Q+A with strength and conditioning coaches Kirk Bowyer BSc ASCC and Darren Drake MSc ASCC

Kirk and Daz have a DVD out called ‘Creating Athletes: A Guide for Parents, Teachers and Coaches.’ This interview describes what type of fitness is carried out with young athletes and how the DVD can help address some of the concerns raised by Daz and Kirk.

Q.  How many hours a day do you spend with junior tennis players?

KB.  Tennis players have a very busy schedule with school and tennis training.  Therefore, it is very unusual for us to get enough strength and conditioning time with players.  In an ideal world, we would like to give players the same amount of strength and conditioning as they have allocated to their tennis.  In reality I work with the players between 45mins – 2 hours per day.  However, this all depends on whether they are on a light, medium or heavy week.  Here at Cambridge, we alter the training volume depending on what tournaments the players have at the weekend.  If they have a very important tournament coming up then strength and conditioning would be tapered off for that week.

Q.  What do you do with these players?

KB.  At Cambridge we test players throughout the year to establish strengths/weaknesses.  For example, we measure speed, agility, co-ordination, strength and aerobic/anaerobic endurance.  We also screen the players for potential injuries or movement incompetencies.  The next step is to film them playing tennis and watch it back in slow motion to get an idea of physical weaknesses on court.  I then get input from the coach and the player to establish their physical goals.  With all this information, I write an annual plan and separate the year into different phases.  I then work out what to work on within these phases which then form the basis of what I do in the sessions. Generally, phases will work on strength, power, speed, flexibility, core, aerobic and/or anaerobic endurance.  We would typically work on the strength/power/speed that the player requires before tennis sessions and then on the conditioning elements such as endurance training (which can be performed under fatigue) after tennis sessions.

Q.  What kind of work would you do with minis (players under 10)?

KB.  The under 10 age group is perhaps the most important that we work with.  It’s imperative that children of this age get the right training.  It is pretty well known that S+C and tennis coaches need to improve the ABC’s i.e. agility, balance, co-ordination and speed. In our DVD, Daz shows how we can measure a child’s competency in all these areas.  We also look at simple bodyweight exercises.  We look at efficiency and alignment through these exercises which give us a good indication of likelihood of injury and movement efficiency on court.  For example someone who cannot squat very low (limited range) will always be working at the end of their range of motion when sitting in the tennis ready position, which is not very efficient.

Q.  How do you ensure these players do not get overtired or burnout?

DD.  For me there are two major challenges to overcome if players are going to avoid burnout. As an S+C coach in British tennis the first issue is more one of spending enough time with our players in the gym in a typical training week, which can be bias heavily towards hitting balls.  So the first challenge is to get them in the gym enough that they can get fit to play the sport, rather than playing the sport to get fit!  If players are doing 3-4 hours of tennis every day and doing little to no fitness to prepare them for this of course they are going to get tired.  The second issue is that of the accumulative effect of over competing and under training so there should be times in the year which are set aside to work on ‘tennis training’, which includes development of all aspects of the player’s game (mental/physical/tactical/technical) free from formal competition.  The DVD takes the financial pressure off parents who may feel they can’t afford to pay for both S&C and tennis instruction.  All the exercises on the DVD can be performed without significant expert coaching, expensive equipment or space.  Most tennis clubs should have what you need to get all the exercises done.

Q.  How quickly should parents expect to see results and how should they be measuring progress?

DD. I use the ‘3 is the magic number,’ mantra.  It takes at least 3 sessions per week and 3 weeks to start to see the benefits of any training.  And according to research in a range of fields it can typically take up to 10000 hours and 10 years to become an expert in anything.  However, there are certain pressures to perform in fitness tests for regional and national selection days from a young age and more broadly winning tennis matches is an important aspect of a child’s development.  All of the drills in the DVD will help players prepare physically for the demands of those tests.  I know that when the tests come round parents are very keen to help their children in whatever way they can.  I encourage all parents to a) do some of the exercises in the DVD with their children and b) pay attention to how their children are achieving the results they are getting both in fitness and on the match court.  Winning needs to be put in the context of the achievement of certain goals agreed with the team.  Praise things like doing your best, focusing on the controllable and having taken small steps towards a long term target as these are all part of the achievement of success.

CREATING ATHLETES DVD IS AVAILABLE TO BUY HERE