A 6-week tennis fitness program for busy players

Three short sessions a week, about an hour in total (45–80 minutes, depending on the week), for recreational players who play one or two matches a week and want to stop fading in the second set.

What it trains, and why

A match is hundreds of short efforts with short pauses. Late in it, fatigue saps your legs and your strokes.^[1] The program trains the four qualities that fade, without the volume of a full fitness plan:

A. Intervals (once a week, the most important): repeated fast efforts with short recovery.
C. Speed and reaction (once or twice a week): the split-step rally, arrow reaction and, from week 3, the cone drill.^[2]^[3]
D. Strength and power (once a week): jumps first, then single-leg strength.^[4]^[5]
B. Easy aerobic (optional): 25–40 minutes at a pace you can talk at.

Short on time: A and C. One more short session: D. B helps, but never instead of A or tennis.

A. Intervals, week by week

Warm up with 6 minutes of easy jogging, then the fast runs below. "Fast" is 7 out of 10: quick, not a flat-out sprint. Only one thing changes each week. Finish every rep without a sharp drop in speed; if you fall apart by rep 3 or 4, you ran too fast. Move on only after a week without falling apart; otherwise repeat it.

Week (level)	Reps	Fast	Easy	Effort
1	6	15 s	45 s	7/10
2	8	15 s	45 s	7/10
3	8	20 s	40 s	7/10
4	8	20 s	40 s	7–8/10
5	8	30 s	60 s	7/10
6	8	30 s	60 s	7–8/10

The cool-down is optional: a long one won't spare you soreness anyway^[6], so Tuko lets you walk it off or finish now.

C. Speed and reaction

Quality over fatigue: do it fresh, never after hard intervals. Each shot is a beep (the opponent hitting): split-step on the beep, see the side as you land, 2–3 quick steps and a shadow swing, recover to the centre. Then reaction arrows after random waits, and from week 3 the cone drill.

Level	Split-step rallies × shots	Reaction arrows	Cone drill (from week 3)
1	6 × 3	10	4 × 8 s
2	8 × 3	12	4 × 8 s
3	8 × 4	14	5 × 8 s
4	10 × 4	16	5 × 8 s
5	10 × 4	18	6 × 8 s
6	10 × 4	20	6 × 10 s

D. Strength and power

Warm up (2 minutes of jogging or rope, 8 squats, 5 lunges per leg), then jumps while the legs are fresh: vertical jumps and lateral bounds, an optional rotational throw, then split squats and Romanian deadlifts with 2–3 good reps left in reserve. Jump contacts grow from 28 to 72 a session, into the high-volume range (50+ jumps) that research ties to the biggest gains in jump height.^[5]

Level	Vertical jump	Lateral bound (per side)	Jump contacts	Split squat (per leg)	Romanian deadlift
1	3 × 4	2 × 4	28	2 × 5	2 × 6
2	3 × 5	2 × 5	35	2 × 6	2 × 7
3	4 × 5	3 × 5	50	2 × 8	2 × 8
4	4 × 6	3 × 5	54	3 × 6	3 × 6
5	5 × 6	3 × 6	66	3 × 7	3 × 7
6	6 × 6	3 × 6	72	3 × 8	3 × 8

Around your tennis

Monday: C, speed and reaction (about 15 minutes).
Wednesday: A, intervals.
Friday or Saturday: D, strength, but not the day before a match.
Any spare day: B. Keep A away from right before tennis.

A new week opens about five days after the last one began. Miss 10 days and Tuko repeats your last level; three weeks off and it steps you back one, because fitness fades fast when training stops^[7]. You always restart at your real form.

How to know it works

You feel less accumulated fatigue at the end of the first set.
In the second set your first step and your stops stay steadier.
Your breathing comes back faster after a long rally.
The last intervals look like the first ones instead of falling apart.

What not to do

No maximal sprints after hard intervals, and no reaction work when you are already tired.
No hundreds of jumps: 72 a session is this program's ceiling.
Don't change length, reps and intensity at once.
Don't replace tennis: reading the swing, choosing the shot and timing the ball need the court.

For healthy adults with no reason to avoid running and jumping. Stop if a joint hurts.

Tuko runs this for you: the timer, the beeps and the voice, the levels and the repeats. Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.