assistance shoulder exercises relevant for racquet swings

[Browndog]

Anecdotal evidence here, but I'm a mid-level Squash and Platform Tennis player and DTFP is all that is required.

I am able to hit the ball better, more consistently and control points do to the fact that I'm stronger...ALL OVER.

Being strong from the ground up allows for better speed, better speed gets me to the ball with better footwork, better foot work puts me in position to address the ball, and once in position I can utilize the upper body strength to turn on the ball.

My game is vastly improved for having gotten under the bar. I'm 30-40lbs heavier than I was three years ago and I cover court as well as I ever have and I'm able to do it longer into points and games.

Just do the f'n program...you won't regret it.

[byob]

RE: Why would you assume this?

The athlete has ended LP, and now is focusing their effort toward their primary sport. (I thought I read that somewhere in PP2ndEd; tailoring the intermediate stage depending on the athlete's goals?) They are still focusing on the primary lifts to continue the benefits of strength development using the most important exercises (i.e. the 5 lifts), but now are choosing additional exercises for the tailoring purpose.

Or should assistance exercises be seen not as a way to improve a specific performance goal (e.g. racquet swing power) but to improve the performance of the 5 lifts (which is the primary source of improving the racquet swing)?

[Enzian]

But really, of the "assistance" exercises in SS3E I thought it might actually be chins.

Do you want to hear that you should do chins?

Okay, you should do chins.

After you've done your squats, deadlifts, presses, bench presses and power cleans, that is. Fit three sets in somewhere that they won't mess up your core lifts.

This is good advice for just about anyone. There's really nothing special about racquet sports, as far as your need for strength goes.

[Mark Rippetoe]

RE: Why would you assume this?

The athlete has ended LP, and now is focusing their effort toward their primary sport. (I thought I read that somewhere in PP2ndEd; tailoring the intermediate stage depending on the athlete's goals?) They are still focusing on the primary lifts to continue the benefits of strength development using the most important exercises (i.e. the 5 lifts), but now are choosing additional exercises for the tailoring purpose.

Where does it say this???

Or should assistance exercises be seen not as a way to improve a specific performance goal (e.g. racquet swing power) but to improve the performance of the 5 lifts (which is the primary source of improving the racquet swing)?

Assistance exercises are for the lifts, not the sport. Strength is for the sport. Strength is general, practice is specific.

[konkoba98]

I wish I had done squats, presses, and deadlifts when I was in high school tennis. I was All-State and good enough to compete in D-1 tennis... on the women's teams (I'm a man). The men's teams were loaded with international players who had some or lots of professional experience who had no place playing collegiant tennis.

To the question: squat, press, deadlift, chin. Additional assistance would target individual weaknesses and for the tennis player could likely be the wrist and/or shoulder. My fav was to put the racquet cover on the racquet and maybe put a little weight in the head of the racquet to give a very specific effect. Great for strengthening the wrist and swing.

Again, I wish I'd strength trained in high school. I got dominated in state by more manly players 3 of 4 years. Squats are far more important than anything else for the untrained player. The OP's question however was for the 'shoulder' for tennis. Swing a weighted, air-resisted racquet as assistance to the main lifts.

[alagon]

I'm sorry. I just had to share this story since it's relevant to the topic of discussion. So, Rafael Nadal just lost the finals to one of the best Tennis players in the world, and here's what Nadal had to say. And I quote. "I couldn't see a way to stop him and he was too strong for me." There you have it. Is it any wonder why the strongest athletes tend to dominate in their respective sports? So, OP, just do what Rip said. Get your squat up, get your bench up, and get your press up.

[byob]

Thanks for the replies and opinions everyone.

I'm in agreement as much as anyone about doing the core lifts as per the program to get as strong as possible. In fact, I've been talking casually (rather than fanatically as that would likely do more damage to spreading the word) to most people I know about SS because of the benefits to the general public, and have been suggesting they should checkout the website and try LP and see the positive change in their lives.

I'm glad I received further clarity regarding assistance exercises from Rip on this matter. Ultimately, the original post was a question about how assistance exercises fit into sport programming.

It seems to me then that 'specialization' for strength training then doesn't occur until elite levels of a particular sport. i.e. here we go back to the debate about marathon runners, table tennis players (btw, I didn't have that in mind when posting, I was indeed thinking squash, badminton, and tennis), etc...where compromises are made to general strength performance for the sake of specific sport performance. For the vast majority, just getting as strong as possible per the program is the prescription.

And yes, I do think it would be funny to see someone weighing 242 lbs+ with 19" arms being the world champion marathon runner, table tennis champ, etc...I don't have a problem with it. Actually, I think it would be great because I'm always for situations that break the common stereotype. I just think that it would be funny and amusing.

---
RE: "Where does it say this???"

I'll see if I can find where (I thought) I read this once I have access to my book again.

Maybe it's somewhere after the section that says "after doing RDLs do lateral flys to failure for 17 sets" :O

[DirtyRed]

Aside from Rugby and Football I don't think there are many other sports that use the main lifts as part of their weekly routines.

Jesus Christ, most of the rugby players I know don't do the main lifts for shit. Which may explain why we're 1-4 so far this season.

Just my experience with golf tells me you're right. The WKU golfers were doing silly CrossFit bullshit (135lbs deadlifts for sets of 15, followed by crunches, followed by side crunches, followed by every other possible type of "core" work because golfers are idiots) because their trainer is a goddamn idiot and everyone ELSE in the Athletic Department was too much of a goddamn idiot to realize what a goddamn idiot the trainer was and replace him with a competent individual. They continued to hit the ball like fairly strong young women. I got my squat up to 400 lbs, drank a lot of milk, and now I can outdrive half of the PGA Tour.

Of course, those gentlemen can actually find their drives, but that's more related to skill, not physical ability.

[ebv]

My groundstrokes have benefitted immensely from pressing. Of course, your press will come along faster if you get your bench up, so do that too.

I got much quicker moving around the court after getting my squat up, so I'd recommend that. Of course, your squat will come along faster if you work on your deadlift, so do that too.

And you'll also notice more of a pop on your serve and quicker movements if you work on cleans, so do those too.

In summary, press, bench, squat, dl, clean.

My coach in college was a big proponent of fingertip pushups, so you could try those I guess, although I never noticed any effect other than hurty fingers. We did them dutifully anyways.

In all seriousness, I had some pretty gnarly shoulder issues from years of serving that pressing completely cleared up. If you're not pressing I highly recommend it.

[Bluntschli]

byob, what you might be misunderstanding is that when you head into your season and your training becomes more sport specific, it is actual sports training that Rip is referring to. He is not saying that at that point you should introduce tennis-related accessory lifts. He is saying that you will decrease your lifting so as not to interfere with sports specific training - and that you will do that training (practice sets, conditioning, getting whacked by the serving machine? I have no idea what constitutes athletic training for tennis).