Tennis SpeedChain training video clips now on YouTube

Just a brief update…

For those of you out there who haven’t seen how the Tennis SpeedChain is used to increase your racket / stroke speed, take a peek at these two videos we’ve posted on YouTube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8CywRDCH3Z4 (serve speed training)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=s8pGAc45lp0 (groundstroke speed training)

And, if you are wondering we’re only now posting these videos, it’s a loooong, sordid story that can be summed up in one word:

“Doh!”

Enjoy the videos!

TTFN!

P.S. One tennis website that I've run into that is worth checking out is this one: www.tenniscruz.com. It covers a wide range of topics on tennis and tennis training from the coach (Sergio Cruz) who led Jim Courier from the juniors to ATP #25 in the late 1980s. Sergio offers you insights into modern tennis from an "insider's" perspective... A very informative and entertaining site.

Informal Stroke Speed Survey of US Tennis - Spring 2008 Update

In my on-going survey of stroke speeds in US tennis, I have some more interesting data from the world of college tennis. In early April, I measured the serve speeds from the singles matches contested between the CU and Texas women. So without further ado, here are the numbers:

CU Buffs

Player Position	Average 1st Serve	Average 2nd Serve
#1	71.1	57.8
#2	66.4	59.0
#3	75.0	56.7
#4	80.5	71.7
#5	78.1	70.0
#6	67.3	58.5

Texas Longhorns

Player Position	Average 1st Serve	Average 2nd Serve
#1	77.8	63.0
#2	76.1	65.0
#3	85.0	77.8
#4	77.9	61.6
#5	85.6	56.6
#6	68.5	56.0

To sum up the info in the two tables above:

The average 1^st serve (12 players) was 76.3 MPH.

The average 2^nd serve was 61.6 MPH.

The fastest serve (in play) was 97 MPH.

The slowest serve (in play) was 50 MPH.

The average fastest serve (in play) for the 12 players was 86.1 MPH.

The average slowest serve (in play) was 57.1 MPH.

What do these numbers mean?

Well, the differences in serve speed between the pro and collegiate women are pretty similar to those I found between male collegiate players and their ATP counterparts… (see my earlier post titled: Memo to American College and Junior Players: Find another 30 MPH ASAP!

I then analyzed the serve statistics from players who competed in the 2007 US Open Women’s Round of 16 to the Finals and found the following:

The average 1^st serve (12 players) was 97.6 MPH (vs 76.3 MPH for the collegians).

The average 2^nd serve was 81.1 MPH (vs. 61.6 MPH)

The fastest serve was 124 MPH (vs. 97 MPH).

The slowest serve was 67 MPH (vs. 50 MPH).

The average fastest 1^st serve was 110.8 MPH (vs.86.1 MPH).

The average slowest 2^nd serve was 71.5 MPH (vs. 57.1 MPH).

The difference between the serve speed performance between the pro and college level for the women is at least 15 to 30 MPH – which is indeed a staggering difference!

It appears that the performance level of the women’s collegiate game is diverging from the pro game – in the wrong direction – just as I’ve observed on the men’s side.

And the record bears this out… Can anyone name who’s the last female player from the collegiate world to crack the WTA Singles Top 50 or 80 in recent memory?

Currently, there are only 2 players with any collegiate tennis experience in the WTA Top 100 Singles: Jill Craybas (WTA #66; Florida,1996) and Lilia Osterloh (WTA #94; Stanford, 1997). And, there are only 3 players in the Top 150 with any collegiate tennis experience… the 3^rd player being Laura Granville (WTA #136; Stanford, 2001).

Having seen these 3 players compete in person at some point in the last 7 to 8 years, I can tell you that their serve speed profiles resemble the WTA profile more closely than they do the collegiate profile.

So, in the end, the difference in achievement (i.e. being a successful collegian versus being a successful tour pro) still boils down to the ability to perform to a given standard…

You see, in US tennis, that “standard” has been your win and loss record as you’ve come up through the competitive ranks. There is little attention paid to the objective performance standards that you need to achieve to be competitive with your (elite) peers. And, as we slowly “fill in” those real, measurable standards (as we’re trying to do here), we will improve our chances of achieving the (competitive) goals we really want. At least you’ll know exactly what you’re aiming for!

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!

Introduction to Racket Speed... How Fast Are the Pros Anyway?

Hey everyone,

Now we're finally getting to the tennis speed subject that's probably at the forefront of every player's mind: racket speed.

In this New Power Age, racket speed is the sole basis of power in tennis. Pretty much, this equation spells out what power is all about:

racket speed ---> ball speed ---> POWER

So, it's a pretty simple deal. The faster you swing the racket, the faster the ball flies and the more powerful your shots become.

Therefore, if you want to become a more powerful tennis player, you need to modify the power equation like this:

MORE racket speed ---> MORE ball speed ---> MORE POWER

That’s really all there is to it. If you want to be a more powerful player, you need to figure out how to swing your racket faster. That is the bottom line... More racket speed equals more power.

The million dollar question in this New Power Age is therefore: HOW do you increase your racket speed?

And the answer is pretty straightforward...

But, before we get into how to increase your racket speed, you might be wondering what the actual power level of today's pro game is. I think it will be helpful for you to know exactly what racket and ball speeds you need to achieve to be competitive at the pro level.

Well, these days it's pretty simple to find out the actual ball speeds achieved by today's touring pros are--especially with the development of "micro-radar" technologies such as ESPN's "Shot Spot" and the IBM "PointTracker" featured on the US Open website.

The easiest tennis speed information to get these days--many thanks to the mighty Web--is serve speed. These days, the average serve speed at the sport's highest level appears to hover between 115 and 120 MPH on first serve, and around 85 to 90 MPH on second serve.

Thanks mainly to IBM PointTracker, it's getting easier to get speed data on strokes other than serves... These numbers are not "compiled" statistically like they are for serves, so I'll report the range of speeds (high and low) I've seen for the commonly used strokes:

Topspin Forehand: 65 to 110 MPH
Topspin Backhand: 65 to 105 MPH
Slice Backhand: 45 to 60 MPH
Volleys: 20 to 60 MPH
Overheads: 75 to 120 MPH

Remember, these are ball speeds I'm reporting here, and to figure out what racket speeds produced these ball speeds for the different strokes, we need to do some simple math.

Basically, given the way that the pros set up their rackets (string type, string tension, racket mass and balance, etc.), a quick and dirty way to estimate the racket speed that produces the reported ball speed is to use these two simple formulae:

For all strokes, multiply the ball speed by 0.70 to estimate the racket speed.

Now that you have some idea of what kind of speeds the pros are capable of producing with their shots, I'll get a bit more into the nitty-gritty of how to increase your racket speed next time.

Oh, by the way…

I thought I would save this bit for the end to give you some additional, but critical food for thought…

I wonder if you realize that the first consequence of swinging faster is that your shots will travel farther than before. I can’t emphasize this point enough.

When you swing faster, the ball will fly farther unless you can generate additional spin to help you control your newfound “distance”.

Now, if we were golfers, that extra “distance” is what we would be looking for in every moment of our waking days…

But because we are tennis players...

We only want the extra speed, NOT the extra “distance"!

So maybe there is more to being a truly powerful player than simply increasing your racket speed.

As a reminder, there is no tennis if you can’t hit your shots inside the court. And, understand that the powers-that-be that control the rules of the sport (the ITF, if you’re wondering) have no plans to increase the size of the court to accommodate your newfound “distance” either.

So, maybe the real bottom line is, if you swing faster, but end up losing control over your shots, there will be absolutely no benefit to becoming more powerful.

That is a simple truth of tennis: power without control is useless.

What good is a 100 MPH groundstroke or 130 MPH serve if it doesn’t go into play? It’s no good at all!

Keep that in mind as we continue on our tennis speed adventures…

But you still want to know how to swing faster, right?

We’ll get to that hot topic next time, so TTFN (“Ta-ta for now”… Thanks, Tigger!)…