The Pro: Howard Waldstreicher is the founder and creator of HalfHourPower, a tennis workout officially licensed by the USTA. Waldstreicher has helped train the Bryan Brothers and Melanie Oudin on their reactive power. For more information, visit www.halfhourpower.com.
The Tip: Developing an Explosive First Step Using Resistance Bands
What should come first: fast-break quickness or sustained speed?
Today’s tennis players are focused on moving faster and faster. But wouldn’t it be more beneficial to develop an explosively quick first step? After all tennis is a two step game. If the body cannot quickly start to move and quickly create a forward, lateral, or rotational momentum, nothing else really matters.
Speed in most ground-based sports, especially tennis, is determined by how quickly an athlete can get his or her body in motion. Acceleration at top-end speed only comes into play once the player gets the body moving. Therefore it could be argued that developing a quick first step must occur before running speed takes over.
Functional quickness is when an athlete creates an integrated, total body reaction that propels the body into motion. The upper and lower torsos react simultaneously in a synchronized, powerful series of movements brought together through a common link, the trunk.
So, how do you develop explosive first-step quickness?
Developing first-step quickness requires you to load quickly and efficiently. This loading best occurs when the body naturally assumes the optimal posture where the athlete goes from putting the brakes on, better known as “deceleration” to changing direction and making an explosive first step.
Remember, you can’t go unless you load the system first: The human body reacts like a rubber band, you have to load before you explode, you have to squat before you jump. Therefore, training to load quicker and quicker, with decreased ground contact should be the athlete’s focus.
Start with simple loaded step-downs and loaded lunges.
A resistance band lunge matrix or step-down matrix drill is a great series of drills to teach your body how to load quickly and efficiently. These drills require you to train against gravity and momentum using body weight and a band that you can easily control.
With resisted lunges or step downs, you should challenge yourself to get out as far as you can but still get back to the starting position quickly and maintaining balance. Getting back quickly is the key to any deceleration drill such as lunges or step-downs. Getting back means you control the ground reaction forces, the momentum of the band, and the speed of gravity when you put the brakes on and changed direction.
Once the lunge movement is mastered, challenge your reaction speed by seeing how many times you can get down and back in 20 seconds. I like to shoot for 15 reps in 20 seconds.
You will quickly realize that if you do not maintain a good athletic posture when landing, you will not be able to load efficiently and will return poorly. Remember, putting the brakes on is the loading phase, and you must load quickly and efficiently if you want to accelerate quickly.
Once you have the lunges going well, you have prepared yourself for the next step: reactive step drills.
With the band around your hips, just like the Bryan brothers and Melanie, you should lean forward into the band and explode out 2 or 3 steps. You should always feel yourself leaning slightly forward before exploding out. You need to drive your arms back while pushing off the ground quickly and powerfully.
I often have Melanie and the brothers say 1-2-3. I also put a cone out or some tape so they have a visual indicator of how far to move.
Summary
Developing an explosive first step Is all about loading the body quickly with good posture. This can best be trained by getting the athlete to naturally move into this position. Not only do resistance bands provide the input needed to teach the best posture, but they can also provide the variable resistance to strengthen the key muscles. And by the way, the Bryan Brothers and Melanie Oudin routinely say this is the hardest workout they ever do, so be prepared.