Tennis Agility Drills
In tennis, agility is essential for success because it allows you to change directions frequently while also changing speeds and keeping balance under duress. Being nimble enables you to have the right balance to hit the ball in a controlled manner, as well as get to the ball faster and better prepare for shots, providing you with more shot-selection options.
We will cover a range of tennis agility drills below, but as always we recommend getting tennis lessons to really ensure you’re taking the next step in your development.
Why Agility is Important for Your Tennis Skills?
Over the past few decades, tennis has evolved into a far more physically demanding sport. To maintain your playing level throughout a long match, you also need exceptional endurance.
From a tactical standpoint, having strong agility gives you a significant advantage in all facets of your game. The ability to change direction, accelerate, and decelerate quickly while retaining strong body control is key to outplaying your opponent.
Agility has been cited as the main determining element for success in sport. No tennis player will be able to go more than 40 feet without stopping, turning around, or adjusting their speed. The person with the overall athletic advantage in the game will be the one who can accomplish this in the most effective way. It is crucial to practise agility the same way you would practise any other ability.
Tennis Drills to Improve Agility
Suicides
These are similar to jump roping, it’s typically a high-intensity running drill. It’s excellent for cardio conditioning, especially in constrained settings. The reason for this is that you must first run to one location, return to the beginning location, and then run to another location that is farther away before running back (and so forth and so forth).
Suicides are excellent for simulating the constant twisting and turning, quick acceleration, sudden stopping, and other actions employed in tennis. When done correctly, it is also possible to simulate moving in and out of a corner of the court, creating a similar movement to moving in to and out from a ball.
Ladder Drills
Ladder drills are another agility task that is great for all ages. The task’s level of difficulty and intensity depending on the skill level. These exercises are enjoyable and beneficial for enhancing a tennis player’s coordination and footwork.
Tennis requires movements in all directions, thus it’s beneficial to practise on a ladder while moving forwards, backwards, and sideways.
Balance
Balance is crucial in tennis to be able to move up and down the court effectively, as well as out wide to shots from your opponent to the extremities of the court. Players’ agility can also be improved through balance training.
This can be done by balancing on one leg, using balance disks or standing on unstable surfaces. Depending on the skill level external factors such as balls or other players can be included to encourage maintaining focus.
Agility Training at Cagney Tennis Academy
Tennis agility drills cover all aspects of a player’s development of balance, coordination, and footwork. There are countless exercises tennis players may do to increase their agility, which will make them more effective on the court. Cagney Tennis Academy offers Cardio Tennis that features high intensity drills that can increase agility.
Delivered by a licensed, insured and professional tennis coach, a typical cardio tennis programme consists of quick drills where a qualified coach accommodates players according to their skill and level of fitness. Junior or adult tennis lessons can help easily increase your agility on the court by practising simple coordination drills like catching or tossing a tennis ball with or without movements.
With Cagney Tennis Academy you can get agility training and fitness that will help you bring your game to the next level.
