Specificity of running in Tennis
Watching Andy Murray running down balls in his semi final at the Australian Open made me think. There is a lot of literature in tennis fitness about the need for speciic running versus traditional training. We hear time and time again about how 80% or more of running is multidirectional and less than 4metres.
Recently I watched a powerpoint by Mark Kovacs from the USTA who superimposed Blake off the mark with Tyson Gay and showed the differences in gait.
But watching Murray it seemed that the key points involved 100% explosive running efforts. I think there is a need for a really good EMG study on this topic.
Often players are running laterally with their upper body twisted, but hips pointing in the direction they are running to. Thus in this case I would assume hamstring and quads are contracting maximally and whilst moving across the court it is essentially a straight line burst.
So how are these statistics compiled about movement needs in elite tennis? This is important because it impinges on training needs.
Just seems to me that the big boys really run heaps.
Food for thought.
loris bertolacci 