Beginner Physical Training Routine - Part Two

A while back I posted a routine of a few exercises for a person beginning physical training. When you start, the emphasis should be on learning good form and technique - a step that should not be rushed through! However, once that has been achieved, the next step is to apply the principles of progressive overload to improve strength quantitatively: weight & reps.

The goal is to develop a base of muscular endurance which provides the work capacity needed for future more maximal strength oriented training. There are many different ways do this, but for now I am suggesting the Escalating Density Training (EDT) method. EDT involves setting a fixed amount of time in which you try to do as many reps as possible with a certain amount of weight for a given exercise. I like this because the time needed to perform the workout is fixed and it challenges the athlete to give their maximum effort.

Part 1 - Agility drills (4 minutes)
Start off with some agility drills while the legs are still reasonably fresh. You want to make sure to move at a higher intensity than you do on the court, that's why we keep the exercises fairly simple. Pay attention to quick foot contacts, good core stability and rhythmic movement.

choose one of:

• 1 leg hops, square pattern, 80 hops/set, start each set on the minute, 4 sets (2 per leg)
  
• 2 leg low squat hops, square pattern, 80 hops/set, start each set on each minute, 4 sets each
  
• wide lateral barrier jumps, 20 jumps/set, start each set on each minute, 4 sets each

Part 2 - Core strength

• Tripod holds: get into the top of a pushup position, one by one raise a hand or foot leaving three limbs to support your weight, make sure to keep the trunk from twisting. 5 seconds per hold, do as many as possible before collapsing
• Pallof press isometric: from a kneeling position hold the handle to a low pulley at arms length for 20-30 seconds. Perform 3 sets/side.
• Side plank: 20-30 seconds. Perform 3 sets/side. Add weight as necessary.

Part 3 - Upper Body

Pressing movement (3 minutes EDT):

• pushups with handles
  
• DB press
• dip

Pulling Movement (3 minutes EDT):

• DB row
• pullup or pseudo pullup
• body row

Part 4 - Lower Body

• walking lunges (6 minutes EDT)

Part 5 - Energy Systems

• DB swing, 10 reps/set, 1 set per minute, 5 sets
  

In between exercises, you can do add additional exercises like:

• shoulder external rotation
• Y's
• bird dogs
• fire hydrants
• lateral band walks
• single leg RDL

Total time for the workout should be about 35-40 minutes.

This setup is for 3 sessions per week, Mon-Wed-Fri. However, it can be modified to accomodate different weekly training schedules. If two consecutive days are spent training before a day off, you can split the workout into:

Day 1 - agility, pushingx2, energy systems
Day 2 - core, pullingx2, lower body

If it's three consecutive days:

Day 1 - agility, core, upper, lower
Day 2 - energy systems
Day 3 - agility, core, upper lower

Drills - Serve Return + Intercept

# of players: 2 or 3

This drill practises the movement for short serve returns as well as the quick recovery needed to cover the net after such a shot.

Player 1 serves short.
Player 2 pushes off quickly to the net, racquet up and cocked back, and pushes the return of serve.
Player 1 drives the return-of-return of serve through player 2's zone of coverage.
Player 2 recovers quickly from the previous shot to cut-off and intercept the drive.

With only two players, the serve return option is mostly limited to a fairly soft push at the server, who is standing back at midcourt. With three players, the server can stand right up to the service line, and the third player can cover the rear court. This gives player 2 more options on serve return.

Linear and Complex Progressions - Sandwich Method

Ordinarily, we use a progression from basic skills to more complex skills integrating more basic skills. An example would be:
stationary shot -> 1 shot with movement from the base -> serial pattern of multiple shots-> semi open-ended pattern -> fully open-ended game situation drill-> competition

A player will frequently move up through a progression, then move back to the start of the progression and start again. For example, you'll do basic drills during preseason training, and gradually more open-ended or complex drills as the season progresses. This type of cycle occurs at different scales:

beginner: mostly basic drills -> advanced player : mostly complex drills
preseason: emphasize simpler drills -> late season: emphasize open-ended drills

However, how do you manage progressions on a smaller time scale? For example, on a monthly, weekly, or even per session basis?

Obviously, if you're only training once or twice a week, you can do something quite simple like taking small progressions (i.e. longer serial progressions, faster speed) each week and then maybe the bigger ones (i.e. more open ended, switch from half to full court) each month.

If you're training more frequently, you can be a bit more clever in arranging your exercises to avoid stagnation. One method for working on a progression within a single training session is what I like to call the sandwich method. It works like this:

complex drill -> simple progressions -> back to complex drill

So, you start with the advanced exercise, which can be used as an assessment of the player's higher level skills: positioning, decision making etc. Some things you can change with vocal cues, others require more work on simpler progressions. When you go to a simpler progression after the complex drill, you will be more focused on what needs work because you've already been shown what's deficient. When you finally get back to the complex drill, you have a point of reference from which you can look for improvement.

Drive techniques

To be good at drives, you need the following:

• know the different drive techniques used in different parts of the court
• how to position yourself to make it as easy as possible to get to the shot
• understand your opponent's moves and how to exploit them
  

There are three different techniques used depending on where the shot is being made: above the net at the forecourt, above the net at the backcourt and below the net at the backcourt.

From above the net in the forecourt, the player uses an overhead action to hit the drive. If the bird is at net level, the player needs to crouch down lower to be able to hit it with the racquet pointing upwards. The stroke is initiated with a very small amount of internal or external rotation of the shoulder , depending on whether it is on the forward or backhand, respectively. Just before contact, the fingers tighten momentarily to deliver the power into the shot. Body and forearm rotation is minimal. The objective of this shot is to get to the shuttle quickly while it is above the net and direct it downwards at the opponent to put pressure on them.

When the shot is deeper in the court but still above the net, we can add forearm rotation to add more power because there is more time to prepare for the shot. The motion is still initiated by a slight shoulder rotation and it still requires grip tightening just before contact. There should be a rebound action just after contact. This shot can be described as a half-smash taken low, and the objective is to place the shot into an open space to catch your opponents on a poor counterattack.

When the drive is performed from below the net at the back, the racquet points sideways or downwards. Therefore, the technique is quite different than the above two drives. Movement is now initiated with a slight body rotation. The racquet is held away and in front of the body, creating a long lever arm from racquet head to centre of rotation. Therefore, a small amount of body rotation results in pretty good linear racquet head momentum, which is then transferred to the shot via finger tightening. The objective of this shot is to blast the drive past the net player who is positioned too close to the net.