The beginning of the tennis season is here! The weather is improving and club league matches are starting. Whether you are playing a league match, joining a club night or just having a friendly knock-about, an effective warm up is essential in order to prepare your body and mind; and of course helps to prevent injury.
A brief warm up of 10-20mins is usually enough preparation.
The essential elements are:
Heat Generation
This should be achieved by some form of cardiovascular activity performed for 5-10mins. It is usually done by jogging gently round a tennis court but could also be achieved by cycling to the club/ court or a few minutes skipping. It should be done at an intensity to make you sweat. Start gently and gradually increase your speed.
Cardiovascular activity increases your heart and breathing rate. This prepares the body for vigorous exercise, increasing blood flow to the muscles, warming them and thus making them more flexible. It also improves neurological function.
Muscle Preparation
The aim is to prepare the muscles by dynamic stretching to produce the force, speed and strength required. Dynamic stretching is Tennis_Blog3.pngstretching the muscles by active movements but not holding the stretch statically. This part should take 5-10 mins and consist of multi-directional running mimicking the coordination and movement patterns in tennis. It should be well controlled, not ballistic and performed with correct posture. Try running along the lines of the tennis court side to side and backwards or with a grapevine step. Frequent changes of direction should be included. Add some arm movements as well.
Traditional static stretching as part of a warm-up is not now recommended as research has highlighted that it actually reduces muscular strength and speed. It is however recommended as part of the cool-down to aid flexibility.
Tennis Specific Functional Preparation
This aspect of the warm-up is achieved during the official match warm-up consisting of 5 mins hitting against the opponent but you could start by shadowing strokes with correct footwork and a racket. This could be followed by hitting against your opponent using the short court (service line to service line) before progressing to the whole court. Gradually increasing the intensity helps avoid injury.
Diane Watson – Physiotherapist