Last Sunday I announced that I would spend the next six weeks putting myself through a structured training program based on Dennis Ralston’s “Six Weeks to a Better Level of Tennis” book. In Week Zero, I discussed what sparked this side project, so if you missed that post and are curious about the overall arc of what I am doing, I would recommend reading that post first.
The focus area I have targeted for my six week “Better Level” is increasing my mobility on the court. I am testing Dennis Ralston’s assertion that players are generally quicker than they think and that court coverage can be improved with concentrated effort.
With that focus in mind, I re-read Ralston’s book from cover to cover, taking notes. I paid particularly close attention to Chapter 4, “Getting Quicker and Shaping Up.” I distilled my notes of Ralston’s recommendations into ten general categories. Each one of these areas represent the touch points to address during this six week cycle. Each category has specific training activities to perform.
I printed all this out on one side of a piece of cardstock. On the flip side, I created a 6 week calendar grid to plan and record my training activities. Thus I have a running record of both my plans and records of what was actually accomplished.
As an example, one category is “Gym Work” which, as the name implies, is a workout that can be performed in a gym. My category names are clever like that. One training activity that appears in the “Gym Work” box is the “Davis Cup Workout.” In his book, Ralston provided very specific details of a workout that he used to use when he captained the U.S. Davis Cup team.
The table below is a summary of Ralston’s original version and my own version which contains some modifications. Each interval is performed for one minute and there are no breaks on the transitions.
| Ralston Davis Cup (60 Second Intervals) | Fiend at Court Version (60 Second Intervals) |
| 1. Run or run in place | 1. Jump rope |
| 2. Sit-ups | 2. Sit-ups |
| 3. Run or run in place | 3. Jump rope |
| 4. Leg Raises | 4. Leg Raises |
| 5. Run or run in place | 5. Jump rope |
| 6. Push-ups | 6. Push-ups |
| 7. Run or run in place | 7. Jump rope |
| 8. Leg Stretches | 8. Body Weight Squats |
| 9. Run or run in place | 9. Jump Rope |
| 10. Flutter Kicks | 10. Bicycle Leg Lifts |
| 11. Run or run in place | 11. Jump Rope |
| 12. Sit-ups | 12. Sit-ups |
I don’t think that any of the changes in my version make the workout any easier. Jumping rope for a minute is a slightly elevated level of intensity compared to running in place, for example. Additionally, jumping rope is one of Ralston’s recommended activities to improve quickness, thus it seems to be more efficient to me to do that rather than running in place.
I should also share that I already perform a flexibility/stretching routine a few times each week. Body weight squats seemed like a natural substitution for leg stretches which are already addressed elsewhere in my normal training. I will confess that opting for bicycle leg lifts over the flutter kicks arises from my own personal hatred of flutter kicks.
For implementation, I use the Seconds Pro Interval Timer to cycle myself through each one minute interval. It is a really good app that provides audio and visual feedback on both the current interval and upcoming transition. (I am not affiliated with this product in any way other than as a very satisfied consumer.)
It might be a little bit of a humble brag, but I had no trouble completing the Davis Cup Circuit on both Monday and Tuesday in Week 1. I wasn’t super impressed with my sit-up totals, but did hit a number that would have satisfied the US Air Force physical fitness standard for my age and gender.
The reason I mention this workout is not to share that it was relatively easy for me perform initially, but rather because of what happened the next day. By Wednesday evening, I had a muscle so sore, that I was having difficulty engaging it to push off to pursue the ball. I was quite literally waddling around the court.
This prompted the discovery that I have a muscle called the “gluteus medius” that I previously could not have named or precisely located on my body. Apparently my gluteus medius has pretty much just been along for the ride. It’s slacking days are over, at least for the remainder of this six weeks.
I refrained from repeating the Davis Cup Circuit on Wednesday and Thursday, but worked it back in on both Friday and Saturday. Writing this on Sunday morning, I do not see signs of a similar onset of soreness. I would also observe that the number of sit-ups completed in the Saturday intervals were notably higher than on the day I first gave this workout a try.
At the end of week 1, I already perceive an improvement in court mobility. I want to believe that it is though the concentrated set of activities that I structured for myself. At the same time, I wonder if there might be a little bit of the Hawthorne effect in play. Under the Hawthorne effect, performance improves due to attention rather than specific improvement initiatives. (For a more detailed overview of the Hawthorne effect, I have a link to an excellent article in the reference list below.)
Reflecting back on my “Six Weeks to a Higher Level of Court Mobility” card, I checked off some but not all of the boxes. Execution wasn’t always stellar in some of the ones that were performed. Still since I believe that my mobility has improved through the first week, I remain enthusiastic about the effort.
- Ralston, Dennis, & Tarshis, Barry, 1977, Six Weeks to a Better Level of Tennis, Simon and Schuster, New York, New York.
- “The Hawthorne Effect and Behavioral Studies,” Kendra Cherry, www.verywellmind.com, November 11, 2018, viewed May 30, 2020.
