How One Tennis Pro Stays on Top of His Game for the Court
Men’s pro tennis star Taylor Dent has been served more than his share of physical challenges in recent times. Some of these have taken him away from the game he breathes longer than he’d prefer. Still, as a dedicated Southern California athlete, Dent perseveres in the overall fitness regimen that has seen him through past seasons and remains his resource to rebound on court. Here he outlines some of the training and exercise philosophy that have been key in his tennis performance:
On training routines and daily schedules while on home turf:
Dent maintains daily sessions with a trainer at the nearby community college: “We’ll be over there by about 7:30 in the morning for an hour and a half, doing different agility, plyometric drills and speed drills—I’ll do a lot of sprints with him. Then I’ll go and get some breakfast, and go play tennis for about an hour and a half, work on some stuff, go get some lunch, come back, hit some more tennis balls. A friend of mine’s father runs a public court, so I just go over there and practice. So, normally I’m practicing twice a day and work out out once early in the morning.”
On doing efficient tennis drills:
“I’ve had the best success when I’ve practiced ladder drills, where you sprint to one cone, jog back to the first cone then sprint to a farther cone, jog back and sprint–where you only get a little bit of rest and then you repeat that motion. If you go on a long five-mile jog, when do you ever do that pattern? I’ve never seen it happen—everybody’s usually sprinting, then relaxing for a few seconds, sprinting, then relaxing. So I’m a big believer in using those cones, and things like the medicine ball. One of the best things is just to have a buddy get a basket of balls and then just feed balls to you, like you would in a match, and just push you hard—like you would be in a match—and just get used to a faster and faster pace. It’s not like when you’re a wide receiver where you sprint down the field and then you get to jog back and have a minute break, or even get sent off the field for 10 minutes. Here, you always have to be moving, and most of the time the heart rate’s up hard—you know, you’re going 130 or 140 beats a minute, so you’ve got to be pushing yourself pretty hard.”
On working with a buddy system and connecting to the ideal trainer:
Dent works on training with his father, former Australian player Phil Dent. “Francisco Montana from the USTA (in Miami) used to travel with me a lot, but it’s tough with him living in Florida and me living out here,” he points out. Another resource he’s found is a local buddy who’s a top amateur player himself: “I’ve got my buddy Tom, who used to play at University of Arizona, out here, and he travels with me now all the time. Just someone that can work on stuff with me—like, guys on the tour don’t really want to spend time on my game, understandably, so I’ve got to get my buddy out there and work on the specific stuff that I want to work on, that’s important to my game.”
On having a former pro player and tennis pro trainer as a father:
“I think that what I made up for in a lack of play time I did make up for in just the amount of practice,” he asserts. “Dad would have me out there twice a day, not long sessions, but he made the effort and gave me some good insights.”