You're Not Slow, It Just Feels that Way...
Mattspoint Tennis Blog
by Matt Kuzdub
1y ago
  Novak Djokovic is arguably the best tennis player of all time. It’s no secret he possesses an array of talents and skills. From his technique, to his mental toughness and everything in between.  His physical abilities aren’t too shabby either. Flexibility, stamina and movement are merely a few that come to mind.  While Novak is unquestionably a physical specimen, he’s not the fastest tennis player I’ve ever seen. It’s obvious he’s not the strongest. And I’d say he’s probably not one of the most powerful out there either.  From an overall athletic perspective, he's not the ..read more
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3 Ways Off-Court Training Can Improve Your Serve
Mattspoint Tennis Blog
by Matt Kuzdub
1y ago
  Finally, after more than 15 years, I can hit a powerful serve. I always wanted to hit a big serve. The problem was…my timing wasn’t great, I couldn’t generate any power and I often had an achy shoulder. That’s all changed now. I went from a 100mph serve to consistently hitting between 110-120mph. What’s also interesting is that I never intentionally altered my serve technique. But my mechanics got better. On top of all that, my shoulder doesn’t hurt anymore. How did this happen? One thing is clear, I learned how to organize serve practices. When to practice for power and when to practic ..read more
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Hacking the Tennis Serve - Summation of Forces Explained
Mattspoint Tennis Blog
by Matt Kuzdub
1y ago
  Have you ever hit a serve where everything just seemed to come together? You felt coordinated. Powerful. The ball came off your racquet like a rocket.  On the flip side, we’ve all hit serves that felt off-balanced. Off-centered. Lacked pop. And landed everywhere but the service box.  Place technique to the side for a moment and briefly consider these 2 scenarios. In scenario 1, you’re likely striking the ball ‘on time’. Power is coming from the transfer of energy (we’ll get to this in more detail below). And it’s all happening in a properly sequenced manner.  In scenario ..read more
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Strength Exercises to Help 'Mitigate' Injury Risk in the Tennis Shoulder
Mattspoint Tennis Blog
by Matt Kuzdub
1y ago
Many in tennis associate shoulder health with resistance band exercises. Listen to coaches and trainers talk about shoulder strength or injury prevention with their players and you’ll surely hear things like “are you using your bands daily?” or “make sure to do ‘x’ or ‘y’ band exercise”. But do band exercises work in the manner that they’re spoken about?   I’d like to offer my take on the matter and suggest 2 other strength training methods - light weight and moderate/heavy strength exercises.  Let’s dissect the 3 categories mentioned to gain further insights: Resistance Band Ex ..read more
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Benefits of In-Place Jump Circuits for Tennis
Mattspoint Tennis Blog
by Matt Kuzdub
1y ago
  There are countless ways that tennis players can get into shape. From running workouts to weight training, on-court drills and more.  All have their pros and cons. And all can be utilized at different times of the year + at different stages of a player’s development.  Recently, plyometric and jump training has resurfaced as a popular training modality amongst tennis players. You’ll see many performing hurdles, line hops and other types of jumping variations. It’s proposed that this training method will take advantage of certain deficiencies in elastic abilities, power enduranc ..read more
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How to Hit Bigger Groundstrokes (Lessons from a Champ)
Mattspoint Tennis Blog
by Matt Kuzdub
1y ago
  Wimbledon is around the corner and it’s going to be the first time in over 20 years that Roger Federer isn’t competing.  While Rafa Nadal has been my favorite of the Big 3 since I can remember, part of me would still like to see Roger make a run at another Wimbledon title.  I’m confident that Roger will make a final push to be back on tour (he and his team understand the rehab process better than anyone I’ve seen in tennis). So good luck to Rog!  But that’s not why I’m mentioning Mr. Federer. The reason I bring him up is because of a video I recently saw of him hitting a ..read more
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Structural Strength Training - What It Is and How to Use It
Mattspoint Tennis Blog
by Matt Kuzdub
1y ago
  It’s no surprise that I’m a fan of strength training (as long time readers of Mattspoint would know).  But strength training is an more of an umbrella term than just one type of training modality. Because there's just so many different ways that we can lift weights. Here are a few examples:  Lift light weights fast - explosive (or speed) strength Lift heavy weights slow (with a fast/explosive intention) - maximum strength Lift moderate weights fast - strength speed (or rate of force development) These are all concentric muscle actions we’re referring to. We can further ..read more
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A Year-Round Approach to Building the Tennis Athlete
Mattspoint Tennis Blog
by Matt Kuzdub
1y ago
  I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again - the most specific form of training for tennis is playing tennis! Thus, tennis training - which includes on-court drills, live ball hitting, practice sets (and even tournament matches) - is the truest form of ‘sport-specific physical training’ for tennis.  So if you hear someone talk about ‘sport-specific training’ and they’re jumping on a bosu ball, performing shadow swings on the beach or some other random exercise, that is NOT sport specificity.  The question then becomes, why do any off-court training at all? Wouldn’t it be better ..read more
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How to Add Speed to Your Serve - A Practical Look
Mattspoint Tennis Blog
by Matt Kuzdub
2y ago
  A little while back, I wrote a post highlighting the need to serve earlier in practices - if you haven’t yet, you can check out that article here. I also discussed this on the BTS podcast with PhD in Sport Science, Jaime Fernandez, who recently published a research paper on this exact topic. His conclusion - serving should happen at some point in the first half of a tennis practice AND NOT at the very end of a session. This will benefit players both from a development standpoint and from an injury mitigation point of view.  In this post, I want to provide a practical look at how to ..read more
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External vs Internal Cues: Does it Make a Difference?
Mattspoint Tennis Blog
by Matt Kuzdub
2y ago
  If you’ve read my blog in the past, you’ve likely seen my post on attentional focus cues - and the research + implementation that goes along with it.  You may have also read my take on the importance of cueing in general. And why the right cue - given at the correct time - is often more impactful than the perfect drill (although combining the right cue with a great drill is a recipe of success).  Personally, I prefer simple cues - either a word (said aloud or in one’s head) that brings a performer’s attention to the most relevant areas of a skill or situation being practiced ..read more
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