How to get faster on the tennis court

Stop faster. Get to the ball first.

Key facts

1
Pre-planned change-of-direction speed and reactive agility share less than 50% of their variance, and agility tests separate playing levels better because of the cognitive component.
Young, Dawson & Henry (2015)
2
Braking carries the highest forces in sport, which makes deceleration a trainable, force-hungry quality and the point where fast-eccentric injuries happen.
Harper et al., horizontal deceleration review
3
Visual reaction time is about 0.2 s, roughly the length of the knee bend after the split-step landing, which is why the hop coincides with the opponent's contact.
4
Spider drill benchmarks are about 14.5 to 15.0 s for elite men and about 15.5 to 16.5 s for elite women, though times vary with the test protocol.

Why it works

A tennis point is a few short bursts that end in a stop. The first two or three steps decide whether you arrive balanced. Top speed barely appears.

Every burst ends in a brake, and braking carries the highest forces in sport. Then you re-launch. The split step matters here: the hop lands as the opponent strikes, so the stretch-shortening cycle is still loaded when you read the ball.

The fastest player on court isn't the one with the best 100 m time. It's the one who stops, reads and re-launches first. An agility ladder builds rhythm and ankle stiffness, not the read, so use it to warm up and put cued, reactive work at the centre of the session.

The line to say on court
“Land as they hit. Brake before you turn.”

Drill: The reactive spider

20 min · with a partner

Run three timed spider drills from the centre mark: baseline corners, the service-line sideline points and the T, back to centre between each. Take full recovery and log your best time.
Run the reactive version: your partner calls the target after your first step. Do 8 to 10 reps and recover to centre each time.
Add the ball: your partner feeds to a random corner. Hit, then cross-step, shuffle and split back to your recovery spot. Do 8 to 10 balls.

Number to beatBeat your last block's best spider time, retested every 4 to 6 weeks. The elite-men benchmark is 15.0 s.

More drills like this: footwork, warm-up and fitness

Faults and fixes

Using the ladder as the agility session

It builds rhythm and warms you up, not speed to the ball.

FixDo two or three ladder passes, then move to cued work.

Every drill is pre-planned

It ignores the read that real agility needs.

FixGive the cue after the first step.

Only training acceleration

You arrive off balance and brake badly.

FixDo plant-and-reverse reps. The spider's turns are the brake.

Skipping the recovery step

You practise the run but not the reset.

FixEnd every rep at your recovery spot, not where you hit.

Speed work when tired

You groove slow, sloppy movement.

FixDo speed work first in the session, while you're fresh.

Questions players ask

Do agility ladders make you faster at tennis?

Not much on their own. A ladder builds rhythm and ankle stiffness, not the read. Use two or three passes as a warm-up, then do drills where the direction is called after you start moving.

What is a good spider drill time in tennis?

Benchmarks are about 14.5 to 15.0 s for elite men and 15.5 to 16.5 s for elite women. Times vary by protocol, so compare against your own best and retest every 4 to 6 weeks.

Why is stopping so important in tennis movement?

Every burst in a point ends in a brake, and braking carries the highest forces in sport. If you only train acceleration, you arrive off balance and brake badly.

When should I split step?

Land the hop as your opponent strikes the ball. Your reaction time and the knee bend on landing are both about 0.2 s, so you're loaded just as you read their shot.

What this doesn't cover

How much quickness is physical and how much is perceptual is debated once you're strong enough. Spider times vary by protocol, so treat the benchmarks as ranges and compare against your own best.

Sources

Young, Dawson & Henry (2015): "Agility and change-of-direction speed are independent skills"
Harper et al.: horizontal deceleration review
PeerJ: multidirectional sprint training in collegiate tennis players
USTA: spider drill

Move and reactWhat is a split step in tennis, and when to do itA split step is a small hop you make before every ball, timed so you land around the moment your opponent hits. Start it on their forward swing. The landing pre-stretches your leg muscles like a spring, so you push off harder toward the ball. Land too early and the spring goes slack. Land too late and you're still in the air.Move and reactHow to get a faster first step in tennisTo get a faster first step in tennis, let your body fall toward the ball, then drive your outside foot into the ground so your first contact points at the ball. The common club start adds a small step away from the ball first, the false step. It feels like getting set, but it's a delay with a foot movement attached.Move and reactWhere to recover after your shot in tennisAfter you hit, recover to the line that splits your opponent's widest possible replies, not to the centre mark. That bisector moves with where they hit from: it matches the centre mark only when they are in the middle. After a sharp cross-court, it sits toward the side you hit from, so you can reach both of their widest replies.TrainWhich gym training makes your tennis serve fasterThe gym work that makes your serve faster is a mixed programme: heavy lifts to raise your strength, plus rotational throws and jumps that teach you to use it fast. In a 2024 meta-analysis, multimodal programmes raised serve speed most and core-only work didn't reach significance. A serve's acceleration lasts under a quarter of a second, so strength has to be expressed quickly.