Planning Your Season

Are you running the same drills at the end of your season that you were using during the first few weeks of the season?

If so, you may not be systematically helping your players progress and improve throughout the season.

The concept of periodization as it applies to conditioning aims to ensure that an athlete is at his or her peak physical condition during a particular event, such as the Olympics, or a Grand Slam tennis tournament.

The theory of specificity, a guiding principle of periodization, states that an athlete's workouts should more closely resemble their competitive activity as they get closer to their desired time of performance.

For examples, football players may work on building muscle mass and aerobic conditioning during summer training camps, but during the season, their workouts are more explosive and aimed at speed, agility and quickness.

Just as a periodization schedule can be followed for conditioning, so can the theory of specificity be applied to the on-court work you do for tennis.

Dividing your season into three, distinct “mini-seasons” or phases will help your players improve their strokes, use these strokes to improve their shot-making ability, and use new shot-making strengths to improve their tactical prowess.

The article continues with a outline of the three phases of a season, and what to work on during each.

Pre-Season Phase

Pre-Competitive Phase

In-Season Phase