Exercise for Tennis – How can stretching help it?

Stretching plays an important role in a tennis player’s development and results, not only short term, but also long term.

Let us quickly have a look at, what stretching is, and what it does.

Stretching is a form of physical exercise in which a specific muscle or tendon (or muscle group) is deliberately flexed or stretched in order to improve the muscle’s elasticity and achieve comfortable muscle tone. The result is a feeling of increased muscle control, flexibility and range of motion.

Types of stretching exercises, quite useful for tennis players of all levels are:

1. Ballistic – Getting to the end range of a stretch and lightly moving or gently bouncing, with control.
2. PNF or Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation – Getting to the end range of a stretch and pushing back against someone or something for a short period of time.
3. Static – Getting to the end range of a stretch and holding the stretch for a set length of time. Static stretching isolates targeted muscle groups.
4. Dynamic – Is movement based stretching; an example of this would be squatting up and down for a set time.

It is common for players to stretch before and after tennis exercises in order to reduce injury and increase performance. Some of the reasons for this is are; Stretching helps improve flexibility, which enables more fluid movement, with greater range of motion. It helps blood circulation to the muscle, the more blood flow the more chance of a quicker recovery. Stretching assists in joint function (especially dynamic stretching), lengthening the muscle out around a joint will help it move and function better, reducing the risk of injury.

We encourage all players to incorporate stretching plans into their tennis training program if they want ot imporve their performance, speed and movement in the court.

Below mentioned is what we recommend all tennis players about doing strecting exercises .

Pre tennis/fitness (once warmed up)

1. Dynamic stretching (up to 6 tennis specific movement based stretches)
2. Static stretching (only if a certain muscle feels particularly tight)

Post tennis/fitness (within 2 hours)

1. Static stretching (for young players 4-6 stretches to start will be enough, otherwise they tend to get bored and it seems like a chore)
2. PNF (to release a specific area of tension e.g. hamstrings) once to twice a week is good.

We highly recommend a stretching plan pre (dynamic) and post training (static). In fact we consider it a necessity if you want to reach the top.

Giselle Martin