From Spikesmag FOXNews.com reported how Roddick regularly carries out a combination of distance running and sprints but ‘will never run six or seven miles at a time.’ Instead he carries out a lot of ‘straight track work’ with a minute and a half to recover between sets. He will often run a series of 30m, 40m and 60m sprints eight times a day and then do five or six 300m sprints the following day.
Roddick admitted his running training reflected the demands of tennis: “With me, my (running) focus is more on how quickly I’m able to recover from something tough.”
I wonder if the 300m reps are actually 95-100%. That’s a hell of a volume! And why does he need it? I recall Charlie in Vanc04:
Where’s he going? Is he making a 200m burst? You can’t leave the arena!
His trainer is Lance Hooton, Dan’s former weightroom coach at UT. The program is almost exactly what you see from Dan and in my experience the 300’s are probably around 80%, if not slower, although the perceived effort is much higher. The sprint series is typically done in ladder format with shorter rests between the runs (walk back, get a drink, sometimes incorporates wall acceleration drill) and around 5 minutes between sets. Similar to what you see from Dan and Charlie’s GPP workout (Sprint Capital) that was posted not too long ago.
Charlie has been telling me about the benefits of linear sprint training for sports like tennis for years. Finally, someone is doing it. Imagine if the top skilled players started training properly.
All the “sport specific” and “functional training” dip-shits have no clue why sprinting works for the large majority of sports.
And to add insult to injury, many of the flock seem to have managed to convince themselves, and now others, that ‘quickness/agility’ maneuvers are the flavor of the month while insinuating that linear speed work is overblown.
But alas, let’s sit back and marvel at the meddling of the troglodytes who have somehow managed to make a career for themselves in the coaching industry.
Total agree with you all about linear speed and tennis, and all the talk about only doing “sport specific” and "functional training” for tennis is complete BS!
I’ve been using a modified short to long CFTS model within a modified Hi/Low template as described in James Smith book with great results. I’m starting my 2nd year working for a mid-major school and we were predicted to finish last in our conference last season. We finished tied for 2nd, and one player who played no higher than the number 5 for the last 2 years finial moved up to the 2nd spot, made 3rd team all-conference and finished tied for 1st on the team with 12 wins!
With regards to “sport specific (agility/quickness)” and "functional training”, I was doing 2-days of linear work, with 1 day of COD (change of direction) work. It wasn’t until about 4 week out from the start of season I flipped to a 1 day linear, and two days of COD work and saw great results in the transfer. The first two weeks were programmed COD, cone drills, line drills, etc, and the last weeks were more “sport specific” reaction type drills, while mimicking rally times and rest periods between points and sets. I was wondering if there was more effective way to implement the CFTS program with tennis?
Entirely depends on how much tennis you are playing. For top players who go to tournament after tournament, there is no need for COD work at all because that’s covered by their work on the court.
I agree, I reserve the fall and spring season itself as their COD work. I will keep plyos and explosive med ball throws, along with linear speed work at low volumes during both fall/spring seasons. Sorry for the confusion, I was talking more about the summer and winter breaks. During winter break I have 5 to 6 weeks before their true season starts. During winter break I will reintroduce COD work and increase tempo volume (no practice or games during break), decrease tempo volume as the season starts and drop COD work completely during the start of the spring season. To be more specific with my question about finding a more effective way to implement the CFTS, would it be feasible to increase linear speed work & foot touches (plyos-still keeping the overall volume low) during the fall/spring seasons during the weeks in which no matches are played on the weekends and then decrease the volume again 7-10 days before their next tournament, and continue with this cycle until conference championships and nationals if they should qualify?
i don’t see why you couldn’t follow that approach with power work but i would suggest using late COD work only to test their readiness. Set up a circuit and use the same thing throughout as your benchmark- perhaps every 10 days or so. The tennis will take care of the rest.
flavour of the month? i wish it was that short i am clashing with my new head soccer coach who says “hey i am no expert but i see everyone doing it so it must work” when i told him i dont like hurdles or ladders for speed work…
I’ve seen Andy Roddick do this workout a few times now. He works out at Austin High School with Lance Hooton and his group. The 300’s are tempo, as he finished a 300 right in front of me in about 46 seconds. I think the last day I saw them they were running 100-200-300 x 2 or 3.
