Does playing other racket sports hinder or help your tennis game?

[thatmick]

I think that playing other racket sports would be very detrimental to your tennis game, as there are very different techniques involved in each sport.

The main racket sports I'm thinking of are table tennis, badminton and squash. Are there any more?

I think that playing table tennis would encourage you to hit with too closed a racket face on contact. You can get away with crazy stuff like a 30 degree closed racket face from the 'baseline' in table tennis, because the ball takes on so much spin and you're a lot higher than the net. In tennis, that is a sure-fire way to dump 90% of your shots into the net (or straight into the floor). It would possibly also encourage you to mess around with ridiculous spins that are not possible or effective in tennis groundstrokes such as topspin sidespin or corkscrew spin.

Badminton would probably encourage you to bunt the ball with no spin and turn you into a moonball-lobber. You might also start putting your thumb on the racket shaft during backhands which would probably break your thumb in tennis.

I'm not too sure about squash since I haven't played it.

However, I can see the contra-arguments, such as table tennis would increase your reflexes and make playing tennis seem slow for a while by comparison. Badminton might help improve your athleticism (vertical jump), smashes, serves and smash-defence (although it might hinder them as the technique would be a bit different). Squash might help your stop/start movement, forehand squash shot and your ability to play backhands when they're behind your body. Also reflexes. In fact, all three would probably sharpen reflexes for tennis, as all three are 'faster' than tennis.

So they may help in certain aspects. But, overall, I think that playing other racket sports hurts your tennis game.

What do you think and please vote in the poll.

 

[Maximagq]

I can only speak about table tennis since I don't play he other ones too much but it shouldn't have that much of an impact unless you play with a continental grip from the baseline in tennis. The muscle memory for a pen hold grip is radically different from a tennis stroke and even if you do use a handshake grip, most tennis players use a semi western forehand grip and a two handed backhand, so there shouldn't be much of a change going from table tennis to tennis.

 

[easywin]

Tough to say

I think for most rec level players it will help - any kind of sport will train your athletic ability and hand/eye-coordination.
I wouldn't play table tennis for a week if you want to play an important tournament but otherwise it should not do too much to your game.

I would say I have technically sound rec level strokes and instead of other racket sports affecting my tennis, my tennis affects e.g. my table tennis

If you want to learn tennis though, I'd concentrate on tennis alone.
If you are at the level you want to be at or at a point where you won't realistically improve that much anymore, any sport will help you propably.

 

[Chotobaka]

If you play enough racquetball or paddle tennis to develop muscle memory it can definitely effect your tennis game by throwing off swing mechanics.

However, from a conditioning standpoint, including squash in the mix can be a tremendous benefit. Same with high-level badminton. I think these can be beneficial as seasonal additions to a tennis-centric racquet sports program.

 

[boramiNYC]

Can be detrimental, helpful, or has no effect depending on the individual. For me different activities gave me chance to examine tennis technique more closely from understanding the differences. Also improved the motor control in general. At least trying different racquet sports and and seeing how it affects the motor control and muscle memory is an interesting experiment.

 

[LuckyR]

I have played all three of the alternative sports, two (badminton and TT) before really learning tennis, squash afterwards. Any tracking sport helps with the prediction of where the ball will land, so I would put any of the three ahead of doing nothing, but behind actually playing/learning tennis itself.

The other obvious sport would be racquetball, handball would be the same for tracking but just not using a racquet. I don't think jai a'lai is a sport.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

When you first attempt a different racket sport, there will often be a bit of interference from your previous sport. The hand-eye coordination should be the easiest factor to transfer to the new sport. However, muscle memory from the previous sport could interfere a bit with the new sport for a short time (maybe even for 2-3 months). However, as your brain and body learn the similarities and the difference, this interference should pass. It is somewhat like changing to a new racket in tennis. At first, if they are sufficiently different, it might take some time to acquire new muscle memory for the 2nd racket.

After that initial adjustment period, players will often find that the new sport starts to help rather than hinder the previous sport. And vice versa. I played table tennis first (50 yrs ago) and then picked up tennis (about 40 yrs ago). It did not take me long to adjust to tennis. About 7 years later, I took up badminton. It took me less than 3 months before I could go back and forth between badminton and tennis easily. The hand-eye that I had developed in tennis and table tennis helped me considerably right aways for badminton. It took a bit longer to switch my tennis strokes into something more appropriate for badminton.

A few years after that I picked up racquetball very easily. At first I played it right-handed so that the difference in racket length would not interfere with my lefty strokes for tennis and badminton. However, when I started to play against stronger intermediate players, I switched to my left arm for racquetball. I tried squash a few years after that. While it was a bit harder to learn than racquetball, it did not take me very long to adjust.

I have taught quite a few intermediate badminton players how to play tennis. Usually they pick up the overhead shots and the volley pretty easily. Once they learn how to put spin on the ball, the serve comes to them fairly easily as well since so much of badminton uses overhead strokes (clears, smashes and drops). It usually takes badminton players a bit longer to learn groundstrokes that the other shots in tennis because badminton does not have a groundstroke counterpart. After a few months, I have seen most of these badminton players playing at a much higher level that most other novice tennis players who did not previous play badminton.

 

[GuyClinch]

If you are extremely proficent at one of them - its absolutely helpful, IMHO. People who are mediocre at one - tend to carry over the wrong thing since they weren't clear on the technical side in the first place.

For example I had a squash pro who was a former #19 player in the world. He had no problem going out and playing tennis at a pretty high level (way more slice shots then a normal person but still - very good tennis player). It didn't effect his squash at all.

But he had his squash technique down cold..So its not going to be 'wrecked' by tennis. His anticipation, movement and endurance were all off the charts because of squash though.

For normal ****** players of both sports - its a problem though. I know the guys in my HS who played squash were quite upset about what it 'did' to their tennis games. But these guys were maybe 3.5 - 4.0 tennis players and pretty bad squash players.. So that's what happens..

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

^ Probably true for the most part. I would think that most 4.0+ tennis players should not have that much trouble switching to another racket sport w/o detrimental effects to their tennis. Most athletes who can play a racket sport at a fairly high intermediate level should not have much of an issue when picking up a 2nd or 3rd racket sport. However, those who have played no better than a low intermediate level (3.0/3.5 for tennis), might have diffculty when attempting a 2nd racket sport.

 

[dominikk1985]

kohlschreiber plays a lot of table tennis but he uses his left hand to not mess with his tennis strokes.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

^ I'm nowhere even close to being as skilled as Kohlschreiber yet I can play table tennis with either hand with no ill effect whatsoever on my tennis game or my badminton game. If I played more squash, I doubt that it would have a detrimental effect on that either.

I doubt that Kohlschreiber would have a problem playing table tennis right-handed. I believe that Federer plays table tennis, squash and badminton right-handed. I believe that Murray also plays both squash and badminton (and very likely table tennis as well).

Sharapova can play table tennis left-handed but, from what I've seen, plays it better with her right. In all the videos I've seen of Nadal, he plays ping pong left handed but can probably also play it right-handed (since he played tennis right-handed as a youth). Here Monfils plays a defensive style of table tennis against a more aggressive Querry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPZm0tx77Vw

 

[Raul_SJ]

I took a beginner volleyball class and the instructor fed us balls to smash.

I was the only one to totally miss the ball. Missed every one.

Couldn't figure out what was wrong... Then the instructor asked me if I played racket sports, because although I was totally missing, I was consistently missing the ball by a fixed length every time.

I am pretty good at tennis overhead and hopefully, I will be able to adjust to the volleyball overhead...

But I wasn't expecting this carryover from tennis into volleyball. My body must have grown accustomed to hitting with a racket and not with the hand.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

^ Should not be all that difficult to adjust. Can you hit a standard overhand serve for volleyball? Try it with higher tosses to help you with hitting a higher set. You can also practice this, w/o jumping at the net, against a wall or with a partner (2 person pepper drill)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efOnFhj2LQQ

 

[LeeD]

Any sport is better than not playing ANY sport.
Each sport is different, so drop your habits and embrace the sport you are doing.
Weight lifting is different than tennis.
Running marathons is different than tennis for some of us.
Running marathons is like tennis to pushers.
You can never acquire enough hand eye coordiination.

 

[Fugazi]

Squash isn't too detrimental for tennis and actually helps somewhat for net play and reflexes. Conversely, I find that tennis helps my squash, probably because having control with a heavy racquet/ball makes it even easier to control a lighter racquet/ball.

 

[Enigma]

My table tennis affects my tennis a little too much... my table tennis forehand looks exactly like my tennis forehand

 

[LeeD]

Easy cure...
Switch your grip for tennis. Use anything from eastern forehand to full W.

 

[Chotobaka]

Squash isn't too detrimental for tennis and actually helps somewhat for net play and reflexes. Conversely, I find that tennis helps my squash, probably because having control with a heavy racquet/ball makes it even easier to control a lighter racquet/ball.

I agree with this. I think tennis and squash represents the most simpatico combination of racquet sports. One thing is for sure, after a season of squash you will be in excellent shape. Of course, paddle tennis has lots of yelling and cold beer going for it but it temporarily wrecks my tennis game.

 

[Oz_Rocket]

I played 5 years of junior tennis, gave it away in my early teens and then played ~20 years of squash in my 20s and 30s.

Coming back to tennis in my 40s the shot I have the most problem with is my backhand. Slicing is just so much more natural for me and even after two years back I just don't have the confidence to rip over the top of the ball. Forehand has been easier.

Also the tennis ground strokes I was taught in the 70s are very different to now so it almost feels like I'm starting from new anyway.