Screening & Load Management

Be faster, stronger and more agile on court!

Screening is used to assess a player for areas that need to be improved to enhance performance and reduce injury.  

Tennis is a game of one percenters. Every little bit makes a difference. Getting to that cross court forehand, having that extra kick in your serve at the end of the game or even just staying fit and injury free for the entire season.

Why is it then that we put so much emphasis on our athletes hit to 1000’s of shots every week in practice? It’s to improve their game, to remain competitive and to hopefully get one up on our opponent when it counts. Most people neglect that tennis requires flexibility, muscle strength, endurance, agility, power, acceleration, speed and good aerobic and anaerobic fitness to name a few. It is hard to sprint at 100% if you lack full ankle range of motion, or hit a controlled cross court winner if you lack the core and shoulder stability. What is even worse is when you see people running out of steam at the start of the 3rd set and throwing away a game that was easily theirs.

As athletes, parents and coaches it is extremely hard to pick up on these inefficiencies and even harder to be able to effectively fix them.

The Tennis Specific Performance Screen (TSPS) is a revolutionary approach to peak tennis performance. The TSPS compiles baseline measurements off the back of a series of specialised tests. These tests combine to give you a tailored ‘Performance Profile’ of your physical joint and muscle capabilities and how well your body moves during basic and complex motor skills.

An individualised home exercise program can be made for the player that targets the relevant finding from the TSPS process. With guidance from the physiotherapist the player will carry out the specific exercise program which may include strengthening, stretches, motor skill learning and tennis specific movement retraining.

Follow-up screens are also recommended to monitor improvement and make sure the player is continually being challenged.

For more information on our Tennis Specific Performance Screen please contact our clinic. 

Training Load Management:

Training load means how much training a player is doing - this includes on and off court training, match play and other activities.  Too much can result in player break down, too little can mean the player is not doing enough.  

It is well known that playing any sport carries the risk of injury. However the benefits of exercise and sports outweigh the negative risk of injury. Current research suggests Inconsistent training and exercise loads is one of the most common reasons why players get injured.

A loading screen can be performed by our tennis physiotherapists. This involves taking information about current weekly exercise sessions, trainings, matches and tournaments. Load management advice will be given to the player as well as ways of monitoring such as an online training diary.