Tennis Fitness - Your Match Starts Before You Enter the Court Articles | Tennis

Your physical condition is one of the important prerequisites of a match play. Court alertness and presence is only be attained if a player’s physical and mental qualities function as a single unit. The only way to achieve this level of physical and mental preparedness is through hard work – a constant and methodical training of all the aspects of tennis.

Making certain that you get regular number of sleeping and healthy food three times a day are the basic requirements to keep and maintain the body at its highest level of efficiency. Eating the right food, in correct amounts is necessary to be a successful tennis player – be it in professional tournament play or club competition. Eating rich foods prior to a match is a sure recipe for disaster as it would definitely slow you down; indigestion on the other hand guarantees that your eyesight will surely fail you at the time when you need to look at and see your opponent’s speeding ball at it rushes towards you.

Avoid tobacco and alcohol as well. They are very damaging to your physical condition; alcohol and tobacco affects your sight, mental preparedness and alertness including your physical endurance to carry on with the game and bring it to a favorable conclusion.

On the other hand, having too much of tennis can also be damaging to your game. Staleness, as professionals refer to the phenomenon, is acquired by being too engrossed with the game that a dislike for the game slowly develops leading to indifference of the game and everything related to it. It is a healthy attitude to do all you can to achieve a balance between your love of the game and a life totally devoid of the game in order not to fall prey to staleness; it is a very damaging condition and very hard to overcome as it results in emotional and mental burnout including total dislike of everything about the game of tennis.

On the physical side of the game, always abide by simple procedures such as forgetting to put on a warm-up jacket, taking a shower while your body temperature is still warm and changing into dry clothes as soon as possible. These simple guidelines will prevent you from developing rheumatism, catch a cold or experience stiffness the following day.

A player’s physical and mental fitness ultimately becomes the deciding factor in winning tennis matches.

Another very important fundamental a tennis player needs to have at all times is good temperament whenever and wherever he plays. No matter how good you may be in the game, you lose some of the aura and crowd support (which should have been all yours) if you play and bully your opponent around by contesting close calls, throwing your racquet at the net, shouting and hitting the ball to the backstop as a form of showing disappointment with your play or disagreement with the umpire’s call. Like it or not, having the crowd of spectators rooting for you would definitely heighten your psychological advantage over your opponent. The reverse however is also true.

No matter how physically and mentally fit you are, if you get the crowd against you then a good percentage of your game will ultimately deteriorate to your disadvantage. All things being equal, this may be all that your opponent requires to snatch the match away from your hands.

Bear in mind that any tennis player who is well prepared for the game physically, mentally and emotionally will always be at an advantage because he enjoys playing the game. Scoring and winning the game then comes as a matter of fact with each serve and stroke.