into what I refer to as “Strength Flow” Training. More on this to come.

Enjoy this one for now. Shoot to do 10-12 reps of this exercise in any given set that you do…one set when you are just getting started, moving up to 2 and 3 when you are ready.

Now get at it!

Until next time….Adam B

I hope your Thursday is rolling along smoothly and I trust that in addition to hitting balls this week you’ve been able to rock out some great tennis fitness workouts (if not, what are you waiting for?).

Check out the video below for a demonstration of Stability Ball W Back Extensions…a fantastic exercise to develop shoulder mobility and low back strength (two things we want to possess as tennis players).

I like to do this exercise at a minimum 2-3x/wk. Shoot for 10-12 reps when you are just getting started and then up to 20 reps after you’ve developed the stamina and strength in the low back.

The cool thing is that this can be done at the start of your workout or you can throw it in at the end.

Now go get at it!

Adam Brewer

So often we hear from players who are crunched for time when it comes to working out for tennis. With so few hours in the day to devote to the fitness side of tennis, it’s super important to make sure that when you do get the opportunity to hit the “gym”, the exercises you choose give you the biggest bang for your buck.

That is why with our programming at FTP, we tend to focus alot of our attention on exercises that are full body…integrating lower, mid and upper body into one movement or series of moves…(just like when you perform your shots on the tennis court). Thus the exercise becomes sport specific in nature.

What you just watching is a demonstration of the Squat To Pillar exercise. This will be the foundation level of the exercise. This will set the stage for you to be able to evolve the move into more complex and challenging directions and actions.

When you first get started with this, shoot for doing 1-2 sets of 10-12 reps. Remember to shoot for good form first…quality, quality, quality.

Train with Passion and Intention! Adam B

Happy Thursday to you! I hope wherever you are you’re having an amazing day.

As tennis players, (I’m including myself in this as I still smack the ball around on weekends…wow, I guess I’m now technically a “Weekend Warrior”!) to perform at our best, we owe it to ourselves to work on our core strength and shoulder stabilization with tennis fitness exercises.

There are a many ways to achieve this. One way would be to work on each area independently but as we try to show you, when you’re crunched for time, as many of us are, why not use exercises that multi-joint and multi-muscle…thus requiring you to focus on both areas at the same time. So today I wanted to present you with one exercise called the Suicide Push-Up (sometimes referred to as Hands-To-Forearms) that does just this.

As you’ve just seen in the video, I’d like you to make sure you learn the basics from the all fours (table top position) and then when appropriate progress to the other two (assisted push-up position and pillar).

When starting out, shoot for doing about 10 reps (5 going down with right first, and 5 led by left). See if you can build up to doing 20 reps without technique failure.

Another way you challenge your progress would be to see how many you could do in one minute and keep working to do more over the course of a month.

This exercise can be thrown into a circuit in place of a tradition chest exercise or you might throw it in during your core work.

Have fun and let me know how you’re progressing…Adam B

Hey gang…

I just finished up doing some yoga on a gorgeous afternoon here in LA and felt inspired to put together another tennis fitness exercises instructional video for you (admittedly I often find myself having greatly inspired action shortly after I spend sometime doing yoga…that is one of the reasons why I can’t wait to start sharing some yoga moves with you soon!)

This one is Part 2 in the Stronger Legs For Better Play series. Check it out below…

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this Stronger Legs series, once you have spent about 1 month mastering Static Linear and Lateral Lunges, it’s time to start adding dynamic action to the exercises…thus beginning to mimic what actually happens when you’re on the court.
That’s what this video is all about…taking our newly established stability from month 1 and adding mobility to them. The two exercises you will see are just the beginning of what we will ultimately have you doing with the dynamic aspects of leg exercises, but we have to start somewhere right?

Again, I would spend about 1 month getting your form down doing these 2 moves. Start the first 2 weeks with 2 sets of each, doing about 10-15 reps on each leg. For weeks 3 and 4, bump it up to 3 sets of about 15-25 reps of each. As you may have guessed it, with these higher reps were still working on stamina and endurance. Once you can do about 3 sets of 25 reps of each, we’ll start adding extra weight and decrease the reps, thus building into the strength phase of your training.

Enough reading…now get out there and give them a try. I’ll connect with you soon. Until then, train with Passion! Adam B