Best Tennis Training Equipment for Shoulder Exercises

Training with bands is from my point of view one of the most underutilized training modalities going around! Resistance bands are one of the best tennis training equipment for players.

They’re lightweight, portable, durable, and have a tonne of uses for the Weekend Warrior, right through to the Seasoned Pro. 

When I train the body I look at it from a number of angles when it comes to exercise and equipment selection;

• What kind of Stimulus does the exercise/equipment elicit? (Strength, Power, Endurance, Stability, etc)
• What kind of Forces do you need to overcome it? (Body Weight, External Load, Gravity, etc) 
• What specific Body Positions does it teach? (Retracted Scapula, Neutral Spine, Braced Core, etc) 

Resistance Bands have a unique influence on all 3, and that's why I love them and use them on a daily basis. 

If I was to wear my High-Performance hat for a second and think about the tennis scene, there are 4 key areas that a High-Performance Tennis Training Program should cover, the Physiological, Psychological, Technical & Tactical components of a tennis player. 3 of these would be looked after by a Tennis Trainer (Physiological, Psychological & Technical), and the last one (Tactical) by a Skill/Tactical Tennis Coach.   

 
I would then make notes of what these 3 key areas (Physiological, Psychological & Technical) look like from an expanded view, and from here would reverse engineer this view into achievable steps, then set about training the house down to achieve them. 

Here’s an example; 

A great Tennis player needs a strong, robust, and resilient shoulder to withstand the hundreds if not thousands of shots per game. These shots are chaotic in nature, they are unpredictable, each one would have different velocity, force, and angle to deal with, and if your body is not up to this, it will no doubt cause you to be in pain, discomfort, or injury, which we all can agree is not ideal to improve your performance on the court.

So how do we create a shoulder to withstand the demands of Tennis? The answer is above…. By smart, sound training that exposes the shoulder to exercises, movements & environments with different speeds, forces, positions, and angles.     

Now I’m not saying that band training is the only way to achieve these, it isn’t, but it should play a major role. 

Best Tennis Training Equipment - Resistance Bands 

And here’s why;

From a stimulus point of view, you can overload the body and the exercise by changing the Reps, Sets, Time Under Tension & Rest which is no different from any other training setup. But where Bands come into their own is in the force or demand on the body, it is like no other, with the right tennis exercise, you’ve got a band that's pulling you in multiple directions, you’re fighting Band Strength, Gravity, and your own Body Weight to hold clean and strong Body Position, think about the work that the brain, body, and muscle connection (The System) has to go through just to get the exercise done. (see ‘Band Shoulder Press’ for example)

Tennis Bands are safe and easy enough to use for your Tennis Warm Up, Movement Prep, or Primer before training and games (if done correctly of course), yet demanding enough from a physiological point of view that strength and structural changes are occurring.  

Try this Circuit below and see what all the fuss is about. Complete the 5 exercises with the stated reps as a non-stop circuit, rest for about 1min, then repeat 2-3 times. Feel the burn and say hello to muscles you’ve never met before….

If you want to watch a longer-form video on it all then click on the video below.

Five Tennis Shoulder Exercises

Exercise 1: TWY’s

Instruction: Start with the T's, move straight to the W's, then to the Y's. Then repeat for 3 rounds.
Total Time: 1:30min

Exercise 2: Seated Band Pull Aparts

Instruction: Aim for between 10-16 reps and tempo needs to be controlled and continuous.
Band Used: Orange "Mini" Power Band

Exercise 3: Standing Band Pull Aparts

Instruction: Aim for between 10-16 reps and tempo needs to be controlled and continuous.
Band Used: Orange "Mini" Power Band

Exercise 4: Band Shoulder Press

Instruction: Aim for between 8-12 reps and tempo needs to be controlled and continuous.
Band Used: Yellow "Micro" & Orange "Mini" Power Band

Exercise 5: Band Triple Threat

Instruction: Aim for between 8-12 reps and tempo needs to be controlled and continuous.
Band Used: Yellow "Micro" & Orange "Mini" Power Band

If you are looking for Resistance Bands, this is what we recommend - GO HERE

Stay Safe Out There!

Aaron  Zimmerman