Medicine ball - the slow heavy workout!
On tennis workout pages you'll not often see a medicine ball. Take a look at these three short videos. You'll see how taking away your racket can make you understand the strains on your body better. The first one can be built into your little court warmup rally: -
I hope it makes you tired just looking at it!
Mostly I like warming up with the racket in my hand. Sometimes, remove the racket, but you can keep imagining the racket is in your hand.
The medicine ball is useful for those who need to build strength into their games, and that includes 99% of you! Whenever you build in strength you are building muscle, and adding weight (unless of course you are converting fat to muscle!).
Pay careful attention to the video demonstrating that the correct body shape must be maintained through the exercise. This involves rotation on forehand and backhand, as if you were playing the shot with the racket. By having to heave over a heavy ball you are strengthening your legs and back artificially as you rotate and unwind the rotation. Do it slowly for several sessions before you build intensity into it.
Working with a medicine ball should be a regular activity, only in the little court, and avoid developing any "effort" until you are comfortable with the ball in your hands. There should be no strain anywhere. The body MUST be comfortable. As soon as you feel yourself weakening, stop. Come back to it again slowly the next day. These heavy balls can be dangerous, because they bring in "lifting" movements. Humans aren't good at lifting! They are extremely useful to develop a "slow motion, big muscle " feel to groundstrokes. Do this regularly.
I love pictures like this, Penetta hitting just one of her great forehands. She's definitely been doing strength exercises.
Explosion
Here's the next video link:-
This warmup means that you can work alone, you don't even need a tennis court, just a wall. Don't annoy the neighbours!
You control everything that is going on, so there is almost no danger of injury. You can work in intensity as you wish. For instance, play twenty shaped medicine ball shots as quickly as you can. Or throw the ball with more violence and flatness at the wall.
By sitting on the ground you'll be giving your back a good tweak. Do it very carefully, but it's doing you good!
Don't forget to spend a good ten minutes of your first hour's ball hitting in the little court bofre you start any specific strength exercises. Every part of your body must be warm FIRST.
The last development puts you on the court again. We want to make all of the movements exactly as we would if we were on the tennis court.
I like doing this in pairs. Take one player with a medicine ball who is creating all his shapes, creating all his footwork, back or forwards. Another player is following his movements behind, with no ball, but creating the same shapes. After about twenty shots the roles should alternate.
In the video, there are two medicine balls at work. The more the merrier!
Take note there are two foot positions for this exercise, one with the feet square to the net, one with the feet sideways to the net. Imagine, and produce a body shape to hit, forehands AND backhands over the net from both of the foot positions. Great exercise!
Have a look at the video after the wink.
Again, build in intensity the more you get warmed up. This sort of strength work should be done regularly. I prefer such tennis-applied strength work to going into the gym. You retain tennis court dimensions and visualisation.
Tennis has its specific movements, and by bolstering those parts when they are warm, we prepare our bodies for that moment when the surprise shot comes, when we must make that extra effort. The body will be ready.
