It is quite fitting that the two best tennis players in the world won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. As Rafael Nadal continued his irresistible form with a gold medal in the singles Roger Federer finally ended what has been so far a dreadful year with gold in the men’s doubles.

Nadal defeated Fernando Gonzales 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 to become the first player to enter an Olympic tournament seeded in the top five to win a gold medal. The gold medal is a fitting end to an extremely successful summer for Nadal who won at Wimbledon and recently became the new world number one, overtaking arch rival Federer.

Roger Federer and partner Stanislas Wawrinka defeated the Swedish duo of Thomas Johansson and Simon Aspelin 6-3 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 in the doubles final in Beijing. The victory is even more impressive when considering Federer’s poor form of 2008 and he showed great mental strength to overcome the disappointment of his singles defeat to underdog James Blake. Similarly to Nadal, Federer’s powerful ground strokes proved too much for his opposition.

Tennis players with a ‘big hit’ have a distinct and often decisive advantage over their lesser powered opponents and this is something which both Federer and Nadal possess. Time after time they have dominated their opponents with a series of very powerful and extremely accurate shots. This sort of hitting requires considerable skill but the right conditioning is also crucial for developing dynamic hitting ability and keeping injury at bay.

In terms of conditioning to produce maximum hitting power and speed, resistance training is absolutely essential and is indeed used by the majority of tennis players.

(To learn more about resistance training read this resistance training report) 

Periodised resistance training programmes:

A team of American researchers looked at the effects of a specifically periodised weight training exercise programme on the performance of collegiate women tennis players. Twenty four players were matched for ability and were randomly placed into one of three groups and monitored over nine months:

-A no-resistance exercise control group

-A periodised multiple-set resistance training group

-A single-set circuit resistance training group.

The team discovered significant increases in fat-free mass and decreases in percent body fat in the periodised training group after four, six, and nine months of training. This meant that they had ‘put on muscle’. A significant increase in power output was observed after nine months of training in the periodised training group only. Specifically one-repetition maximum (1RM–maximumweight that can be lifted for one rep) strength for the bench press, shoulder press, and leg press increased significantly after four, six, and nine months.

However, the single-set circuit group increased their 1RMs only after four months of training. Crucially, in the light of the main subject matter of this article, the serving power of the periodised training group was significantly improved at four and nine months. Interestingly, the enhanced power output of the collegiate tennis players in response to the periodised weight training programme occurred even though the exercises used in the programme (eg the shoulder press) were not tennis specific – ie they did not recruit muscles in ways or at speeds that mimicked match play.

The reason why service power may have been boosted despite the lack of specificity of movements is that the resultant increased muscle mass may have enabled them to hit harder (everything else being equal a larger muscle will be able to exert more power). This latter point is particularly interesting in the world of sports specific conditioning. Numerous top coaches, such as sprint expert Charlie Francis, believe that building increased muscle size (within reason) is the way to go for improved speed and power generation regardless of sport. This would comprise of heavy load weight training (in excess of 85%of 1RM, performed over 2-6 sets of 2-4 reps with complete recoveries). This school of thought often negates the need for ‘channelling’-type weights exercises, which ‘bring’ the increased power potential brought about by the heavy load weight trained muscles into specific sports practice. Instead, getting increased power into performance is achieved by actual sports practice and agility and plyometric drills, which are performed in the same training periods as the heavy load weight training.

Nadal and Federer are the bench marks for achievement in world tennis and competitors hoping to challenge their dominance will need to posses high levels of power which they can draw upon for the entirety of a match.

Learn how to improve your tennis performance with this training for tennis programme.