Coaches often ask me ‘why do my players all come back in September slower?’ My reply often involves asking ‘how frequently over the summer period have they done speed and power work?’ Unfortunately the answer is either ‘none’ or ‘I don’t know’.

The ways in which I combat this in the competitive season is to add jumps, sprint mechanics, short sprints (5-15 metres) and change of direction drills in the players’ extended warm-ups – which they complete in their morning practice at tournaments, and warm-ups prior to tennis lessons back at base.

In addition to these frequent exposures, I will aim to see the players every 7-10 days where possible between tournaments to go through a more in-depth speed and power session. The reason for this is that speed is a physical quality that can start to deteriorate in as quick as 2 days! If you want to read more about this, check out this blog.

With this in mind, this week’s Exercise of the Week is a simple lateral speed drill. For each drill I would suggest performing 3-5 reps of each exercise, taking a 30 sec rest between reps and 90-120 sec between exercises.

It is really important to complete a full warm-up prior to doing these drills – you can find some of my example warm-ups here Part 1 and Part 2.

Check out last week’s exercise – Mobility Drill – Spiderman