,A tennis warm-up should start with some walking or gentle jogging to get the heart pumping.

This raises
the body temperature and readies the heart and lungs for exercising as well as warming the muscles. You
should do this to the point that you begin to perspire.

On reaching this point it recommended that you do some dynamic stretching, which means doing
stretches with movement, such as a lunge. The real key to stretching pre-play is to get your muscles
moving in the same way they will during your tennis match. You can do this with a series of dynamic
stretches that mimic the movements of tennis, including high-steps, arm circles, quick racket swings, and
lunges, but they should be done in a controlled manner so as not to overstretch.

You can then go on to have a practice hit, but starting slowly and gradually building up the pace.
Remember, always save your practice serves for last. The serve puts the most pressure on the body, so
it’s best to be fully warmed up before attempting a serve. Also, don’t warm-up too early as the benefits
are lost after about 30 minutes of inactivity

Warming up and warming down is often overlooked by tennis players, but should be as much a part of
your routine as practising your serve. By committing a few minutes to stretching before and after tennis
can significantly reduce the risk of injury.

As a general rule, although there is still some disagreement between ‘experts’, dynamic stretching is
recommended before you play tennis, and static stretching is best post-play. Remember, while
stretching, if you feel pain, stop immediately, but that doesn’t mean forget about stretching forever.

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A Six-Week Neuromuscular Training Program for Competitive Junior Tennis Players

Article (PDF Available) in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 24(9):2372-82 · September
2010 with 6,215 Reads

DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181e8a47f · Source: PubMed

Cite this publication

Sue D Barber-Westin

39.97Independent Researcher
Alex A Hermeto

Frank Noyes, M.D.

44.15Cincinnati Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center

Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a tennis-specific training program on improving neuromuscular
indices in competitive junior players. Tennis is a demanding sport because it requires speed, agility,
explosive power, and aerobic conditioning along with the ability to react and anticipate quickly, and
there are limited studies that evaluate these indices in young players after a multiweek training program.
The program designed for this study implemented the essential components of a previously published
neuromuscular training program and also included exercises designed to improve dynamic balance,
agility, speed, and strength. Fifteen junior tennis players (10 girls, 5 boys; mean age, 13.0 +/- 1.5 years)
who routinely participated in local tournaments and high-school teams participated in the 6-week
supervised program. Training was conducted 3 times a week, with sessions lasting 1.5 hours that
included a dynamic warm-up, plyometric and jump training, strength training (lower extremity, upper
extremity, core), tennis-specific drills, and flexibility. After training, statistically significant improvements
and large-to-moderate effect sizes were found in the single-leg triple crossover hop for both legs (p <
0.05), the baseline forehand (p = 0.006) and backhand (p = 0.0008) tests, the service line (p = 0.0009)
test, the 1-court suicide (p < 0.0001), the 2-court suicide (p = 0.02), and the abdominal endurance test (p
= 0.01). Mean improvements between pretrain and posttrain test sessions were 15% for the single-leg
triple crossover hop, 10-11% for the baseline tests, 18% for the service line test, 21% for the 1-court
suicide, 10% for the 2-court suicide, and 76% for the abdominal endurance test. No athlete sustained an
injury or developed an overuse syndrome as a result of the training program. The results demonstrate
that this program is feasible, low in cost, and appears to be effective in improving the majority of
neuromuscular indices tested. We accomplished our goal of developing training and testing procedures
that could all be performed on the tennis court.

Introduction Physical training is a training chiefly aimed at the operation of motor and functional
abilities. The aim of physical training is tо increase the capability оf organism regarding its specific
motor abilities. When a player is continually faced with finding solutions to new problems in
different situations, the ability to perform the best-coordinated actions with most efficiency and
without oscillations during the whole match increases, and successful action leads to feeling of being
successful. In case of top players, the physical requests are great, and, in order to play successfully,
they must make a maximum of a complex effort. They must give their best, both physically and
psychologically. Today optimal psychophysical qualities are required from players, especially taking into
consideration that today’s top players are perfectly physically prepared (as well as technically and
tactically) and it is very hard to strike back at them if the physical abilities are lower than optimal. The
important characteristic related to table tennis is that physical practice has to be viewed as an
integral part of the completely training system, from basic to special preparations, from
transitional, through preparation to competition period. Therefore working on a physical preparation of
top players does not offer many possibilities for experiments, because the results can be fatal for the
player