Tennis asks your body for something odd: short, hard efforts, again and again, for an hour or more. Here's what that looks like point by point, what it means for your training, and where players usually get hurt.
What a point looks like
The average point lasts about 5 to 10 seconds. Under ITF rules you get 20 seconds between points (a bit more on the pro tours) and 90 seconds when you change ends. So a 6-second point is followed by a short walk, a few breaths and the next serve.
Reviews put the average work time at 5 to 10 seconds and the average rest at 10 to 20 seconds. That's a work to rest ratio of roughly 1:1 to 1:4. The ball is only in play for about 20 to 30% of a match on clay and 10 to 15% on fast courts.
What your legs do
In a point you take a few quick steps, brake, hit and get back to the middle. You move in every direction: sideways, forwards, backwards and on the diagonal. Most of it is short. In one small study of simulated matches, about 95% of the distance was covered below 12 km/h. So the first step, acceleration over a few metres and braking matter more than top speed.
- A fast first step, straight after the split step.
- Acceleration over a few short metres.
- Braking and changing direction, again and again, to any side.
- Soft, solid landings, for example after a split step or a jump for a smash.
- Reacting to the ball and your opponent: see it, decide, go.
- Getting back to the middle fast, ready for the next shot.
The split step is a good example. In a lab test, skilled players reached the target about 13% faster with one, and the small hop may let your muscles work like a spring. In tournament video of pros and juniors, players used a split step in about 83% of cases.
Your aerobic base
Each point is short, but you need to recover between points so the next one is fast too. Your aerobic fitness does a lot of that work. It's how well your heart, lungs and muscles handle long work at low to moderate effort.
Over a whole match the intensity is usually moderate. In one study of 20 advanced and elite men playing a simulated set, players spent about 77% of the time in their low-intensity zone. The fitter players spent even more of it there. That's a link and not proof, but it fits the idea. Aerobic fitness sits next to speed and strength. It doesn't replace them.
Shots start at the ground
Serves and groundstrokes aren't just arm work. Force starts at the ground. Your legs push, your hips and trunk turn, and then your shoulder, arm and racket pass it on to the ball. Sports doctors call this the kinetic chain. Reviews say a problem in the groin, hip or abdominal muscles can raise the risk of a shoulder or arm injury.
So can strength and power training make your serve faster? Probably a bit. A 2026 meta-analysis of 20 studies and 606 players found plyometric, resistance and core training all raised serve speed compared with normal training. But the studies are small, the evidence is low to moderate quality, and a 2025 review found some medicine ball and strength endurance programmes didn't change serve speed. Expect a small gain at best. Nobody can promise a number.
Where problems show up
Tennis injury studies show a pattern. Sudden injuries, like ankle sprains, tend to hit the legs. Problems that build up from repeated shots tend to hit the arm. Most of the data comes from adult and pro players, so treat it as a rough guide for juniors. These are the areas that come up most:
- Legs: problems here tend to start suddenly.
- Shoulder, elbow and wrist: problems here tend to build up slowly from lots of repeated shots.
- Trunk, hips and groin: lower back, abs and the sides of the trunk. At the Australian Open this area needed a lot of follow-up treatment in both men and women.
- Foot: among women at the Australian Open, the foot was one of the most injured regions, after the shoulder.
- Calf and Achilles tendon: I include them because every step, jump and landing goes through them. The papers I used don't break them out.
Padel is a bit different
Padel asks for the same bursts on a smaller court. In pro matches, points last about 14 to 16 seconds, longer than most tennis points. In one small study of simulated games, players had about 17 seconds of rest between points in padel and about 30 seconds in tennis doubles. That study also counted fewer sprints in padel. Another study of 12 players found padel's load looks more like doubles tennis than singles, and singles had the highest heart rate and distance. So padel is more continuous. Short bursts and quick recovery still matter.
What it means for training
Put it together and the list is short. A fast first step and good braking. Strength and power that start from the ground. An aerobic base to recover between points. And legs, trunk and shoulders that can take the load. This list shows what the game asks of you. It doesn't promise to prevent injury.
Based on Fernandez et al. (2006), Baiget et al. (2015), Abrams et al. (2012), Gescheit et al. (2017), Hu et al. (2026), Martin-Miguel et al. (2024) and Paulauskas et al. (2025).