What are the "Rules" for the Warm-Up with Opponent Before a Match?

travlerajm

Talk Tennis Guru
2 minutes mini tennis
1 minute each 1-up 1 back
1 minute serves

Not saying this is ideal but it’s what ends up happening.
 

travlerajm

Talk Tennis Guru
Are most of the warm-up disagreements based on what is done or how each one of these is done? Or both?
Mostly it’s when I bring out Costco Penns and other guy insists on US Opens. So I go with Big5 Dunlops these days to ensure smoother warmups.
 

slchsu

Rookie
IMO...
1m mini
2m baseline2baseline
3m baseline2net
4m serve
Curious about how prevalent mini tennis is in warm ups for competitive matches. I never ever did mini in a junior USTA warm up—always just started with groundies from the baseline. Only recently in my adult tournament life has this become a thing, and it’s about half the time. I don’t mind it, but I never initiate it. I just wait and see where the opponent stands at the start.
 

austintennis2005

Professional
I’ve got played at least 1000 matches in Texas - tournament and otherwise and never did not have mini warm up. Also the juniors I coach always warm up mini at tournaments.
Maybe it’s a Texas thing more than other places
 

dkmura

Professional
Curious about how prevalent mini tennis is in warm ups for competitive matches. I never ever did mini in a junior USTA warm up—always just started with groundies from the baseline. Only recently in my adult tournament life has this become a thing, and it’s about half the time. I don’t mind it, but I never initiate it. I just wait and see where the opponent stands at the start.
I agree with this: in USTA tourneys and league matches I have not seen mini-tennis used. Maybe an approach down the middle in 4.0-4.5 matches, but not mini tennis. One other point about a good warmup is to hit towards your opponent to keep the ball in play.
 
Curious about how prevalent mini tennis is in warm ups for competitive matches. I never ever did mini in a junior USTA warm up—always just started with groundies from the baseline. Only recently in my adult tournament life has this become a thing, and it’s about half the time. I don’t mind it, but I never initiate it. I just wait and see where the opponent stands at the start.

I’ve got played at least 1000 matches in Texas - tournament and otherwise and never did not have mini warm up. Also the juniors I coach always warm up mini at tournaments.
Maybe it’s a Texas thing more than other places

I agree with this: in USTA tourneys and league matches I have not seen mini-tennis used. Maybe an approach down the middle in 4.0-4.5 matches, but not mini tennis. One other point about a good warmup is to hit towards your opponent to keep the ball in play.
I'd say it depends on when you played juniors @slchsu , long long ago it wasn't normal.

I've done/seen mini tennis in 90% of my matches in the past 10 years in Southern (Memphis, Nashville, Oxcord, Jackson, Little Rock, Atlanta) Texas (played everywhere but Lubbock and El Paso), San Diego and LA, Seattle, New Mexico , and Utah, Miami , Orlando, and the Florida Keys.
 
You guys only have 5 minutes of warm up...lucky.

Swear the people I play with it feels endless and it's not making them any better.
If there is no official, no warmup in my matches seem to be less than 5 minutes. Even when there are officials, only half or so are the type that watch the time and start barking "1 minute to go" so yeah. I mean in general 5 minutes goes by so quickly.
 
if it's States (districts) or Sectionals and limited to a 5 minute warmup that's actually enforced, why would anybody waste time on mini tennis/short court?

I think we do mini tennis in the warm up about half the time (usually a 10-15 minute warmup before a league match if we're being honest). then 5-7 minutes of groundies, 2-3 minutes of volleys, 3-4 minutes of serves.

Personally I love an enforced 5 minute warmup.

2 minutes of rallying groundstrokes, 1 minute of volleys (you shouldn't really need more than 3-4 volleys on each side), 2 minutes of serving. Let's spin it and get this thing going.
 

JeffG

Rookie
Thankfully, I’ve never seen mini tennis as a warm up in tournaments or leagues, either. I agree there’s not enough time and would likely ask to skip it if someone tried.
 

Roforot

Hall of Fame
ideally for league matches, we show up 30 minutes before and hit w/ our partners. More than enough time to warm up and get the nerves out of the system.
Half the time, our opponents do the same and we agree to start right away. Occasionally people do want to warm up, which I suspect is scouting (and smart if that's the case).
Then it is a brief 5 minutes like Daniel lists in the 2nd post. I hit everything controlled and back to them w/ moderate pace.
 

Chairman3

Hall of Fame
If there is no official, no warmup in my matches seem to be less than 5 minutes. Even when there are officials, only half or so are the type that watch the time and start barking "1 minute to go" so yeah. I mean in general 5 minutes goes by so quickly.
The people I play against seem like they want to rally for 5 minutes from the baseline, then volleys then overheads then serves.
It feels like 10 or 15 minutes, which is crazy
 

slchsu

Rookie
I'd say it depends on when you played juniors @slchsu , long long ago it wasn't normal.

I've done/seen mini tennis in 90% of my matches in the past 10 years in Southern (Memphis, Nashville, Oxcord, Jackson, Little Rock, Atlanta) Texas (played everywhere but Lubbock and El Paso), San Diego and LA, Seattle, New Mexico , and Utah, Miami , Orlando, and the Florida Keys.
My junior days were in the 90s—a long time ago but not ancient history. Mini was a well-established fixture in warming up for training and practice sets/matches, but not in tournaments.

If you’re seeing mini tennis 90% of the time, does that include matches that have a strict time limit for warm ups? Or is that the deciding factor: time limit = never mini; no time limit = usually mini?
 
My junior days were in the 90s—a long time ago but not ancient history. Mini was a well-established fixture in warming up for training and practice sets/matches, but not in tournaments.

If you’re seeing mini tennis 90% of the time, does that include matches that have a strict time limit for warm ups? Or is that the deciding factor: time limit = never mini; no time limit = usually mini?
Not many have strict time limits for me lately, so hard to answer that with any good information based on my experiences. not USTA post season, not more formal ITF masters tourneys etc., really depends on the mood of the official, if there is one that is strange enough to just stick around after a coin toss. . Now, some officials take themselves too seriously and will just watch the warmup.
 

cks

Hall of Fame
Curious about how prevalent mini tennis is in warm ups for competitive matches.
I'm in Texas and picked up the game as an adult. I always play a bit of mini tennis before all competitive matches, lessons, and hitting sessions. If I haven't been on the for 3+ days, I will play an extended mini-session to get feel and timing back.
 

ichaseballs

Hall of Fame
there are not many "rules", just general etiquette.
in league, there is technically a 15 minute limit to warm ups. but i have seen this get stretched to 20 min fairly often.
it usually takes longer for doubles to warm up as well.
for some players the mind games have already started at the 0 min mark.

+1 for mini tennis
 

Roforot

Hall of Fame
Btw. If doing doubles you can choose to warm up w your partner rather than the opponent. Its a little odd perhaps antisocial but Ive seen it a few times.
 

dkmura

Professional
there are not many "rules", just general etiquette.
in league, there is technically a 15 minute limit to warm ups. but i have seen this get stretched to 20 min fairly often.
it usually takes longer for doubles to warm up as well.
for some players the mind games have already started at the 0 min mark.

+1 for mini tennis
In my experience in USTA tournament and league play, any "mind games' during the warmup usually means an opponent who's a bit weak mentally, or trying to hide a weakness. At the 4.0-4.5 level, this usually becomes apparent within the first few games. Besides hitting the ball back to my opponent and observing the basics, try not to do too much besides getting yourself ready.
 
Top