How I Would Structure a High Performance Player’s Training Week Leading Into a Tournament
When it comes to planning your training week, you should always take into account if you’re playing a tournament or not. It will affect how much you practice, how much strength & conditioning you do, how many sets you play, how much time you spend on technical work, and how much time you spend drilling.
If you manage it right, the player will be feeling confident, rested, and motivated leading into the tournament.
If you manage it wrong, the player might be feeling tired and unconfident leading into the tournament.
Each day might bring unexpected challenges like rain, so the team needs to stay flexible as to what schedule is best for the player, but below is a general outline for how I would structure a high performance junior or professional player’s training week leading into a tournament:
Monday
Today should be a full training day as we’ll have the most amount of days to recover before the tournament. However, if the player played a tournament on the day before, Monday will be a full rest day.
Tennis: Max training day for the player. If they usually practice 4 hours, then it’s 4 hours of tennis. If it’s 2 hours, then it’s 2.
What to Work On: Today will be when the most amount of technical work and drilling will be done, with the least amount of point play. Some point play should occur regardless, but it will be the least amount. If any technical adjustments need to be made, it will be today. Considering there is a tournament though, the changes can only be small ones. Any major ones will need to wait until a training block of a few weeks is on the schedule.
Strength & Conditioning: Max session. Whatever the max amount of s&c would be for them, that’s what we’d do. If it’s 1.5 hours, then we do that. If it’s 30 minutes, then we do that.
Tuesday
Today will be another full training day like Monday. However, if the player played a tournament on Monday, today will be a full rest day.
Tennis: Max training day for the player. If they usually practice 4 hours, then it’s 4 hours of tennis. If it’s 2 hours, then it’s 2.
What to Work On: Similar to Monday’s plan. Still a fair amount of drilling/technical work, except I’d like to add a little specialized point play. This is where we start points in a very specific way to work on a specific shot or setup. For example, starting a point with a backhand slice on the run, or with a high forehand inside out.
I’d also like some point play with serves. It doesn’t have to be a full set, but maybe 2-3 service games each player. Just like earlier in the practice, I’d love to combine it with some specific instructions to work on something. For example, a game where they have to chip every return back, or have one serve only, or the returner has to start from really far back.
Strength & Conditioning: Max session. Whatever the max amount of s&c would be for them, that’s what we’d do. If it’s 1.5 hours, then we do that. If it’s 30 minutes, then we do that.
Wednesday
Today we start to taper down in some form.
If the player has trained for 4 hours on both Monday and Tuesday, I would practice only once for max 2 hours. Three days in a row of 4 hours of tennis, with full fitness sessions might crush a player, especially if they’re training as intensely as they should. A solid 1.5-2 hour hit will help them recover for Thursday and Friday, but gives them just enough time to continue working on their game
If Monday or Tuesday was a day off, then today would be close to another full training day on the court. I might go slightly less time. It would depend on how they’re feeling. I’d need to be mindful that I want energetic practices on Thursday and Friday leading into the tournament.
If it’s a player that home schools or has a flexible schedule that normally trains 4 hours a day, I’d have one session for 2 hours, and then another one for only an hour.
If it’s a player that only trains once a day, I would do that full training session, but no more than 2.5 hours.
What to Work On Plan A: If the player trained both Monday and Tuesday, then minimal technical work today, and as much point play/service games as possible. I’d want to see where the player’s level is during actual point play. That way if there’s anything we need to work on or adjust, we still have two days to work on things.
What to Work On Plan B: If Monday or Tuesday was a day off, then we would do an even split between some drilling/technical work, specialized point play, and service games.
Strength & Conditioning Plan A: If they trained on both Monday and Tuesday, I would start to taper down the s&c by 15-20%. So if they usually do an hour of fitness, then I’d consider dropping that to 45 minutes, or include longer rest times in their workout.
Strength & Conditioning Plan B: If Monday or Tuesday was a day off that means they went deep into a tournament. They played a lot of matches, and I want to make sure they’re recovering well. If they feel fresh, then I would do a full fitness session. If they’re still a bit tired, then I would taper down the s&c by 15-20%.
Thursday
Today we taper down even more.
Tennis: 2-2.5 hrs of tennis no matter what happened on the previous days. Even if there was rain. We’re too close to the tournament.
What to Work On: Mostly service games/set play. Minimal drilling and technical fine tuning at the beginning is ok. We’re not making any technical changes this close to the tournament anyway. I really just want to play as many service games as possible.
Strength & Conditioning: No more than 30 minutes. Minimum repetitions in the gym. If doing footwork/speed work, the work time would be approximately 20 seconds with 25 seconds of rest in between each set.
Friday
Today should be a light day.
Tennis: No more than 1.5 hrs
What to Work On: Play service games the majority of the time. If any drilling were to occur, it would be for 10-15 minutes to work on something, and I would do at the end of the practice. That way I can let what happened in the point play determine what fine tuning we might need before competing tomorrow.
Strength and conditioning time: No more than 20 minutes. Minimum repetitions if in the gym. If doing footwork/speed work, the work time would be roughly 15 seconds with 30 seconds of rest. I’m also okay with skipping s&c today.
Saturday
Play
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This is just a general outline. Little details like if a player has a nagging injury, health issues, or anything else that can affect training will be taken into account. Overall though, I’ll want to do the most amount of training early in the week, so that the player can recover their energy towards the end of the week, feeling fresh come match day.
Often times I see players have full training sessions on Thursday and Friday to make up for lost repetitions early in the week. That’s a mistake. They’re depleting their energy with no time to recover. If they go deep into the tournament, it’s going to be hard to maintain a high level of tennis.
A player is not going to learn anything brand new on Thursday or Friday before a tournament. They got what they got. Anything new that is learned won’t have enough repetitions to create trustworthy muscle memory for the shot to be executed during the match. So it’s best to keep it simple towards the end of the week. Fine tune your strengths and your best strategic plays for the match, and stay fresh for match day.
The same concept goes for the s&c side of things. You’re not going to increase your fitness levels on Thursday and Friday, because in order to do that, you’ll have to train above your current threshold, but then allow your body to recover. At this point in the week, there’s no time to recover. So if any s&c is done on these days, they should be maintenance work, not building work.
Good luck out there!