Warming Up

[AngeloDS]

I'm not sure about everyone else but it takes me a long time to warm up. Atleast half an hour or an hour of hitting or serving to get "loose."

I drive about an hour to the college indoor courts and I'm really stiff and not loose when I get there. Sitting for an hour and driving is a pain. But I stay after practice and usually that's when I'm at my prime.

By cold/stiff I mean that. My tosses start off semi-consistent, and my contact is semi-consistent and my strokes are fine. Just serving is really the main thing. But as I loosen up my toss is on point, and my contact is on point. It just takes awhile for my back and arm muscles to get loose.

My footwork starts off really well but it's not "warmed up" so I get cramps at the balls/bottom of my feet. So I have to just wait it out until it gets warmed up which takes about 20-30 minutes for the pain to go away and my feet to not cramp up.

I always had to rely on the third set to win. Steamroll first set, second set alright or not warmed up enough and lose. If I make it to the third set I'm warm enough to hit my shots well. I don't want to keep relying on the third set.

Any tips or tricks to warm the body up before an away game? Because the 10 minute warmup really does not help get my muscles loose enough.

 

[joe sch]

Arrive early enough to stretch for 10 minutes and then do 5 minutes of jump rope. I would do 5 minutes of shadow hitting, especially for the service motion.

 

[Bungalo Bill]

I'm not sure about everyone else but it takes me a long time to warm up. Atleast half an hour or an hour of hitting or serving to get "loose."

I drive about an hour to the college indoor courts and I'm really stiff and not loose when I get there. Sitting for an hour and driving is a pain. But I stay after practice and usually that's when I'm at my prime.

By cold/stiff I mean that. My tosses start off semi-consistent, and my contact is semi-consistent and my strokes are fine. Just serving is really the main thing. But as I loosen up my toss is on point, and my contact is on point. It just takes awhile for my back and arm muscles to get loose.

My footwork starts off really well but it's not "warmed up" so I get cramps at the balls/bottom of my feet. So I have to just wait it out until it gets warmed up which takes about 20-30 minutes for the pain to go away and my feet to not cramp up.

I always had to rely on the third set to win. Steamroll first set, second set alright or not warmed up enough and lose. If I make it to the third set I'm warm enough to hit my shots well. I don't want to keep relying on the third set.

Any tips or tricks to warm the body up before an away game? Because the 10 minute warmup really does not help get my muscles loose enough.

As Joe says you got to warm up those muscles/joints fior awhile before your match. Pros are seen warming up well before their match for 30 - 40 minutes and sometimes an hour of light exercises and hitting. The 10 minute warmup before a match is just used to move around and swing a little.

 

[AngeloDS]

I plan to do that for home matches, but away matches it's impossible. I haven't checked all the college level play rules and such but I would really like to atleast have 15-20 minutes atleast of doing stretches and then do my 10 minute warmup? Not sure if that would be allowed (on away matches). I remember my coaches in HS always saying on the bus before we got to the matches, "start visualizing your strokes." It helped but my muscles were still very tight and not loose.

Anything like leg warmers or are there any stretches or stuff you can do from a sitting down position. The muscles that are usually tight are the muscles in my feet, my shoulders and my lower back.

Also my hands sometimes get cramped up if they're not warmed up and have blood flowing through there.

 

[waves2ya]

Jump rope or running around court 3x's, carioca, slide step, backward - you know. Then dynamic stretching; (as you step) knee hugs, butt kicks, backward steps, 'airplanes' (single leg dead's work). Finish on split step/jumps over a line and shadow hitting...

I use a theraband to warm up arm and serving shoulder; oh yeah - pushups, too (caterpillars)...

 

[Midlife crisis]

I plan to do that for home matches, but away matches it's impossible. I haven't checked all the college level play rules and such but I would really like to atleast have 15-20 minutes atleast of doing stretches and then do my 10 minute warmup? Not sure if that would be allowed (on away matches). I remember my coaches in HS always saying on the bus before we got to the matches, "start visualizing your strokes." It helped but my muscles were still very tight and not loose.

Anything like leg warmers or are there any stretches or stuff you can do from a sitting down position. The muscles that are usually tight are the muscles in my feet, my shoulders and my lower back.

Also my hands sometimes get cramped up if they're not warmed up and have blood flowing through there.

Stretching when cold has been shown to decrease athletic performance in many studies. The most famous of these were with runners, where cold stretching decreased running performance by something in the area of 7-8%.

If you do feel you need to stretch, you should warm up first and raise not only your core body temperature but the temperature of that muscle you intend to stretch.

I'm like you in that I need a long time. A lot of it is because I've lifted weights for a couple of decades plus, so I'm pretty bulky. You can warm up beforehand and the effects are good for about 30 minutes or so. So, if you're driving an hour to your tennis match, leave early, stop about two-thirds of the way, there, do some light exercises and stretching, and then drive the rest of the way. You'll get there still warm and your regular tennis warmup should go much smoother.

 

[flatpick]

AngeloDS:

I noticed that you are a fan of Shuai Peng. What is it about her and/or her game that you like? Do you have a two-handed forehand by any chance?