December 2006 -- I am one of 35-plus teaching professionals at Midtown Tennis Club in Chicago and a member of the National Cardio Tennis Speakers Team. I average 35 hours of teaching a week and 12 of those hours are Cardio Tennis classes. Midtown Tennis Club has been an official Cardio Tennis site for about a year and because we are a mature site offering almost 20 cardio classes per week we have the flexibility of segmenting ability levels. We offer original cardio as well as beginner cardio and now advanced cardio classes on Wednesday and Friday mornings from 6 to 8 a.m. Advanced Cardio Tennis is for players who are rated 4.5 and above and are in excellent physical condition. The Friday advanced cardio has grown to 12 students so we run it on two courts with two pros. Certain elements are necessary for an advanced cardio class to be successful.
Be strict in requiring students to be at least at a 4.5 playing level This is important to maintain the integrity of the class and keep people motivated. This class raises the bar and gives members an “ultimate goal.” What a great motivating force as it gives players in the club something to strive for. Interestingly, we offer original cardio classes at the same time as our advanced cardio classes. These classes are taught side by side so the players in original cardio can be inspired. In fact, two of the students from the original cardio class have worked hard for four or five months to finally be good enough skill-wise and fitness-wise to move up to the advanced cardio classes. Keeping the group homogenous will capture those advanced players because they will have confidence the playing level will be consistently high and lesser-skilled players will not be a factor in potentially obstructing their workout. The students who participate in advanced Cardio Tennis need to be in great physical condition as well. Just because you are a 4.5 tennis player doesn‘t mean you are ready from a fitness standpoint for an advanced cardio class. Your students will need to handle the demands of the drill-based portion that will challenge their fitness with more advanced sideline activities like squat jumps, ski-jumpers and two-court sprints, etc. Some of the games and rotations in the games-based portion are more taxing as well, like running around the second court during the “desperate housewives” segment or playing “intense.” Both portions of the advanced cardio class, drill-based and play-based, are more challenging and require a better cardio fitness level. There is no benefit in taking an advanced cardio class because you are a 4.5-plus player if you have to sit out every five minutes because you are not in good enough cardiovascular shape. So stress to your potential student the increased cardio demands of the advanced cardio class.
Class size should be limited to six students per court and proKeep the numbers lower than in original cardio or classes for beginners. When the ability level and fitness level is this high, the group must be challenged and if more players are on the court they will probably not be in their heart rate range for extended periods of time. Advanced cardio students are the type of people who essentially want their “butts kicked.” Keep rotations quick and play your games so they are like a never-ending point. As I always like to say, “There is no sleeping or daydreaming in Cardio Tennis.” Six is a great number for advanced cardio classes because you have perfect numbers for teams during warm-up/cool-down and for the games-based part of class.
I highly encourage you to focus at least 60 percent of your advanced cardio class on play-based exercises. Drill-based is great, but I look at it as an extended warm-up. I quickly cover the repertoire of shots they’ll need for the games-based portion and incorporate some fierce sideline activities here. The meat and potatoes of my class is games because advanced players love to compete and I will ensure those players get a great workout because great cardio games really kick up the heart rate. In fact, you will often find the players getting above their desired zone.
Use advanced feeding skills
Teaching an advanced cardio class requires challenging the students with the feed. Advanced players are looking for some underspin feeds, some bounce-hit feeds that must be taken out of the air and some heavy-topspin feeds when playing games like “Rotating Doubles.”
Change the pace, height and spin as frequently as possible to keep them on their toes and to mimic the types of balls they will hit when playing against advanced tennis players. Your advanced students won’t get much out of being fed the perfect ball. Push them to work on returning the “noncooperative” feed. These players are needing to practice quick decision-making skills when it comes to shot selection and whether or not to take the ball on the rise or when to hit slice as well as what types of shots they should be hitting when receiving different types of spins and bounces. Keep them guessing!
Be creative, competitive and mix things up frequentlyOne of the biggest obstacles in teaching advanced Cardio Tennis is keeping your students interested. You have to show them a reason to keep coming back. Be creative! Be specific with your sideline activities and change the patterns frequently. Every time I change the drill or the game I change the sideline activity. If you are one pro with the maximum of six students then be resourceful and use all the space you can and feed three balls across two courts as one of your drill-based exercises. Use two footwork ladders or one footwork ladder and throw lines or cones for your sideline activity when the students are coming back to the line. Use a second court to send students around the far net post of that court when playing games like “desperate housewives.” All levels like to compete, but especially your advanced players. Keep score whenever possible and challenge them with new games and new dynamic sideline activities.
Lastly, I recommend putting yourself in when the drills and/or numbers present the opportunity. I do a dead-ball drill called “cooperative/competitive.” In this drill the player hits one cooperative volley back to me. I hit that ball to the open court, where they move across and poach that ball to a target for a winner. I send them through some cones and a ladder, then they return to the end of the line. The point is that the students in the advanced class like to hit balls that the pro is hitting, even if it is a friendly volley to the open court that they are going to poach for a winner! I also play in when I have five students in a drill I call “rotating doubles with serve.” I put three players on the returning side of the net and two students plus me on the serving side. You set up doubles style and play a point as the server. You rotate similar to “rotating doubles” so after you play a serve point your next point will be played as the server’s partner at net. After those two points you rotate out and go to the back of the court for some type of sideline activity like jumping jacks, lunges, running in place, volleyball blocks, etc. The idea is students love to return your serve and you can affect play by poaching and shaking things up. I find that playing in as the pro helps affect play/intensity and students love trying to hit a winner against the pro, just like I did when I was taking lessons.
Keep in mind players of advanced ability/fitness level make up a much smaller portion of a typical club membership so this opportunity might not be there for everyone. The majority of your cardio classes will be geared toward beginners and those of mixed ability.
Another suggestion I have is if you are already doing a form of this class and calling it boot camp, wanna workout or guerilla tennis, consider changing the name to advanced cardio or extreme cardio. Cardio Tennis is being marketed on a national level and I know there are no print advertisements in
Men’s Health magazine promoting “guerilla tennis.” The logos for advanced and extreme have already been created for you and you can find them under marketing and media on www.partners.cardiotennis.com. Please visit this Web site as well to view the drills mentioned in this article.
Remember these key elements when launching your advanced cardio classes at your club and you will be on your way to a fun, energetic and successful advanced cardio class!
For more information on running successful advanced cardio classes, please e-mail me at ericalexon@hotmail.com.
Eric Alexon is heavily involved in the development and teaching of all fitness and tennis classes as a staff professional at Midtown Tennis Club in Chicago. He teaches more than 10 hours of Cardio Tennis a week and also leads a “boot camp.” Alexon is certified as a personal trainer by the International Fitness Association. He previously was employed at clubs in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Jacksonville and Palm Coast, Fla. 
