Most players want to jump higher and move faster, and almost nobody trains the landing. That's backwards. Every jump ends with a landing, and every hard stop on court feels a lot like one. This is how I'd build jumps, landings and throwing power for tennis, and what the research really says about it.
What the research says
Jump training works for tennis players. A 2022 review pooled 12 studies and 443 players aged 12 to 25. It found a moderate boost in serve speed and small to moderate gains in sprint speed, leg power and agility. A 2026 network meta-analysis ranked jump training first for serve speed.
Now the honest part. Most of these studies lasted 3 to 9 weeks, and the certainty was low to moderate. I don't know of a padel trial. The jumps and stops are similar, so I expect the same logic to hold, but that's my reasoning and not a study.
Land first
A landing is a skill, and you can train it. Learn it before you add height or speed. A good one looks like this:
- On a two-foot landing, both feet touch down together. On a one-foot landing, the other foot stays off the ground.
- It's soft and quiet. Your hips go back, and your knees and ankles bend.
- Your knee stays over your toes and doesn't cave in.
- You're still within about a second, and you hold it.
- No extra step, no hop and no grabbing anything. Your shoulders stay over your hips.
These cues are standard coaching practice, and I can't point to a trial that proves them alone. Team-sport programmes that mixed jumping, landing, strength and balance work did lower knee injuries in young female athletes. That wasn't tennis, and it doesn't prove landing drills alone do it.
A good way to practise is the Step-Off Landing. Step off a low box, land on two feet and hold still for 2 seconds, with no jump after. Start with a 20 cm step and go to 30 cm at most.
Count your ground contacts
Count jumps as ground contacts. Each time you land after leaving the ground is one contact, so 20 pogo hops are 20 contacts.
- Landing on two feet together counts as 1. Landing on one foot counts as 1 for that leg.
- In a run of hops, every touch counts. Ten pogos are 10 contacts.
- A jump where you land and hold counts as 1.
- Landing practice with no jump, like a Step-Off Landing, doesn't count.
- Warm-up pogos count. Running, skips and ladder steps don't.
Why count? Jumps should build up slowly, just like weights. A review of 7 low-quality studies on children aged 5 to 14 found the biggest gains from two sessions a week for 8 to 10 weeks, starting at 50 to 60 jumps a session. A later review of players under 18 found gains from as little as 8 sessions and about 92 jumps a week, with low certainty.
Pogos and short hops
Pogo Jumps and Lateral Line Hops are short, fast and low. Your ankle works like a spring and your knee only bends a little. They build the base for your split step and quick feet.
- Land on the balls of your feet, not your heels.
- Stay short and low. The goal is to leave the ground fast, not to go high.
- Keep your feet light and quiet.
- Don't bend your knees deep to jump higher.
A few pogos also make a good warm-up. They wake up your calves and get your feet bouncing before you play. That's practice and not a studied trick.
Back-to-back jumps and load
Later on, you can string jumps together with short ground contacts. Think of Hurdle Hops, Continuous Broad Jumps and back-to-back Lateral Bounds. Hold the last landing of each run. This is the last step on the path, so it comes after your landings and held jumps look good.
- One set is one run, with no pause between jumps.
- Keep contact short. As soon as your feet touch, go again.
- Heels slamming down, or a long pause in the middle? End the run there.
- Don't raise the hurdle above where you started.
Players 16 and over can add a Trap Bar Jump, a jump holding a light trap bar. Light means light. The goal is speed and not load. If your jump height drops, end the set. I'd skip weighted jumps under 16.
Med ball throws and your serve
Throws train fast rotation in the same order as a shot: legs, hips, trunk, then arm. Throw hard and fast, and start from your legs and hips. Use a 2 to 3 kg ball from age 16, and 1 to 2 kg under that, because a lighter ball moves faster. Those weights are practice, not trial results.
To be honest, throws alone don't have much proof behind them. A 2025 review of post-pubertal and adult players found they didn't significantly change serve speed. Programmes that mixed leg jumps with upper-body jump work did help, like one 8-week trial of 12 and 13-year-olds. So see throws as one part of the whole plan, not a fix for your serve.
Juniors and growth spurts
Young players can jump safely if the volume builds slowly and someone watches the landings. A review of boys found a smaller jump gain at about 13 to 16 years. In a growth spurt, I cut jumps back. That's a precaution and not a proven rule.
Quality, not quantity
Jumps and throws aren't about getting tired. Every rep is flat out and clean.
- Take the full rest so the next rep is just as fast and high.
- Quality dropped, like a loud landing, your knee caving in or a shorter jump? End the set and don't make up the reps.
- Don't add anything. No extra jumps and no higher box or hurdle.
- On lighter weeks, do fewer jumps and keep them flat out.
Based on Deng et al. (2022), Hu et al. (2026), Fernandez-Fernandez et al. (2015), Johnson et al. (2011), Ramirez-Campillo et al. (2023), Moran et al. (2017) and Martin-Miguel et al. (2025).