The first and most important thing Tennis Players and those committed to achieving anything is the goal setting process. The best way to set goals is to make them SMART goals as below.
Specific: You will optimize the chances of achieving your goals if you are as specific as possible when formulating them - include a date for each milestone you will reach along the way, include a weight or a size measurement, include the event date and the distance you wish to run, or the time you want to do it in;
Measurable: Make sure that you can measure success with your goal - measurements, clothes sizes, fitness level, running a specific distance etc
Attainable. You have to be realistic with yourself when setting a goal - is this conducive to my lifestyle, can I realistically give this up for this amount of time, am I prepared to change some habits and get up early etc
Relevant: Ensure your goal/s actually mean something to you, your milestone goals are relevant to the long term goals and you have a big enough why to keep going when motivation may become lower.
Timely: Set a date, have smaller things to achieve along the way that have a timeline, and ensure you're setting goals that are shorter as the longer or further away it is the higher the chance your motivation and then compliance will fall.
Goal or process orientated?
The problem is not your goal, it is that you are focused on the wrong thing… the outcome.
Process-oriented people focus on the daily steps needed to reach their goals.
Outcome-oriented people focus on their results (wins and losses). For these types of people match outcomes or the small achievements are the only thing that matters. Being outcome oriented is good in the short-term but in the long run, you cannot have that mindset exclusively.
Achieving goals is most effective when you are process-oriented and focused on continual growth and improvement. In order to improve, you must focus on the process or plan, not on the goal.
For outcome-oriented people, goal attainment is an end point. For process-oriented people, goal attainment is simply a milepost on the journey to further success.
Set not only long term goals but short term goals and develop a plan for how you will work towards your short term goals.
You should evaluate your progress regularly. Are you on the right path? What can you do now to improve? Use your performance so far as feedback and re-evaluate if necessary to enable you to achieve your short term goals confidently.
Now that you have set your goals, train like a Tennis player -
Tennis players will tend to focus more on performance, therefore meaning HIIT/plyometric training and stamina based cardio, with weight training to increase the power of their shots.
Weight training is a regular as it is necessary for strength and injury prevention. You should be aiming for a minimum of two weight training sessions per week, anything extra is a bonus for your body.
Cardio and intervals
The two main training functions for cardio are steady state and high intensity interval training - both have their advantages when it comes to your fitness and fat loss. A mixture of the two is necessary. We recommend a ratio of around 75% steady state cardio such as walking, cycling, swimming etc and 25% hard cardio or high intensity interval training. You can split this up over the week into several smaller 10-20 minute sessions. This makes it more manageable and gives you little bursts of fat burning when you wouldn't otherwise be getting any.
Plyometric exercises are great for performance and fat loss. Including these in your hard cardio or HIIT routine will make a big difference. Try things like burpees, squat jumps, box jumps, tuck jumps, frog jumps, jumping lunges, clap pushups etc. These require a higher energy expenditure and increase your heart rate. Throwing some of these in between weight sets is also a great way to increase the intensity of your workouts.
*Disclaimer: Individual results vary based on agreed goals. Click here for details.
