Still Playing, Still Improving?

Tennis YES, but what else?

Is tennis your number one sport? It's mine followed by hockey and cycling. But what else do you do for exercise? Walk, run, soccer, bike, golf, weights, basketball, swim? I know that many sports are complimentary to each other. For example, some Olympic athletes have gone from cycling to speed skating and vice versa. Both sports reward powerful leg muscles and a good lung capacity.

What about tennis? What else would support and actually compliment tennis? Andre Agassi before he retired was known for his 1/4 mile UPHILL wind sprints in the Vegas desert. He was also said to do bench press reps of 250+ lbs.

When I think about tennis (singles especially), I think about a lot of side to side movement, and a fair amount of forward and backward running as well. I think of basketball. The movement is similiar, as well as using anticipation on your opponents next move. It also takes arm muscles, plus a strong heart and lungs. Of course I can also name a number of people who have had their knees scoped because of basketball being a contact sport, but other than that, playing once a week or 4-5 times a month could be useful.

Weight training. I am not suggesting you need to bench over 200 lbs on a regular basis but lifting free weights especially (to help with balance, recruiting more muscle fibers), you can isloate your triceps (important for throwing-- which is partly the service motion), do lifts for your lats (good for trunk rotation on ground strokes), curls-- good for your writsts-- important for volleys as well as all shots-- and well, I think you get the idea.

Personally I am not as keen on weights for your legs, I am old-skool there, thinking that running, or running hills/stairs is a more natural movement.

Other exercises? Both cycling and swimming are terrific for building cardiovascular stamina - important if you have to run down a lot of balls which I think describes most of us.

That's it. Think about giving up one day a week, or maybe a few times per month and cut the tennis short by augmenting your exercise with something else that will make you a stronger, more well rounded tennis player. It adds variety and may also help with injury prevention, since you will be building and recruiting additional muscles for support.

Try it. It might just be fun and it could make you a better tennis player - how about that?