If you don’t warm up before a match, your chances of injury will certainly increase. You might well find yourself using the first five games as a warm-up instead, which means you could be 4-1 down before you’re even ready to play. Follow these five exercises, recommended by coaches at the National Tennis Centre, to make sure that on that first point you feel mentally and physically sharp, firing and ready to go.
Get ready
To begin with, you need a general warm-up to get yourself sweating a little and your heart beating faster. This should last for about 10-15 minutes. Jogging is fine, but skipping is better because it gets your legs and your arms working, and you get that little bouncing action that you’re going to need in the match. Next, try the following tennis exercises, which will stimulate the central nervous system and get your fast-twitch fibres working.
Lunge circuit
Tennis requires constant changes in direction, so strong, supple legs are essential, and lunges are a good way of building strength and improving flexibility. Stand upright and slowly step one leg forward, creating a right-angle at the knee, then explode back off that leg, with about 75% effort, up into your starting position. Now do the same thing again, but this time having stepped out diagonally at a 45-degree angle while your trunk still faces forwards. And again stepping out at 90-degrees (ie sideways). Then again stepping diagonally backwards. And finally with a step directly behind you. Now do all five lunges again with the other leg.
Plank circuit
Lie down in the front plank position, with your forearms flat on the ground straight beneath your face and your body propped up horizontally on elbows and toes. You’ll feel your stomach and lower back muscles working to support you. Now turn into the side plank position, raising yourself up on your right arm (beginners should rest on their right forearm instead), placing your left foot on top of your right, and rotating your whole body to face sideways. Return to front plank after this, followed by side plank on the other side, followed by front plank again. Now lift yourself into a press-up position, do one press-up, return to front plank, and rest. Hold each position for just a couple of seconds and the circuit should take you no more than 20 seconds in total.
Agility sprints
Now that your muscle fibres are twitching and ready to go, it is time to get some speed going. Crouch down low, a bit like a sprinter would to practise their start, and then run forwards five or six metres at 75% of your top speed, keeping low and really exploding sideways from right leg to left leg, as if you were running in a pronounced zigzag. Now try to do the same thing running backwards. Do five or six sets of these with short periods of recovery in between.
Don’t forget to stretch afterwards
Everybody is going to feel a little bit sore after playing competitive tennis for a couple of hours. But if you don’t stretch it could stay with you for a week, and eventually the cumulative effect of not stretching will have long-lasting repercussions on your fitness.
Once the match is over, you need to have quite a steady jog until you feel that your breathing has slowed down and you are close to a resting heart rate. Now you can do some 30-second stretches, because after an hour or two of exercise all the fibres will be really warm, elastic and ready. While you’re stretching, think about what happened in the game: what you did well, and what you intend to improve next time.
A good sequence of stretches for tennis players can be found at tinyurl.com/n7xvx5. Always cover the glutes, hamstrings, quads, lower back, adductor and abductor muscles in the groin, and the front and back rotator cuff muscles in the shoulder. Here are three particularly important stretches that will keep your wrists, arms and lower back limber to stave off some common tennis injuries.
Wrist and forearm stretch
In a standing position, extend both arms horizontally in front of your body, with your palms facing away from you and your fingers pointing towards the ground. Gently use your weaker hand to press the fingers of your racket hand back. Hold this for 30 seconds with your elbow locked straight, then do the same on the other side. Now do the same again on both sides, but with y0ur palms facing inwards towards your body.
Upper arm stretch
Put one arm straight out in front of you, then cross it over your chest until you feel the stretch in your upper arm. Hold it in place with your other hand for 30 seconds, then repeat to stretch the other arm.
Back and glute stretch
Lying face-up on the ground, draw your knees up until they almost make contact with your chest. With your hands, hold them in place below the knee joint for 30 seconds. Make sure your back and, if possible, head and shoulders keep in contact with the ground.
Avoiding injuries
Apart from stretching, you can help protect yourself against the most common tennis injuries – tennis elbow and shoulder, back and wrist strains – by making sure your technique is good. In particular, you should avoid hitting the ball late; any shot that allows the pace of the ball to send shockwaves through your body is liable to contribute to an injury.
You should also make sure you have the right size grip on your racket: if it’s too small you’re going to grip too tightly and cause tension in your forearm; if it’s too big you’ll be clinging on for dear life, resulting in the same problem. You can check if your grip is the right size simply by closing your hand around it; the index finger of your other hand should fit neatly in between your fingers and thumb. If you can’t fit your finger in there, your grip is too small. If you can fit two fingers in there, it is too big.
Finally, if you play a lot of tennis, get into the habit of using ice as part of your recovery routine. Apply a bag of ice for 20 minutes to reduce the inflammation in any body part that is giving you trouble. Occasionally, do the same to your wrist, shoulder and elbow – even if they aren’t painful. Pain is a sign that the inflammation has reached a high level, so it can build up without you feeling anything. This will help to bring it down again, ready for the next time you play.
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