Why not put together some conditioning-drills to use at the club modeled along the lines of situations faced by top players? Let’s make a simple tennis-specific running drill based on this slice forehand situation We have the player start on the left in the BH corner (modeled after right-handed players). The first sprint is diagonally backwards (about 4 m), then back with a cross-over and side-steps, followed by a split step and a sprint diagonally forwards across the service-line. We perform the whole thing with racquet, but only with shadow strokes. This drill is, of course, great for group training.

Note:

To ensure the quality, we pay attention to a few details. The player always starts with a split step. After the sprint to the right, the player shadows a slice FH in a stretched position. Then comes a quick push-off impulse with a crossover and side-steps back to the right of the cone. There, have the player split step and catapult out of the jump into a full sprint forward. Have the player sprint across the T-line at full speed, swinging the arms with the naturally. This is important because many players like to run off with racquet far in front of their body preventing them from sprinting at maximum speed.

Variation:

Of course, it makes sense to do the whole thing with hitting a ball after a while. At that point, make sure that the approach and split-step timing match.

Analysis

Let’s take a look at some analysis data from Roger in this situation.

Its top running speed to the side is 18.288 km/h. The top speed forward is 26.632 km/h.

This situation has been observed in the Madrid Open.