It's important to hydrate when you play tennis, and when you play in our beachclubs, you’ll need to be on top of this.
Equally important as your fuelling routine is a good tennis warm-up drill. Play un-stretched and you could find yourself limping for the rest of your holiday. Plus, if you’re at all competitive about your tennis game then you know you need to be ready to perform from the first serve.
Static stretching – stretching and holding the stretch at its extreme – is a bad way to warm up that can cause injuries (though it is a good warm down). And tennis is a full-body game, so get your whole body moving. If you can’t do a full warm-up before a game, at least try to do a quick jog and get your arms, shoulders, hips and knees moving.
To get your pulse up a little, jog gently up and down or around the court while you wake up your arms and your shoulder joints with forward arm circles. Pick your legs up backwards for some butt kicks and shake your arms out.
Remember this is a warm up and everything should be taken relatively gently. All of these exercises should be begun with a low speed or range of motion that increases as the blood gets flowing.
These quick swings come from tai chi, and if you believe the ancient Taoist teachings that inspire them, they will open up energy gates in the body. Even if you don’t, they will give you a quick cardio boost and give your back a stretch.
Stand with your feet planted at shoulder width and your knees relaxed. Keep your arms limp at your sides as you swing your upper body from the waist to the left and right, allowing your arms to swing around in circles to gently slap your back.
Then circle your hips, helping to give your lower back a gentle stretch.
You can do these for a couple of minutes, or as long as you feel you need to – they feel great!
Stand straight – the net’s at a great height to act as a support – and swing your right leg out to the right then back across the front of your body to the left. Repeat with the left leg. Keep things active and fast moving once you get going. You can count reps if you like, (20 to 30 each side) or just keep going for around a minute in total. These swings will get your hips and groin warmed up – and no-one wants a holiday groin strain.
Hamstrings are among the largest muscles in the body and also one of the easiest to pull or tear. This can be a debilitating injury, as the likes of Jo Wilfried Tsonga will tell you. Tour pros miss months with hamstring tears, and will even change their whole playing style to avoid them.
Give yours a twang before you play by swinging straight legs forwards and backwards. Again, stand at the net if you feel you need support, and try to stand as upright as you can and isolate the movement in the legs.
If you like you can go into walking kicks from these. Kick your right leg up to try to meet your left hand in front of you as you walk forwards, and vice versa for the next step. Don’t force anything, and let the range of motion increase naturally.
Lunging will also get your hamstrings in fine fettle for the first set. Turning them into a walking exercise with a full forward swing adds extra cardio benefits that are great for tennis.
Start standing with your legs together and take a good step forward with your right leg. As your foot lands go into a lunge, bringing your left leg down and bending the knee so that you feel a gentle stretch in your left hamstring and glutes. Don’t hold the extreme position or force anything, and go straight into the forward step with your left leg, bending it up towards your chest and giving your knee a quick hug before you step forward into a lunge with your right leg in the rear. Do 10 or 20 each side.
Stand with your feet at shoulder-width and step your right foot forwards and across in front of the left foot and beyond it, then step sideways by bringing your left foot forward and across the right. Take the next step by bringing your right foot across behind your left foot and then stepping the left foot back across the front of the right.
This exercise is much more natural and intuitive than it appears when written down. It’s a very standard soccer warm-up, and it’ll help open up your hips, knees and ankles, wake up your core muscles, and improve your footwork.
Follow it with some side steps: the classic crab like walk across the baseline that all players do during games without the legs crossing.
Try to build up from a slow start to get some rhythm and speed in both of these movements.
The shoulder is an enormously complicated set of connections that is easy to tweak. And if you want to smash those serves down like Andy Murray or Julia Görges you need your rotator’s to be nicely rotated before you start.
Shoulder rotations are easy if taken steadily. Simply stand straight and swing both your arms up and over like a crawl swimming stroke for 20 to 30 repetitions. Repeat the exercise backwards.
Wrists get quite a workout during the game and they – and your backhand – will thank you for this exercise.
Put your right arm out in front of you at shoulder height. Reach forward and gently pull your hand down and back towards you – think yoga rather than MMA. Remember these are dynamic stretches so don’t hold the extreme position, just release your hand back to the vertical before clenching your fist and repeating through 10 to 20 reps. Then repeat the sequence but pulling your hand gently up, releasing and clenching the fist. Run through the same routine on your left arm.
This is a simple, equipment-free routine that should get you ready for the first serve. If you have exercise bands or foam rollers they can usefully be added for some shoulder, back and thigh work.
Now all you need to do is have a quick knock up, tune in to the spirit of Rafa Nadal, and get ready to enjoy your game. Book a tennis holiday and join us on the courts at one of our beachclubs this season.
