USTA Strength and Conditioning Gena Ball and National Coach Maureen Diaz discuss the importance of the development plan including guidelines for scheduling and periodization as well how training time should be adjusted according to age and stage of development

Maureen is a USTA Womens National Coach on the junior side, in charge of girls 14 and under. She has been with the USTA since 2013, and full time since 2015. Before that Maureen was a top ranked junior in Southern California before playing for UC Irvine and then transferring to University of Southern California playing primarily at #3. After College, Maureen played on the pro circuit tour reaching a singles ranking for 550, after playing Maureen worked at different high performance academies for I-Tennis,Rivier​a country club and The national training center in New York. She became part time for USTA player development in 2013 and became a national coach in 2015 where she ran the Feeder Program at the National Training Center. Before becoming a national Coach Maureen was Head Coach of St Johns University Women Tennis Team in New York. Today, Maureen is in one of the junior coaches in charge of 14 and under girls across the nation as well as in charge of the junior girls program in Carson Ca. She has been the captain of the Junior Worlds team which is the best 14 and under girls in the world winning the title in 2017 and finalists in 2019.

Gena is a Strength and Conditioning Coach (CSCS) for USTA Player Development, based in Carson, California. She has programmed and implemented strength and conditioning for both male and female athletes, ranging from professional, collegiate, transitional, and junior athletes for the USTA for over six years. Prior to the USTA, Gena was a performance coach for EXOS (Formerly Athletes' Performance) in Los Angeles, California working with a wide variety of professional athletes including NFL, MLS, MLB, and WTA athletes. Gena received her Bachelor degree in Nutrition, Exercise, and Health Sciences from the University of Nebraska-Lincol​n, and completed her Master's in Exercise Physiology from A.T. Still University.

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- Development to the Performance Pathway for players just starting in the sport

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Maureen describes the Development Plan document

Link to Development Plan PDF

Recommendations for scheduling including time for recovery and information around the win/loss ratio and levels of tournaments.

*Based on a players averaging 4 singles matches per tournament
**Play age group that matches level of play

Periodization Plan Excel File for Download

Example of Periodization Plan

The mission of the USTA Strength & Conditioning team is to promote health, wellness, and personal excellence through strength and conditioning services that enable the players to be the most complete tennis athletes possible. It is important to remember that overall health is a priority. The measure of an effective S&C program is not pounds on the bar, but increased performance on the court while remaining injury free. The job of the S&C coach is to make better, safer, and more effective movers.

The strength and conditioning department recognizes six main principles that are the foundation for elite athletic development: Strength, Power, Mobility, Movement, Conditioning, and Coordination. These six principles are evidence-based and when applied correctly using progressions, can maximize the development of the athlete in each area.

Link to PDF Download of the USTAPD S&C Philosophy

Remember that every athlete is different, and therefore the speed of their progression for training may be different based on their age, goals, and needs. It will be necessary to be conscious of the amount of time you spend on each principle, and prioritize your training time based on the athlete’s optimal window of opportunity to improve. An overview of the optimal windows of opportunity for various training principles can be seen on this slide.

This chart depicts the amount of time athletes roughly under the age of 11 should be spending on each of the 6 principles of strength and conditioning.

As we can see, the majority of the time during these ages should be spent improving coordination, mobility, and movement training as this is the largest window of opportunity to improve these physical variables. Athletes who have not had a lot of experience playing other sports or developing athletically before the age of 11 may need to start with similar focus so they can build a good foundation of coordination, mobility, and movement. Not every athlete is the same, so it’s always better to start here and work your way into more comprehensive training once a foundational level has been established. Foundational phases and their parameters for each principle are listed in detail in the Strength & Conditioning Philosophy document.

This second chart depicts the amount of time athletes roughly ages 12-17 should spend on each of the 6 principles.

As the athlete starts to mature physically, we start to introduce more strength, conditioning, and power into their training. At this age you can see their overall training time should incorporate each principle more evenly. The athlete should still train in all six areas however they can start to prioritize more foundational strength training into their program, and reduce the amount of coordination work.

Strength training can include any form of resistance training, whether it be bodyweight, isometric holds, bands, or light weights. As the athlete ages, improvements in overall strength ensure their bodies are ready to train with more intensity. Strength is also the foundation for power development, so it is important that an athlete takes time to build a solid base of strength before focusing on more advanced power training. More information on progressions of strength training based on age and maturity can be found in the Strength & Conditioning Philosophy document.

Here we can better see the shifts that occur as the athlete gets older and starts to mature and grow. Ideally, when the athlete is young, they will have built up a great deal of balance, coordination, and mobility. This will serve them well as they grow because it allows them to learn and master some movement patterns and abilities that are needed to be a well-rounded athlete. Athletic development is a long-term progression, and it builds off the skills that are learned early and maintained during training as the athlete grows.

Coordinati​on drills should focus on the athlete learning and maintaining proper posture and positioning for balance and dynamic movement.

Movement patterns that should be trained at this age are both linear and lateral movements such as marching, skipping, shuffling, and running, as well as linear acceleration and deceleration mechanics. Tennis is a sport of movement and it requires the athlete to be able to start and stop over long periods of time. Therefore training acceleration and deceleration will improve a key movement needed to succeed at a higher level.

Mobility is often overlooked until it is an issue. Proper mobility for a tennis athlete is to have full range of motion of all the joints. At this age, the best way to incorporate mobility is daily exercises, either in the warm-up or cool-down. Consistency of this training will be vital in ensuring the athlete does not have any limitations to their movements.

It is important to note that each athlete will progress at a different rate, and specifically gender will influence when their optimal window of opportunity is to train each of the principles. Girls will often progress at an earlier age than boys, and this is discussed in both the Strength & Conditioning Philosophy document, as well as The Young Tennis Player.

A common question is how much should my athlete be completing strength and conditioning compared to the amount of tennis?

Included in the Progressive Development of a High Performance Player document is information relating to training time recommendations​, which can be found at the link provided. The table presented here shows these recommendations for athletes roughly ages 11-13. The general recommendation is to train 3-6 days per week. Within this time frame, tennis should be 12-15 hours per week, no more than 3 hours per day. It is highly recommended that athletes take off 1 to 2 days per week. Athletic development and strength & conditioning should be roughly 45 minutes per day. Again, we recommend taking off 1-2 days per week.

It is always safer to introduce increases in training in small increments, never increasing more than 10% total load from one week to the next. Keep this in mind when adding more athletic development or tennis training sessions.
The key to complementing the athlete’s tennis training is to balance the total load of tennis and strength & conditioning to avoid overtraining and burnout. The ratio of tennis to athletic development should be 2 to 1, resulting in a total training time of 14-20 hours per week.

Link to PDF Download of Progressive Development of a High Performance Player

Specifically around the ages of 11-13 years old, minimal equipment is needed in order to perform proper strength and conditioning sessions. Mobility, Movement, Conditioning, and Coordination can all be improved without any equipment. Mini bands, light resistance bands, and bodyweight exercises used properly with good technique will allow for appropriate improvements in strength and athletic development.

Power can also be improved with bodyweight exercises or medicine ball drills. The optimal window to train power is approximately 16-19 years of age, after maximum strength development has been achieved. Improvements in strength lead to improvements in power, therefore it is key that an athlete has taken the time to build a strong foundational base of strength before spending more time on power training.

Consistenc​y is key for improving in this age group, and the focus is to nail down all the foundational phases of training techniques and skills. This will allow for better improvements as the athlete ages and grows. In terms of strength, as the athlete ages and matures, they can progress to using light weights and eventually heavier strength training. We suggest consulting with a strength and conditioning professional in your area for more guidance once this stage approaches.

The best way to start adding strength and conditioning into your athlete’s training is to incorporate little bits into different areas of their regimen. This could include their dynamic warm-ups, the on-court tennis training, or their cool-downs. These example bag tags, which can be found on our resource page, are a great way to ensure a young athlete starts to build and follow a pre- and post- training routine.

Shoulder strength and mobility is particularly important to start including daily at a young age. This should include at a minimum, a dynamic shoulder warm-up prior to hitting, with light resistance or thera bands, and rotator cuff strengthening exercises post-hit. For shoulder mobility, the side-lying sleeper stretch should be completed after every hit.

Building proper routines that occur daily are your best bet at getting in repetitions of movement patterns, coordination, and mobility. Simple exercises performed consistently will create the foundation needed for more extensive training in the future.

Link to PDF Download of Bag Tag Routines

Link to Dynamic Warm Up Videos

Summary of the most important points of the presentation