Tennis training tips

You don’t have to be particularly athletic to enjoy playing tennis but you will get more out of it with general fitness improvements.

How long you decide to exercise is entirely your choice but any investment in fitness will pay off both in playing tennis and in your day-to-day life.

Running is one of the best exercises you can do for general fitness and for sharpening up your tennis game. You can be faced with a lot of running to and fro across the tennis court and if you have the energy and stamina to run down shots that other players would be forced to leave then you have a great advantage.

Strengthening your abdominal muscles to get a good strong core with toned abs will help you achieve a powerful tennis swing. The best exercise, of course, for abs is The Plank yoga position where you hold a ‘press-up’ position on your forearms (see photos). You can also try repetitions of sit-ups and crunches to tone your stomach muscles although you need to take care not to injure your back while doing so.

Using small weights and focusing heavily upon repetitions rather than the actual amount of weight amount is very useful to build up your overall back strength which helps a great deal with many tennis strokes.

Arms and legs also need toning with leg curls, arm curls and lifting weights. Focus on repetitions and remember that muscle mass is not as important as the ability to maintain your energy and strength during a match. Aim to work towards higher numbers of reps regardless of which workout method you chose rather than pushing higher weights.

Stretching is an essential exercise before any fitness training and before playing tennis. If you go through a warm-up stretching routine to ensure your muscles can bend, flex and stretch then you can avoid injuries and start a game in good condition.