Tennis Fitness Exercises to
Increase the Power of Your Serve Part II: Squat Jumps
by
Todd Scott
The next Tennis Fitness progression for increasing the power of your
serve is the squat jumps. Since power and explosion are paramount in
service power, the squat jump is a perfect tool to use in your tennis
workout program.
Tennis Fitness Progression 2: Squat Jumps
How to do it:
1) Stand with your feet shoulder width apart
2) Slowly bend your knees and lower your hips as you were performing a
squat
3) When your thighs reach parallel, drive your feet into the ground &
thrust your feet forward, while exploding up into the air
4) Land with your feet shoulder width apart
5) With a fluid motion repeat for 10-20 reps
Tennis Fitness Beginners: For beginners, it may be more difficult
to smoothly transition from one squat jump to the next without pausing.
If you are having trouble, between each rep, pause for a second to
gather yourself and repeat.
Tennis Fitness Intermediate: For people who have good stability
and balance, the goal here is to perform one rep to the next in a fluid
motion without pause. To add intensity, each progressive set work to
decrease the time your feet touch the ground on each rep.
Tennis Fitness Advanced: To really increase the intensity and
activate fast twitch muscle fibers used in the serve, add weight.
To begin, you can use either a barbell placed on your shoulders (as in a
squat) or you can use dumbbells placed in each hand hanging to your
sides.
Start with a weight you can curl with your biceps at least 6 times. As
the exercise becomes easier and easier, increase the weight in
increments of 5-10 pounds.
For advanced Tennis athletes using weight, perform 2-4 sets of
6-8 reps. The goal here is not to fatigue the muscles, but to stimulate
fast twitch muscle fibers.
As one of the nation's most in-demand tennis fitness trainers, Todd
Scott is a training advisor to Men's Fitness and Muscle & Fitness Hers
magazines. You can find his articles on news stands today and in nearly
every issue of Men's Fitness or Muscle & Fitness Hers magazines for the
past 2 years. A high school champion tennis player-turned-fitness expert
finally decided, after a little arm twisting by his tennis fitness
clients, to allow public access into his Tennis Specific Fitness
Databank to help people just like you develop strength and power to hit
stronger shots and win more matches. Tennis Fitness Tips is a website
designed to help you "Train Hard & Win Easy!
