A club player who gets on court two or three times a week needs two short strength sessions. They cover leg strength and change of direction, trunk rotation, the shoulder and scapula, plus one interval block that matches the rhythm of a match. Strength goes on a non-playing day or after court, never before it. In Dubai summer the whole thing moves to early morning and late evening.
Why court time alone is not enough
A club-level point lasts a few seconds and is built from a sideways push, a stop, a turn and a recovery step back to the middle. Twenty seconds between points, ninety seconds between games. A match is a series of short accelerations rather than steady running, and what usually gives out first is the legs, not the lungs.
Here is what I see in the third set from a player with no off-court work. The split step gets lower and later. The first step to the ball loses its bite, so the ball gets met wherever you arrive instead of where you want it. Then the arm starts doing the job the trunk should be doing. The technique has not gone anywhere, it was simply running on a reserve that has now run out.
Work off the court does not teach you to play, that belongs to your tennis coach. It gives you something else: legs that brake and accelerate on the fortieth repetition the way they did on the first, and a trunk that delivers rotation into the shot. Plus a shoulder ready for the volume of serves rather than for one good one.
What the week looks like
The rule I start every plan with: strength does not go before court. If the choice is between a tired court session and a tired gym session, I take the tired gym session. Court always wins, it is the reason for all the rest of it.
| Court sessions a week | Strength sessions | Priority | Where they sit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | 2 full, 45-60 minutes | Leg strength, pulling, trunk rotation | Non-playing days |
| 3 | 2 short, 35-40 minutes | Braking, shoulder, recovery | After court or every other day |
| 4 or more | 1-2 maintenance, 30 minutes | Shoulder, glutes, sleep | Never on a match day |
| Coming back after a break | 2 strength, 1 court | Everything from scratch, no load, no intervals | Non-playing days |
This is how the week looks for someone who plays Tuesday and Saturday:
- Monday: strength, legs and pulling, 50 minutes.
- Tuesday: court.
- Wednesday: off, a walk or the pool.
- Thursday: strength, trunk and shoulder, short accelerations at the end.
- Friday: off.
- Saturday: court, usually a match.
- Sunday: 25-30 minutes of easy cardio at conversational pace.
If you play three times, the second session drops to 35-40 minutes and often moves onto a court day, straight after you come off. Stacking load into one day and taking a clean rest day works better than four half-loaded days in a row. That is what sport-specific strength work looks like for most of the club players I train.
What we actually build
Legs and change of direction
A tennis player brakes more often than they run. A standard squat does not cover braking, because in a squat you lower yourself on two legs and control the speed.
I use the Bulgarian split squat with a three-count lowering, the lateral lunge with weight staying over the working leg, the single-leg Romanian deadlift and the step-down. The step-down doubles as a test: stand on a box on one leg and lower the other heel slowly towards the floor. If the knee drifts inwards and the hip drops to the side, that is exactly what happens in the corner of the court, only at speed.
Jumping work comes in once braking is under control: a lateral bound with a two-second stick on landing, six per leg. The stick matters more than the distance.
Trunk and rotation
The shot starts from the ground and travels through the trunk, the hand only finishes it. When the trunk gives way, rotation leaks on the way through and the arm has to make up the speed. That is where a large share of elbow complaints among club players comes from, especially with dead balls and a heavy racket.
In the programme this looks unglamorous: a Pallof press against a band, side medicine-ball throws into a wall for eight per side, a cable chop from high to low, a plank with a reach. Anti-rotation comes before rotation. The trunk first learns not to collapse, and only then gets permission to turn fast.
Shoulder and scapula
Serves and overheads repeat all match. The shoulder takes damage from volume, not from one big hit, and what holds it is the scapula and the cuff.
Rows and lat pulldowns give the scapula something to hold it. External rotation with a band, 12 to 15 reps with no jerking, looks after the cuff. I give overhead pressing only to people whose arm goes up without the lower back arching. If the arch is there, pressing overhead rehearses the same fault they repeat on serve.
Aerobic base
The point of it is not running far. It is recovering between points and still being there at the end of a third set. One or two sessions a week, 25 to 35 minutes at a pace where you can speak in full sentences. Bike, rower, or a fast walk along the water before the office.
Separately I add an interval block that copies the shape of a match: 8 to 12 accelerations of 5 to 8 seconds with 20 to 25 seconds of rest. Start at eight and add a couple each week, as long as your running form still holds together on the last one.
Dubai summer
From June to September the outdoor courts are usable before seven in the morning and after eight at night. In the middle of the day the combination of heat and humidity turns training outside into a health question rather than a test of character. ACSM guidance on exercise in the heat recommends reducing intensity when the heat index is high, and that is a sensible reference point to work from.
In practice summer rearranges the week. Court moves indoors under air conditioning or into the early slot, playing volume drops, and strength becomes the main work. Fewer courts means room for the things there is never time for in season: the shoulder, the glutes, braking mechanics.
Plenty of players leave for two months and come back in October convinced they will pick up where they left off in May. The twinge rarely arrives in the first match, that one runs on adrenaline. It arrives in the second or third match inside the same week. After any break I give two weeks of one court session and two strength sessions before going back to a normal schedule. For players who travel and train online, I ask them during those weeks to log not only weight and reps but how the shoulder and knee felt twenty-four hours after playing.
Three mistakes that stop this from working
What derails this most often is loading on top of fatigue. A heavy session in the morning and a match in the evening does not double anything, it gives you a poor match and a poor session. When the day leaves no choice, the gym work gets cut to half the volume.
Another one is treating recovery as optional. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine puts the adult reference at seven hours or more. When somebody plays three times a week and sleeps five, the shoulder is not hurting because of the serve.
And the last is gym work that never reaches the court. Squats on their own will not make your first step quicker if you have never rehearsed it sideways. So every session ends with something that resembles the game: accelerations with a stop, lateral shuffles, split steps on a count.
Where to start this week
- Film two clips on your phone: a step-down on each leg from the side, and raising both arms overhead with your back against a wall. That is your baseline to come back to in a month.
- Put two strength sessions in the calendar with a day and a time, not with the words "when I get a chance".
- For the first session take five movements: Bulgarian split squat, Romanian deadlift, row, Pallof press, band external rotation. Two sets each, with a load where the last rep looks like the first.
- Finish with eight accelerations of five seconds and full rest between them.
- Write down weight, reps, and how the shoulder and knee feel the next morning.
If you want this shaped around your own schedule, level and history with your back or elbow, there is a five-question quiz on the site and I reply on WhatsApp the same day. In personal training the first session starts with these same tests rather than with a bar on your back.
How to tell it is working
After four weeks, do not judge it by the weight on the bar. It is working if the knee no longer drifts inwards on the step-down video. If your split step at the end of the second set looks like the one in the first game. If the morning after a match arrives without a reminder from your knee or shoulder. And if you completed six or seven of the eight planned sessions: consistency outweighs a perfect programme done halfway.
None of these signs are dramatic. What they do show is that the load is landing in muscle rather than in joints.