MATCH
POINT: BASIC
TRAINING
René Lacoste, the famous French tennis champion, who may be better known for his signature alligator shirts, played marvelous tennis well into his 80s. His secret was simple: Play every day.
Between work and family, travel and trouble-shooting, and the typical stress of our busy lives, this prescription for a better tennis game likely strikes most of us as having the practicality of a daily routine of three perfectly balanced, home-cooked meals. So we play when we can, often concentrating the action on weekends and vacations.
There’s just one small problem. Despite the realization that we’re just part-time players, it’s just about impossible to play at part-time effort. Once the can is popped, and the game begins, it’s all out or nothing.
Larry Wolf, director of tennis at Pinehurst in North Carolina, has seen it time and again. The busy executive finally gets away for four or five days of recreation, and in a burst of enthusiastic freedom, overdoes it on Day One.
“It’s hard to enjoy the rest of the vacation, when you’re limping on sore legs, or nursing a bum shoulder,” Wolf observes.
Whether you’re preparing for your weekend nemesis or a tennis getaway, there are ways not only to ready the body, but also to improve your performance. Here are five suggestions to help you train for a match.
1. SEEK BALANCE
Jack Groppel is a professional tennis coach, author of The
Corporate Athlete, and a principal in LGE Performance Systems, a
company dedicated to helping athletes and executives reach their peak
performance.
“For the business professional, who is constantly under pressure to do more and more,” Groppel says, “the only way to really accomplish more is to realize you need health and happiness. So we start with trying to help people find the right balance, which is really an exercise in time management. After we’ve tackled the lifestyle issue, then there are some very practical things that can be done in a club’s gym or a hotel exercise room that can transfer directly to the tennis court.”
For eight years, Paul Roetert directed the United States Tennis Association’s sport science efforts. He’s now executive director of the American Sport Education Program, a division of Human Kinetics. Roetert penned the latest on training for tennis in the USTA’s Complete Conditioning for Tennis.
“The first word that comes to mind is balance,” Roetert explains, meaning not only the kind of lifestyle balance that Groppel seeks for clients, but balance in the actual workout.
“One of the reasons tennis is a great sport is that it makes demands on a wide range of physical systems and skills,” Roetert continues. “On a point-by-point basis, tennis is a game of short bursts, which tax the body’s anaerobic system. But over the course of a long match, players clearly need an aerobic base as well.”
Tennis also requires flexibility and strength — the ability to stretch for balls and to muscle put-aways. This is a lot to train in 40 minutes at 6 a.m. in a hotel gym. But with the proper focus, a great deal can be accomplished.
2. WORK THE WEAK LINKS
Tennis taxes the body in predictable ways —just think of the soreness the
day after an especially tough match. So target your workouts to match these
stresses. One out of four men on the pro tennis circuit have missed at least one
tournament due to back injuries. Research has shown that tennis players tend to
have stronger abdominal development than lower-back development — just the
opposite of the general public. So the first key area to train is the torso.
John Frappier is the founder and president of Acceleration Products Inc., which has 65 outlets across the country dedicated to providing the best in sports science to enhance the performance of elite — and gung ho — amateur athletes.
“You don’t have to be 21 to show improvement in strength, power, and flexibility,” Frappier says. “We’ve tracked master athletes who go through our programs and we’ve seen measurable improvement in vertical jump and 40-yard-dash speed. Tennis is a multidirectional sport that requires the consistent production of power. Power production depends on a kinetic chain, and a key link is the center of the body. Just watch how much torso rotation there is in a good serve or powerful forehand.”
Most gyms have machines that exercise the lower back and abdominals. The rotary torso machine is one that should get special attention from tennis players, and such standbys as knees-up crunches and sit-ups are also widely recommended.
Next to the back, the most common tennis injury involves
the shoulders. Prevention here involves starting with light dumbbells — just a
pound or two, and repetitions of sets of 15, with the exercises always at or
below shoulder level. For one of the basic movements, stand with the dumbbell at
your side, thumb pointed down, and lift to shoulder height, with your arm
extended on a diagonal to your right, about 45 degrees to the side, keeping your
thumb pointed down throughout.
3. USE INTERVAL TRAINING
Just about everyone uses the aerobic equipment in the gym the same way: Hop
on a bike or a stairclimber and go for 20 to 40 minutes. You can improve your
workouts by using the interval settings that exist on many machines, or you can
make it even tougher by adding 20-second bursts of all-out speed every three to
five minutes. Not only are you training your anaerobic system, but the increased
intensity will provide a better overall workout.
4. DO SOMETHING EVERYDAY
If you laugh at the impossibility of 90 minutes of tennis a day and scoff at
the likelihood of a daily gym visit, you might begin with a resolution to make
more time for fitness. Even when time doesn’t allow a formal workout, taking
stairs instead of the elevator, or walking to an appointment instead of taking a
cab can be a big boost.
When time does allow for a gym workout, don’t think you have to do everything in a compressed time period. Groppel suggests focusing on an aerobic workout one day, balanced by a strength-training concentration on alternate days.
5. BE FLEXIBLE
In Roetert’s book on conditioning, tennis great John McEnroe credits
stretching as a key part of his training, especially today when he competes as a
senior player. Roetert goes on to say that stretching is the most overlooked
component of a tennis-conditioning program.
Experts today recommend static stretching (stretch and hold) over ballistic stretching (bounce stretching). Slow, smooth motions have been demonstrated to be just as effective and have the added benefit of reducing the likelihood of a stretching injury.
Areas of special concentration for tennis players include shoulders, hamstrings, and back. One sample shoulder stretch: Place your right hand over the right shoulder as if scratching the back, and use your left hand to pull your right elbow behind the head. Hold for 15 to 20 seconds. Repeat for the left arm. For a great lower back stretch, lie on your back with knees bent, and bring your knees toward your chest by grasping your legs just below the knees. Hold for 15 to 20 seconds.
By committing to a regular off-court workout routine and customizing the routine to match the demands of tennis, you can improve not only your performance, but also your ability to play as long and as hard as you like on those blessed days when time allows. And even if you reach that state of nirvana that includes as much tennis as you want, off-court routines will help keep your game sharp and your body healthy.
Tennis enthusiast Lawrence Tabak can be found
squeezing in a noontime workout in Madison, Wisconsin.