Sports Conditioning Secrets They Don't Want You to Know (Part 1): Hey Brother/Sister, Can You Spare $12,270?

Let’s start this post with a question:

Which scenario would you choose to increase your serve speed around 20 MPH?

Scenario 1) Conventional strength training (Kraemer et al., 2003)

• 120 workouts
• 200+ hours total workout time over 40 weeks total (9 months)
• $12,270 minimum cost
• ~$757.00 per 1 MPH improvement

OR

Scenario 2) SpeedChain training

• 8 workouts
• 4 hours total workout time over 4 weeks total (1 month)
• $175 minimum cost
• ~$9.00 per 1 MPH improvement

I think that most reasonable people would probably choose Scenario 2 over Scenario 1 the majority of the time.

And with times as tough as they are, I think that Scenario 2 is the only practical choice.

After all, who has $12,000 lying around? And, who could justify spending $12,000 to accomplish the same outcome as spending about $200?

On top of that, who really has the time to spend 9 months grinding 5 hours per week when there's an option to achieve the same results by training for only 1 hour per week for 1 month?

Well, I thought that in these times when people are really more conscious about their time and their money—especially about their money—I wanted to point out to you the hard, cold, time-consuming and very expensive facts about how much time and money you need to invest to increase your serve or groundstroke speed by training using conventional training methods.

(As well as demonstrate the real value that's delivered by SpeedChain training--value that can be measured in both time and money!)

How did I arrive at these numbers?

These numbers are based on a published scientific study regarding the “Physiological Effects of Periodized Resistance Training in Women Tennis Players” conducted by the American exercise physiologist, William J. Kraemer and his colleagues.

In their study, Kraemer and his friends were able to help a group of female, college tennis players increase their serve and groundstroke speeds up to 30 percent—after 9 months of rigorous, highly supervised and controlled weight lifting.

After reviewing all the gory details of their study, I tried to estimate how much real training time was spent by the players to achieve the published results.

By my conservative estimates, these players spent at least 5 hours a week in the gym in 3 personally supervised weekly training sessions over a 40 week or 9 month period.

In all, these players spent about 200 hours to achieve the observed increase in serve and groundstroke speeds.

So, the “good news” is that there is a documented way to increase your serve and groundstroke speeds if you are willing to invest at least the time and energy—5 hours a week for 40 weeks—to do so.

Well, the “bad news” is that the actual financial costs of such a training program are not mentioned—and these unmentioned costs are frankly huge.

Your willingness to invest the necessary time and energy is only the beginning, because you’ll need to expend a lot of cash to achieve their results as you’ll soon see… And maybe this amount of cash ($12,000+) is something you don’t have around right now…

This is because the only way to maximize your chances of duplicating the Kraemer study results is to reproduce that exact published program—including not skipping a single workout and having a personal trainer personally supervise every one of your 120 workouts.

Kraemer and his team point out that the “success” of their program is in large part due to the fact that the players worked out under the supervision of an experienced trainer at all times, which has been shown to the most effective way to produce the most (strength) training improvement in athletes of all levels.

Therefore, if you really want to achieve the same results described in this program, you’ll need to hire a qualified personal trainer to supervise all 200 hours of your workout program. From what I’ve seen recently, the hourly rate of personal trainers nationwide runs at about $60 per hour.

So, the total financial cost of performing this proven program is 200 hours X $6 per hour or $12,000. Add to that the fact that you’ll need a gym to work out in, and gym memberships typically run about $30 per month, you’ll need to add another $270 (9 months at $30 per month) to that total. At least you don’t have to pay your trainer to design the workout program for you (which typically runs about $80 to $100) as you can follow the published program.

Now, to sum it all up, you’ll need to spend at least 200 hours over 40 weeks, as well as $12,270 to cover the personal training and gym membership costs to achieve an average increase in serve speed of about 25.2 KPH or 16.2 MPH (according to the Kraemer study) by going to the gym and lifting weights.

What does this improvement amount to in terms of time (A) and money (B)?

A) How much time does it take to improve even 1 MPH?

When you do the math, to improve your serve speed 1 MPH using conventional methods, like the ones in the Kraemer study (and methods universally endorsed by almost everyone in the tennis world including Tennis magazine and the USTA, USPTA and PTR) you need to spend:

2.5 weeks or 18 days real time (16.2 MPH / 40 weeks = 0.405 MPH improvement per week OR 16.2 MPH / 280 days = 0.057 MPH per day)


B) How much money will you have to spend to increase your serve speed 1 MPH?

You’ll spend:

$757.40 per 1 MPH improvement ($12,270 total cost / 16.2 MPH = 757.40)

Oh, yes there’s one more important detail you’ll need to know before you embark on this 40 week journey…

Yes, my friends, there’s a catch!

The catch is: you’ll achieve the reported serve speed improvement only if you’ve never engaged in any form of resistance training.

Which means:

You’ll achieve those results only if you haven’t been training for a while, or if you haven’t ever trained before.

If you have any previous experience lifting weights or are continuously performing any form of serious off-court training (as is required if you want to be a successful tournament competitor!!!), your improvement will be far less than the reported 16.2 MPH.

In fact, you’ll be lucky to improve your serve speed 5 to 6 MPH total after 40 weeks of intense training if you have lifted weights previously.

So, if you’re a serious competitive player who thinks that all they need to do is to start this Kraemer program to see their serve and groundstroke speeds jump 15+ MPH, you need to think again. Real hard…

For these serious competitive players (highly-ranked junior, college and pro competitors), the time (A) and money (B) costs look like this:

A) Time Costs:

To increase your serve 1 MPH, it will take:

8 weeks of training (5 MPH / 40 weeks = 1 MPH / x weeks)

That’s a 1/8 of a MPH increase per week, after 5 hours of supervised training with a personal trainer.

B) Money costs:

You’ll spend a grand total of:

$2,454 per 1 MPH improvement (= $12,270 / 5 MPH).

Yes, that’s right!

The real cost of serve or groundstroke speed improvement for the serious competitive player is $2,454 per 1 MPH.

Let me repeat that figure again:

If you want to increase your serve speed by 1 MPH by lifting weights, you need to spend roughly $2,454 !!!

Does this make sense in these tough times?

Does this make any sense at any time?

Is there a better, cheaper way to increase your serve and groundstroke speed?

Yes, there is…

Recall “Scenario 2” at the beginning of this post? The solution is called training with the Tennis SpeedChain!

Players who train with the Tennis SpeedChain typically increase their serve and groundstroke speeds about 20 MPH in 4 weeks of training twice a week.

This means, that on the high side, the real financial cost of improving your serve or groundstroke speed costs as little as $9 per 1 MPH ($175 / 20 MPH improvement)!

$9 versus $2,454?

$9 versus $757?

$205 total versus $12,270 total?

4 weeks versus 40 weeks?

Oh yes, and I will also mention that in those four weeks, you’ll spend only about 40 to 60 minutes working out per week.

So, let’s add…

60 minutes per week versus 5 hours / 300 minutes per week?

Which training program sounds better to you? Which training program makes more sense?

I think that when you look at the real numbers, the answer becomes crystal clear.

The only sensible solution to increasing your serve and groundstroke speed is training with the Tennis SpeedChain.

TTFN!

New Tennis SpeedChain ("V2") coming soon

Yes, dear readers, you read that correctly…

In the coming weeks, we will be releasing a new version of the Tennis SpeedChain (“Tennis SpeedChain V2”) for sale worldwide.

What’s new about “V2”?

Well, ever since TennisSpeed’s introduction of the original Tennis SpeedChain in late Summer 2006, our research and development efforts together with SpeedChain inventor, Kelvin Miyahira, to add further innovation and value to the original Tennis SpeedChain have been marching ever forward behind the scenes.

We have been testing a number of interesting concepts to enhance the effectiveness of the Tennis SpeedChain, and after weeks and months of extensive testing and proving we are ready to finally share these innovations with all of you out there.

The Tennis SpeedChain V2 brings several key changes to the original Tennis SpeedChain design. The most important innovations featured in V2 are:

1. The development of two new handle shapes to encourage and enhance training of critical stroke movements,
2. Structural and cosmetic changes to the handle design, and
3. The ability to immediately adjust the resistance level of the training device by exchanging an entire chain segment for one with a higher or lower resistance level.

These three innovations expand the versatility and usability of the original Tennis SpeedChain.

While the resistance level of the original Tennis SpeedChain was expandable only in the upward direction, the change in the handle design now enables users to either increase or decrease the resistance by exchanging the entire chain segment for another entire segment using a “quick link” system. This capability may be especially useful for tennis coaches and trainers who train a wide “cross-section” of different players using the SpeedChain.

The creation of two new handle designs has proven in our tests to greatly enhance both technical training (stroke movement training) and speed development.

One new handle design integrates a downward bend (angled toward the ground) at the far end of the handle where the chain segment is attached. This specially-bent handle strongly promotes forearm pronation for both serves and groundstrokes, as well as increases the (rotational) resistance you feel when you swing it.

For example, when you swing the SpeedChain with the bent-handle option, you can really feel the correct “covering” movement required to execute the modern topspin forehand that is achieved using proper forearm pronation as you swing through the impact zone. I have noticed that the accentuated sensation of that forearm pronation tends to ingrain that movement into your muscle memory much faster than by (unassisted) pure repetition alone.

The other new handle design is a special, shortened handle (about 40% shorter than the handle on the original Tennis SpeedChain) for use in serve training. The short handle delivers a higher initial resistance level to help develop increased force production during the initial movement of the racket arm toward contact during your serve motion.

(Oh, and the cosmetics of the handles will also be changed, from the original red to a distinctive “brushed aluminum” finish.)

Together, the new handle options and the ability to change the resistance level of the training device by exchanging the entire chain segment has transformed the original Tennis SpeedChain training device into a larger, most versatile tennis training system that addresses both racket speed development and technical stroke training.

In total, there are 9 distinct configurations possible with the handle and resistance options available with V2…

3 distinct handle options: original, bent, and short

times

3 distinct resistance levels (light, medium, strong)

Equals

9 distinct training configurations for the Tennis SpeedChain V2 that could be used to address a player’s specific training needs and goals.

What we plan to do is to offer the complete system that enables you to have all 9 configurations at your fingertips to help you increase your racket speed and improve the technique of your serves and groundstrokes,

Or,

You can purchase a single Tennis SpeedChain V2 with a basic configuration (effectively a "base model") to start (e.g. the original handle + one medium chain segment) and you can purchase the additional handle and chain resistance components (in any combination) as you need them.

So, say you buy the base model to start and then a couple of weeks into it, you decide to focus on working on your topspin forehand. You would then order the new, bent handle from the website, and when you get it, you remove the chain segment from our "original" handle using the quick-link and then attach the chain segment onto the newly-arrived, bent handle, and off you go.

(And, my experience has been that if you are training properly with the Tennis SpeedChain, you will probably need to increase the chain resistance at some point as you continue to improve your racket speed, as well…)

So, watch for the announcement of the official release of the new TennisSpeed V2 on our website (www.tennisspeed.com), or you can sign up for email notification of the V2 release on the TennisSpeed.com homepage (on the right side of the page in the "News Items").

Our on-going discussion of speed training in tennis will continue in my next post.

Until then, TTFN!