Donald Chu is often hailed as the “Father of Plyometrics” for his pioneering work in explosive movement development. His book Power Tennis Training delivers a comprehensive guide for enhancing performance in that sport using that technique. Chu’s training program is designed to help tennis players at all levels improve their endurance, build critical muscle strength, and increase their overall speed on the court.
The book opens with a story about the evolution of Gabriela Sabatini’s training, which reveals how outdated conventional wisdom about strength training at the start of her career wasn’t well suited for high-performance tennis. That sets the stage to explain Chu’s approach to training with a balanced approach that focuses on developing power as a combination of strength and speed.
Power Tennis Training is structured around exercises assembled into three training blocks. Each block is to be used for four weeks before moving on to the next and sequentially builds on gains and performance improvement. This resource guides players through executing the entire program in sequence and isn’t intended for players to pick and choose exercises to target shorter-term performance objectives. However, it can certainly be used in that way.
This book has not been updated since its original release in 1994, yet it is still widely used for tennis-specific training. That is a testament to the timeless principles encapsulated in the book. On the other hand, some of the diagrams look outdated, even though the information is still correct. Additionally, Chu has an affinity for circuit training machines that have largely fallen out of fashion in the sport, even though the exercises he recommends using that gym equipment are sound.
Power Tennis Training culminates with detailed training schedules for each of his three training blocks. In addition to specifying the exercise to perform in each period, this part of the book contains a helpful worksheet for fitness testing which is essential for measuring and assessing progress.
What makes this book stand out is its practical approach. If followed as intended, these clear and easy-to-follow workout plans will fill almost three months. Each distinct training block builds upon the previous one, leading to potential long-term improvement gains. That gives this resource a much longer time horizon than most other books of this genre.
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Tennis players who are searching for a complete turn-key training roadmap will find what they are looking for in Power Tennis Training. It is a well-structured program for achieving lasting improvements in strength, endurance, and explosiveness. That translates directly to improved power on the court necessary for elevating performance.
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