Our Tennis Fitness Blog has everything you need to improve all aspects of your tennis fitness! Read on for our top tips
Tennis Fitness
In this blog we discuss all things Tennis Fitness! Tennis is one of the most popular sports in the world, and for good reason. It is a great form of exercise that can be done indoors or outdoors, and with different surfaces available, it can be played in all kinds of weather. Tennis is also a relatively low-impact sport, making it a good choice for people with injuries or those who are new to exercise. To get the most out of your tennis experience, it is important to build a strong fitness foundation too. This means developing both cardiovascular and muscle strength.
Tennis Fitness Components
There are many different tennis fitness components that are important in order to play the sport at a high level. Here are our top 3 Tennis Fitness components you need to stay fit and healthy on the court.
1) The first is muscular endurance, which is the ability for your muscles to continue contracting over an extended period of time. This is important because in tennis you are constantly moving, changing direction, and hitting balls whilst exercising the same muscles on each shot you hit.
2) You also need good aerobic endurance so you can keep running throughout long matches as well as having the energy to hit each shot as well as possible.
3) Finally, balance and coordination are important so you can move quickly and accurately hit shots whilst on the move.
All of these components together create a well-rounded tennis player who is physically fit and able to play at a high level for an extended period of time. Tennis Fitness is also a great way to keep fit and healthy during the Winter months where you may not feel like trudging out into the cold for a game of tennis or you don’t have any indoor courts close to you. Not only are you staying physically in shape, but doing Tennis Fitness specifics will help you when you do get back on court and it will be easier to shake some of the rustiness off. Why not have a read on Keeping Active during the Winter Months here where we explain how you can stay active and on court even in the coldest months of the year.
Tennis Fitness Drills
Getting in shape for tennis can feel daunting because there are so many different muscles that you need to use, and it’s hard to know where to start. The best way to get fit for tennis is by doing a variety of different drills that target a load of different muscles you need. Here are a few of our favourite tennis fitness exercises and drills:
Muscular Endurance: Here is one of our favourite short muscular endurance workouts which can be done anywhere and as fast or as slow as you would like.
Aerobic Endurance: Aerobic endurance will work on maintaining your energy level and muscle strength for longer when playing.
Balance and Coordination: Check out some of these innovative and fun exercises.
Send us your workout videos to feature on our Active Away social pages and also check out the LTA’s Tennis at Home Hub for more on Tennis Fitness.
Tennis Fitness Programme for Juniors
One of the best ways to improve fitness is through cardio exercises. For a junior who enjoys other sports, running, biking, and swimming are all great options that will improve endurance and help your child maintain their stamina throughout a tennis match or practice session. For juniors who are training on a regular basis, strength and conditioning training is a necessity to aid their game. Strength and conditioning involves a variety of different exercises and Tennis Fitness drills:
Tennis is a physically demanding sport, so it’s important that juniors have a strong foundation of fitness when playing. There are many different types of exercises that can benefit junior tennis players and there is a tennis myth that fitness off court does not help you get better however, it is one of the most important aspects of tennis, especially for Tennis players of any age who are looking to take the sport more seriously.
If you want to help your junior tennis player succeed, you need to put together a fitness programme for them and many performance-based tennis academies and centres in the UK will have a fitness specialist to guide you through the process. Alternatively, visiting a local strength and conditioning coach for one to one or group fitness sessions is a great way to build a stronger physical foundation for a junior as their bodies are changing through their teenage years.
Tennis Fitness Requirements
For someone who does not play tennis or racket sports in general, it can be difficult to see why Tennis requires much more than good hand eye coordination and accuracy to hit the ball over and in. As a tennis player, you need muscle endurance to sustain your level for the whole match. You also need good agility to quickly change direction and speed. Finally, you need good hand-eye coordination to hit the ball in the sweet spot whilst on the move. This can all be factored in through strength and conditioning and taking care of your body. Our number one rule is to always stretch before and after playing and if you have the time, why not try out some of our tips and exercises from this blog – it will help your game and physical endurance to improve dramatically if you can consistently work through a Tennis Fitness routine.
Check out our Introduction on how to Keep Fit for Tennis here for more in-depth information on expanding your Tennis Fitness knowledge and more exercises to try out.
Check out this blog for our view on playing Tennis in winter, keeping active through winter and what to do if you don’t have any Indoor Tennis Courts near you..
First let me start this blog by saying there is no better way to get fit for tennis than actually playing the game, this
