TennisSpeed visits Europe - Part 2 (El juego de pies)

A couple of news items to kick off this post:

• The Tennis SpeedChain V2 goes on sale at our website (www.tennisspeed.com) later this week. The original Tennis SpeedChain has been transformed into a complete tennis training system that you can use to develop both optimal stroke techniques and increased racket speed. For those of you hearing this bit of news for the first time, I summarized the incredible new features of V2 in my last post which you can check out by clicking here.

• Congratulations to the University of Tennessee Volunteers Men’s Tennis Team for their outstanding performance this season—including a win (4-3) over the defending NCAA team champions, the 3^rd-ranked University of Georgia Bulldogs to close out their regular season! The Vols (who joined the “SpeedChain family” in January) have established themselves as one of the Top 5 or 6 teams in NCAA Division 1 (for the first time in about 5 years), and will be a force to be reckoned with come NCAA tournament time.

• As this is the time of the year where the college teams close out their seasons with their respective conference championships, and with the NCAA tournament looming, I wanted to give a shout out to all of the teams who were part of the SpeedChain family this season:

University of Tennessee-Knoxville Men’s Tennis (SEC)

University of Tennessee-Knoxville Women’s Tennis (SEC)

Boise State University Men’s Tennis (WAC)

University of Colorado Women’s Tennis (Big 12)

Syracuse University Women’s Tennis (Big East)

UCLA Men’s Tennis (Pacific 10)

University of California-Riverside Women’s Tennis (Big West)

Now, on to the subject of this post where I’ll present some closing thoughts about my European visit in early March…

I wanted to discuss two particular observations from my visit to Spain and Switzerland that have really caused me to shift my perspective about tennis training and coaching.

The first of these observations has to do with the fundamental difference in the training philosophy/approach taken by Jofre Porta and his team at Global Tennis. The best way for me to describe it is to use Jofre’s description of what tennis is really about: tennis is best described as “el juego de pies” or, “a game of the feet”.

The bottom line in tennis is simply this, if you cannot move – using your feet – into the correct, optimal position to strike the ball, playing tennis at a high level is simply impossible. It won’t matter how technically sound your stroking movement is if your feet cannot bring you to a solid position to strike the shot. Your hands, arms and torso cannot compensate for your movement weaknesses… Period.

If your ability to move on the court is somehow compromised by injury, a bad attitude, laziness, or whatever, your whole game is well, compromised at best. And if you need to perform at a very high level to be competitive you should take a careful, objective look at what’s happening below your waist. If you are having performance issues, the quickest way to improve is to work on your court movement skills. Before you even think of tinkering with stroke techniques, work on improving your movement because poor movement is almost always the root cause of poor performance.

During my 6-day stay at Global Tennis, I noticed how much attention was paid by the coaches to the movement and positioning of the players during training. I would say that the vast majority of the corrections given by the coaches to the players during training sessions pertained to moving correctly into the proper striking position for each and every shot (i.e. moving to a position behind the line of the incoming shot as rapidly as possible then forming the hitting stance). I could probably count on my hands the number of corrections pertaining to the stroking movement (the movements above the waist, that is) over the course of the 4 to 6 hours of daily on-court training that goes on there.

Does that mean that the Global Team doesn’t care about those movements that happen “above the waist”? Absolutely not! They definitely pay attention to what the other half of the body is doing, and they understand – rightly – that the main cause of any serious errors or flaws in the whole, integrated stroking movement (that involves the integration of both lower and upper body movements) are caused – triggered – by movement flaws and issues. The upper body “reacts” to the action of the lower body, and therefore if the lower body action is flawed, by definition, the upper body action is similarly flawed.

In other words, the Global team correctly understands that the optimal movement is the true foundation of playing high-level tennis. It also became very clear why Moya and Nadal emerged as Grand Slam champions having been trained in this approach, apparently from the very start of their life in tennis.

This philosophy described by “el juego de pies” used at Global is in stark contrast to what I saw in various training facilities in Switzerland (including training sessions involving federation-sponsored players in their National training center in Biel), and what I have seen here in the US.

The contrast between the Global approach and everything else I’ve seen so far everywhere is that where Global focuses on movement first, everyone else is clearly focuses first on what’s happening above the waist with the stroking movement of the hands, arms and upper body, and then they pay attention the player’s movement “skills” second. It’s as if they believe that they can make up for their poor positioning using their “superb stroke technique”.

Many simply fail to realize or understand that again, it’s just not possible to have “superb stroke technique” without “superb movement”!

This primary focus on what’s happening “above the waist” is tantamount to placing the “cart” before the “proverbial horse”. It bears repeating this message again and again: if you don’t or can’t move into the optimal striking position for each shot, by definition, you can’t make an “optimal strike”. You can’t produce your “best shot” if you can’t move to the “best striking position” for that specific shot.

Am I beginning to sound repetitive?

OK, one last time then...

When your movement goes awry – for any reason – this means that, by definition, your game goes awry as well.

Want to get your game back on track? Immediately focus on moving correctly, and everything else (i.e. power, control, etc.) tends to fall back into place automatically.

The second observation I wanted to mention was the stark difference in the general reaction and attitude of the people I met in both Spain and Switzerland toward the whole SpeedChain training concept and product(s).

You see, here in the US, I would say that 90% of the time, the tennis community here from players and coaches to parents and trainers, responds with great skepticism and sometimes outright hostility toward the very concept of the SpeedChain. When I reflect back on these experiences, it occurs to me that one common denominator shared by these SpeedChain “detractors” is the fact that they simply do not believe or understand that US tennis players – especially at the high-performance level – effectively have a stroke speed “deficiency”. And this “racket speed deficiency” may be a key factor in explaining why there are so few American players who have been able to compete successfully at pro level.

The bottom line is, the Americans have told us that “no (speed) problem even exists”, so there’s no need for anything like the SpeedChain. In contrast, the Spanish (at least among those Spanish coaches and trainers I met at Global in March) and the Swiss coaches and trainers I met reacted like this: “You guys solved that problem? Let me see the SpeedChain! Show me how this works!”

It was quite a refreshing change to talk to people who were largely open-minded and receptive to the very idea of the SpeedChain, to say the least. So, it makes me think that maybe we need to seriously consider setting up shop somewhere across the Atlantic… For once, the Europeans will take the innovation lead (at least when it comes to speed training), and it’s the Americans who will follow.

One thing’s for sure, I’m going to look very seriously at which German and Spanish classes at the local JC will fit into my busy schedule!

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!

TennisSpeed visits Europe-Part 1

March has been an interesting time for me as I traveled across the Atlantic for the first time without my “boss” and children for companionship and translation.

I was invited to make a presentation about our work with the SpeedChain in tennis at a special, one day seminar (on March 1st) exploring the frontiers of high-performance tennis development that was organized by the Tennis Education Group based in Palma de Mallorca, Spain (yes, that Mallorca that’s home to Carlos Moya and Rafael Nadal).

Tennis Education Group is the brainchild of Spanish Federation Coach, Jofre Porta, whose mission is to help bring to light the best and most advanced methods, concepts and techniques involved in training and developing world-class tennis players. Jofre also founded his own tennis academy based in Palma de Mallorca together with Moya called Global Tennis Team.

For those of you who don’t know who Jofre Porta is, he has already had a remarkably successful coaching career, as he is the man who coached Carlos Moya from the juniors to becoming the French Open Champion in 1998, all the way to helping Moya become the #1 player in the world in 1999. Jofre also played a critical role in coaching Rafael Nadal in his formative years (between the ages 8 to 17). Jofre was in charge of helping Nadal getting established on the right foot as a professional (he appears in the "No Strings" episode featuring Nadal), and even today, although he no longer travels very much on the tour, he continues to coach Moya from behind the scenes from their academy in Mallorca.

IMHO, Jofre is one of the best, if not the best tennis coach on the planet without question. His knowledge, wisdom and experience are virtually unmatched…
The combination of his intelligence, intensity, creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, honesty and passion for the game, and his genuine interest and concern for the well-being of his players separates him from the other, perhaps more “famous” coaches at the pro level.

Let’s put it to you this way, how many other coaches do you know have taken not just one, but two players all the way from the juniors to Grand Slam Champion? I cannot think of anyone but Jofre who has accomplished this incredible feat in recent memory…

Being Jofre’s guest at his academy gave me the opportunity to see his coaching philosophies and methodology in action on a daily basis. And what I saw I can only really describe in these terms: it was as if I was looking into a crystal ball and seeing what the sport would look like, say, 5 to 7 years in the future. Jofre is training his players to play the sport of the future, not the past like it’s done in most tennis nations, including ours.

It’s not that you wouldn’t recognize existing or established drills and training exercises in their training system—it’s how they are integrated and executed in the context of Jofre’s vision of the tennis of the future that was nothing short of well, genius. Add to that mix Jofre’s own unending curiosity, creativity and openness to new ideas—he is constantly searching for any and all ideas that will help his players develop the skills necessary to compete at the sport’s highest levels—and he and his team have developed novel drills and exercises, on and off-court that exist nowhere but at Global Tennis.

And now, the SpeedChain is in the process of being integrated into the “Global System”, as the SpeedChain training device and training methodology fits seamlessly into one of the most fundamental training principles and goals of Porta’s vision of high-performance tennis: to maximize a player’s capacity to generate speed, acceleration and power in all facets of their physical game.

Jofre told me that the SpeedChain will enable him to break through many of the existing barriers and limitations of current training and conditioning methods and he sees the benefits of training of the SpeedChain extending well beyond increasing a player’s speed and power to helping train and develop, among other things, an athlete’s kinesthetic sense, proprioceptive capacity, balance, coordination, anaerobic fitness and other fundamental athletic skills and attributes.

Anyway, it was a fantastic stay for me at Global Tennis…

There were many hours of stimulating discussion with the coaching team at Global as well as with the other speakers invited to the seminar (including a leading Spanish exercise physiologist, and one of Spain’s leading sports psychologists, as well as Jofre and his head physical trainer, Pedro Zierof), and it was truly a privilege to be a part of what's happening at the “cutting edge” of tennis coaching and training.

What I learned in those 6 short days in Palma has fundamentally changed many of my own ideas about coaching tennis, and how to train and develop a high-performance player. (We’ll get into the details of those changes in future posts). The open exchange of ideas and knowledge between everyone was something that I will remember for a very long time, especially considering the “culture of secrecy” that generally prevails at the highest levels of the sport.

And, you can’t imagine how honored I felt to have Jofre tell me that I would always be welcome in the world of Global Tennis.

More stories, photos, and info from Europe to come…

TTFN!

2007 ITA Convention Impressions

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of making a presentation about what we’ve being doing with the SpeedChain to about 100 college tennis coaches at their annual convention (“2007 ITA Coaches Convention”) in Naples, Florida (12/14 to 12/17/07).

First, I want to thank all of the coaches who attended the presentation, and I hope that we were able to provide them with some new and useful information regarding how to increase the overall performance level of their players.

Second, I want to express how grateful I am to the person who has been the greatest supporter of the SpeedChain and TennisSpeed, and who is a true legend among modern American tennis coaches, the one and only Greg “The General” Patton (former USTA National Coach, Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame member and currently Head Men’s Tennis Coach at Boise State University). Our presentation would not have ever happened if not for all of Greg’s help in getting TennisSpeed get off of the ground.

Third, I want to say thank you for all the support given to TennisSpeed over the past two seasons by our 4 collegiate early adopters of the SpeedChain:

Boise State Men’s Tennis (Head Coach Greg Patton)

UCLA Men’s Tennis (Head Coach Billy Martin)

Colorado Women’s Tennis (Head Coach Nicole Kenneally)

Syracuse Women’s Tennis (Head Coach Luke Jensen)

Overall, I thought that the presentation at the convention went quite well (I am thankful that I have had some experience speaking in public in front of larger audiences—that turned out to be one upside of my whole academic science experience), and the I think our message was well-received by the coaches who attended. And, we also received a wide range of very interesting and challenging questions from the coaches regarding the SpeedChain training concept, and our findings from our various pro, collegiate and junior early adopters.

From the TennisSpeed side, what was especially interesting was that we learned who among today’s college coaches are the great “seekers” of advanced (coaching) knowledge and who want to learn the most cutting-edge ideas and methods to help their players find their highest level. Not surprisingly, most of these coaches lead programs that have been very consistently successful season after season.

Alongside our presentation, there were also a number of other interesting talks and on-court clinics given by various experts in the American tennis community at the Convention, including one by celebrated American coach Nick Bolletieri, but the one presentation that stood out in my mind was the featured on-court clinic led by former Top-5 player, Todd Martin on Saturday afternoon (December 15th).

“Coach” Martin’s clinic was essentially a one-hour primer on how to be successful in singles at the pro level. The ideas that Martin presented were indeed fascinating and enlightening, and for many coaches there, counter-intuitive. When you compare Martin’s “4 skills” to the kinds of tactical ideas that are commonplace in today’s collegiate and junior game in the US, the way to be a successful tour pro is almost 180 degrees opposite from the prevailing “Big Strike/First Strike” philosophy so widely held in American tennis at the high-performance level.

Martin’s clinic was titled “Taking it to the next level: 4 skills necessary to transition from college to pro tennis.” Effectively, Martin summarized the four core tactical adjustments (taught to him by former top-10 player, Jose Higueras) he had to make in order to improve his chances to succeed on the tour after two years as an All-American at Northwestern University.

I created a written summary of the ideas that Martin presented over the course of his scheduled hour and you can email me at speedmaster [at] tennisspeed [dot] com if you’re interested in getting a copy (it’s a PDF file, FYI).

Oh, I thought I would close out this post by mentioning this recent development for us here at TennisSpeed…

TennisSpeed has been invited to give a technical presentation about our work with the SpeedChain to the newly-formed Tennis Education Group (TEG) based in Spain (yes, that Spain with the 12 pros ranked in the ATP Top 100) sometime in February 2008.

What’s really exciting about this opportunity is that many of the top federation coaches in Spain are already involved in this new venture (spearheaded by Jofre Porta (who coached Carlos Moya to ATP #1) and Pedro Zierof (one of the top physical trainers in Spanish tennis)), and TennisSpeed is honored to have the opportunity to speak alongside these luminaries of Spanish tennis.

Until next time, TTFN!

(Informal) Serve Speed Survey of US College and Junior Tennis

Last week, I had the privilege of traveling to the 2007 Easter Bowl Championships in Rancho Mirage, California with my new client, who played in the Girls’ U18 Easter Bowl ITF tournament. During our trip, I wanted to conduct an informal survey of serve speeds demonstrated by the various players that participated in that very prestigious National junior tournament.

As it turned out, I had the opportunity to measure serve speeds for some college and pro players as well. We arrived in LA a few days before the start of the Easter Bowl tournament and caught the very competitive dual match between the #1 ranked Stanford women and the 10^th-ranked UCLA women (which ended up 4-3 for Stanford), and I was able to record serve speeds for the Stanford and UCLA players who played #1 and #2 singles. I also recorded the serve speeds of one of the tour players I coach who happened to be in LA that weekend.

Unfortunately, my new client lost her first round match at the Easter Bowl, and we came back to LA and spent two days training at UCLA. During those two days, I was also able to measure the serve speeds of some of the starters(#1, 2, 4 and 6) for the UCLA men’s team, as well as the serve speeds of a Bruin alumnus who is currently ranked in the Top 250 in the ATP rankings.

So, without further ado, here is a brief summary of the serve speeds—for both first and second serves—I measured over the course of our 6 day visit to SoCal. For brevity, I’m reporting the range of serves (fastest and slowest) I measured for each of the levels I observed from ATP to NCAA D1 all the way down to the 14 and under boys and girls at the Easter Bowl.

My “survey” is by no means exhaustive, but I was able to measure a wide range of male and female players from Top 3 seeded players to first-time National tournament participants. Unfortunately, we left the desert before the start of the Boys 18s tournament, so I wasn’t able to take any measurements from their age group.

ATP Men—first serve: 101 to 122 MPH; second serve: 78 to 90 MPH

NCAA Men—first serve: 82 to 104 MPH; second serve: 69 to 85 MPH

NCAA Women—first serve: 64 to 89 MPH; second serve: 64 to 74 MPH

U18 Girls—first serve: 67 to 96 MPH; second serve: 63 to 75 MPH

U16 Boys—first serve: 75 to 105 MPH; second serve: 67 to 82 MPH

U16 Girls—first serve: 65 to 83 MPH; second serve: 58 to 70 MPH

U14 Boys—first serve: 63 to 87 MPH; second serve: 55 to 69 MPH

U14 Girls—first serve: 57 to 73 MPH; second serve: 53 to 64 MPH

Oh, and if you are wondering, the fastest serve I measured (122 MPH) was struck by my pro client who has been training with the SpeedChain since last fall.

I hope you will find these results interesting and informative…

TTFN!

My own SpeedChain testimonial

Maybe you guys would like to know how I got involved with the revolutionary SpeedChain in the first place…

It all began innocently enough with me trolling the mighty Internet for information on speed training, specifically for ideas and methods for increasing racket speed in tennis.

You see, coming from an academic background (I’m a trained, published scientist—my doctorate is in biology, if you’re wondering), I have a very empirical approach to virtually everything I do. My brother calls me a “professional deconstructionist” as I want to analyze, breakdown and question every idea that attracts my interest.

So, when in late 2005, I happened onto a link that led me to an online column written by a Hawaii-based golf teacher who claimed to have invented the ideal golf training aid—a training aid that supposedly delivered unheard of improvement in clubhead speed in a very short timeframe—it dawned on me that I might have stumbled onto something promising.

As I read that first column, two things occurred to me right away.

First, the scientific concept behind the training aid, called the SpeedChain, was dead on correct. Second, because the concept was so sound, this meant that some layman (not one of the “esteemed” sports science minds of our day) had solved one of the long-standing challenge of sports conditioning.

What this golf teacher did was find and develop a training method (and device) to increase the speed at which the human body performs complex movements that involves the coordination of multiple body parts moving in a complex sequence through multiple joint angles and planes. Sports science has long acknowledged that no known conditioning methods have been proven to increase the throwing, swinging and kicking speeds of athletes from all levels of sport.

So, in essence, this layman, golf teacher has effectively solved the “holy grail” of athletic conditioning that has eluded the so-called “experts” in sports training and conditioning.

About 5 seconds after I came to this realization, all the alarm bells and red flags in my mind went off about how what I had just read was simply “too good to be true”. That is what we are conditioned to think, after all, when we run into something that promises and claims to deliver the solution to a problem that supposedly the best minds in the world haven’t been able to solve.

How could some golf teacher with no real scientific training have come up with the solution to one of the challenging questions of sports science?

Well, as the weeks passed, I got over those prejudices and realized that this longstanding challenge of sports science could only have been solved by an outsider who wasn’t biased and brainwashed by the so-called experts. And, believe me, there is a ton of bias, prejudice, dogma and ego that lurks in the sports science and conditioning community (as it does everywhere!).

Finally, I decided to call up the golf teacher and made an appointment to demo his invention called the SpeedChain. And once I put the SpeedChain into my hands and began to swing it and tried the special exercises that can only be done with the SpeedChain, it became obvious that the SpeedChain was going to deliver on its promise of improving racket speed…Or bat speed, or golf clubhead speed, for that matter.

Once anyone who has been any background or experience as a competitive athlete puts the SpeedChain into their hands, they will “intuitively” understand why the SpeedChain will deliver on its promise to make them swing faster than ever before.

The only question was, how well was it really going to work? As the golf teacher had no quantitative information on how much racket speed improvement was possible by training with the SpeedChain, the scientist inside me led me to propose doing a pilot study where together we would study the effects of SpeedChain training on two, young (a 13 and a 14 year old) tournament players I was coaching at the time.

We decided to follow the changes in the boys’ serve and groundstroke speeds over a 10 week long training program using the SpeedChain. Outside of interval running over the same 10 week period, the boys performed no other conditioning exercises outside of training with the SpeedChain. As the boys trained only with the SpeedChain, whatever speed improvement they would show would have to be due to the effects of SpeedChain training.

The results of this pilot study were nothing short of remarkable. Both boys increased their 1^st serve speed by over 25 MPH in 8 weeks. One started at in the high 60s and ended up hitting regularly in the low 90s, and the other started in the middle 70s and ended up in the low 100s.

And for you skeptics, there were no major technical adjustments to their service motions involved, only training with the SpeedChain: no plyometrics, no medicine balls, no resistance bands, and no strength training was performed during that time. None.

So, guess what? I’m a believer. Theory is one thing, hard, quantitative evidence is another. SpeedChain training works. Training with the SpeedChain more than delivered on its promise to help players increase their racket speed. The evidence doesn’t lie. Both boys increased their racket speeds significantly on both serves and groundstrokes.

Does my story seem to be “too good to be true”? What I’m actually finding out is that the results for the boys in that pilot study may not be at all exceptional. Those results may represent average improvements given what I’ve observed with the college players and touring pros I’ve introduced to the SpeedChain. Some of those players improved 10 to 15 MPH on their serve after their FIRST WORKOUT ever with the SpeedChain.

So, what’s the bottom line?

1) SpeedChain training increases your racket speed (and more).

2) All other training methods don’t increase your racket speed, and many of them will make you swing slower instead.

Theory and reality and one and the same with the SpeedChain.

I know that many of you out there are thinking that the SpeedChain is "too good to be true".

Well, I used to be just like you until I found out the real truth with my own hands and eyes.

If you want more racket speed, there’s only one answer. Train with the SpeedChain.

TTFN!

What is the difference between speed and strength?

Let me start this post with a simple question...

What is the difference between “speed” and “strength”?

This seems to be a simple question doesn’t it?

Why I am bringing this question up is because virtually every time I read a post on a forum or hear players talking about things they do to hit more powerful shots on the court, people talk exclusively about becoming stronger…

As if increasing their muscular strength automatically translates into becoming faster.

Increasing your strength means that you can generate more force by training your muscles to produce force when they contract. Then, you need to understand that resistance training stimulates increased force production by your contracting muscles increasing the size of the muscle fibers themselves (larger muscles fibers produce more force).

So, getting stronger does mean that you can produce more force through muscle movements, but does that necessarily translate to greater movement speeds?

The answer is no.

And the simplest way to explain why is this:

Muscles do not act on their own. They do not contract spontaneously. They contract only when the brain tells them to contract, and the “contract now” message is sent to the muscles by your nerves.

The brain controls all aspects of muscle activity including how much force the muscle needs produce and how quickly it must produce that force. Then the nerves need to get that message to the muscles rapidly for the muscles to ultimately respond by contracting.

Given this biological reality, do you now understand what speed is really about?

Speed is about how fast the brain and nerves send the “go” message to the muscles to fire and produce force through movement.

Human athletic speed is really about having a fast nervous system because you can’t have fast muscles without a fast nervous system because nerves and muscles are hard-wired to function together.

You can’t separate their function, muscles contract—or “go”—only when the nerves tell them to, and how fast they go depends solely on how fast the nerves send that “go” signal to the muscles.

There are some of you out there who will raise the age-old argument that if it’s all about generating (a lot of) force, then strength training is still “THE” answer to being a more powerful ball-hitter (regardless if it’s a golf ball, tennis ball, baseball, etc.) because you train the muscles to produce huge amounts of force through strength training.

This argument sounds logical enough, but the evidence proves otherwise. There is no credible scientific evidence that strength training, even in combination with plyometric training, helps athletes swing faster. None.

Why?

Well, there’s a simple answer to that really…

It’s because strength training exercises are performed at much slower speed than the actual swinging movements you use, say in a tennis match.

You see, you’re trying to swing the racket to make contact with the ball in less than 0.2 seconds on average (or less than 0.13 seconds, if you are Roger Federer). Are you executing bench presses or any other conventional weight lifting movements at those kinds of speeds?

I didn’t think so… And because you are training at movement speeds that are far slower than the actual movement speeds you are trying to generate in the actual sport, you end up training your body to produce forces at slower, non-game speeds. In the process, your brain, nerves and muscles become adapted to the slower speeds you expose them to with your slow training exercises, and what happens?

Well, one thing that happens is that your body ends up converting some of its fast-twitch muscle fibers into slow-twitch fibers in response to all of your “slow” training exercises (a phenomenon known as “muscle plasticity”).

So, by performing traditional strength training exercises, you end up “teaching” your body how to generate large amounts of force slowly—much slower than the actual “game” movement you’re trying to speed up, remember!

Isn’t that exactly the opposite of what you were trying to achieve in the first place?

Luckily, the door swings both ways as far as muscle plasticity is concerned as the body will respond to “fast” exercises by converting the slow-twitch muscle fibers to fast-twitch ones. So you have a chance to restore the speed you’ve lost (or are losing as we speak) as soon as you figure out a way to replace all of your “slow” training exercises with “fast” ones.

Ready to hit the gym now?

Maybe you ought to think twice…

Or, you need to strongly consider training with a SpeedChain.

TTFN!

How to increase your racket speed-Part 3 The dawn of a new era in conditioning for tennis

In my last post, I started to talk about whether it’s possible to increase your racket speed by some form of off-court training. And I mentioned that the answer to this question depends on WHEN you asked me this question.

If you asked me if there were any exercises I could do to increase my racket speed before February 2006, the answer would be NO.

If you asked me the same question after February 2006, the answer would be YES.

THERE ARE EXERCISES YOU CAN DO TO INCREASE YOUR RACKET SPEED!

Someone has invented a revolutionary training aid and training program that actually enables athletes in various sports to increase the speed of their golf swings, hockey slapshots, baseball swings, soccer kicks...

And after February 2006, tennis serves, forehands, and backhands.

Why do I seem to know so much about this innovation in conditioning for tennis?

That’s because I have had the privilege of partnering with the inventor of this ground-breaking invention to design, develop and test a tennis-specific training program and together we have created a business venture to bring both this breakthrough, one-of-a-kind training aid and training program to the tennis world.

So, what’s the name of this revolutionary tennis training aid?

It’s called the SpeedChain…

And with it comes the dawn of a new era in conditioning for tennis.

Maybe you’ve heard rumors about the SpeedChain and how training with it increases your serve and groundstroke speeds. I recall that some of the regulars from Tennis Warehouse’s “Talk Tennis” forum started a thread or two about the SpeedChain a while ago (end of 2005, as I recall)…

So, how much speed improvement are we talking about? We are talking about an immediate 5 to 15 MPH increase after the very first time you train with it.

The actual training program takes only about 15 minutes to complete and you see an immediate result. In the long run, the more you train with it, the more you improve your speed…

After that initial 5 to 15 MPH burst forward, players typically continue increasing their racket speeds at a rate of 1 to 3 MPH per week for up to 10 weeks. I’ve personally seen players improve their serve speed almost 30 MPH after 10 weeks of training.

Oh yeah, and I should mention that training with the SpeedChain only takes about 30 minutes per week total (i.e. twice a week for 15 minutes).

And, if you’re wondering why I am so certain about the effectiveness of SpeedChain training for tennis, it’s because I helped create the training program. I have personally trained with and tested the SpeedChain and its tennis-specific training exercises with an ever-growing number of high-performance players from Top 5 sectional juniors to NCAA D1 collegiate players to ITF Futures and ATP Challenger players. The training exercises are simple to do, and it turns out that SpeedChain training for tennis delivers training benefits far beyond increased racket speed (e.g. better speed endurance, stronger rotator cuff muscles, accelerated learning of stroke movements, etc.).

SPEEDCHAIN TRAINING INCREASES YOUR RACKET SPEED, PERIOD.

THE RADAR GUN DOES NOT LIE!

Are you beginning to wonder if you’re missing out on something?

We’ll talk in more detail about how and why the SpeedChain increases your serve and groundstroke speeds when conventional off-court training methods (weights, medicine balls, rubber tubing and bands, plyometrics, etc.) haven’t.

We’ll get into the nitty-gritty about this new era in tennis training—and in speed training in general—next time!

TTFN!