Tennis Training Tools & Tips During COVID
Original Blog post taken from: https://www.tennisfitness.com/blog/tennis-training-tools-tips-during-covid
Source & Credit: Martin Method Tennis Fitness
First of all, the team at Tennis Fitness want to send out our sincerest thoughts to everyone in our community that has been affected by COVID 19, especially to the families of those who have lost loved ones. These are very challenging times!
Today I want to give you some tennis training tools and tips to help you navigate through the COVID road ahead, so you can keep yourself motivated and sane!
I wanted to write this blog to help as many tennis players as possible do their best to maintain their fitness, mental health, and motivation. Over the past 6 months, we have received countless emails from players who have been affected by COVID restrictions, many asking for guidance with their training and motivation. We have particularly felt for players living in extremely cold temperatures who rely on indoor tennis as a means of exercise and mental stimulation.
To accommodate and do our bit to support the greater tennis community we designed an online tennis program that people can do anywhere at any time, if you have not seen it, please check it out. We have done our best to make it affordable for everyone - “Total Tennis Home Workout Program”
You might be asking yourself, with restrictions in place what can you do to keep yourself tennis fit and most importantly stay mentally stable?
I have found creating positive daily routines is a great way to stay motivated and positive, it also helps build up mental resilience. Daily routines allow me to have better focus and gives me much better mental clarity. This helps me make better decisions and stay more focused on what I can actually control instead of worrying about what I cannot control. Here are some of the daily routines I recommend;
Tennis Training Tools & Tips
🎾 Morning mindfulness: Breathwork – Deep breathing (5min), Gratitude, Prayer. I find this time the most important for me. It sets me up for the day ahead. I always aim to get myself in a peaked state (which can often be hard to do!).
🎾 Morning Mobility: Gentle movement-based exercise, focused on opening chains of movement (15min). We incorporate mobility routines into most of our online programs.
🎾 Exercise: My training is goal orientated and specific for what I am training towards. I find it best to set times for training and stick with them, otherwise, most people will often prioritize something else over their training (even watching TV if you are stuck at home). Following a tennis training plan is your best bet. For help with this check out our range of online tennis programs. It is also important to get outside in sunshine/fresh air for at least 45min a day as a minimum. There are a lot of people working from home during this COVID process and it can be easy to become a house hermit! So, make sure you get out of the house if you are permitted. This is not only great for you physically it is also good mental stimulation.
🎾 Nutrition / Hydration: It is very easy to let your eating and fluid intake slip when times are challenging. What is best to do is have your food planned for the day ahead. Most people in this day and age know how to eat healthy (sorry I don’t have time to go into this today if you’re not sure).
So make sure you know what you are going to eat for the day and stick to it. It is very easy if you are restricted to being at home to be constantly looking for something to eat, once you have your food planned and stick with it, you will find it much easier to stay focused with your food intake. Keeping yourself hydrated by drinking good quality water is very important.
Considering we are made up of approximately 70% water, we need to maintain a healthy hydration range in order to function at optimal levels. Here is a hydration guide for your daily water intake - Body weight (kg) x .03 =?. Your result from the calculation is the number of liters of water you need to consume in a day, add 500ml per hour of exercise.
🎾 Connection: I read a great book recently “Lost Connections” It reinforced my thoughts on how important it is to be in good relationships and caring communities. Having the ability to be able to speak about how we are feeling if times are tough is important. Sometimes we need to “Lean” on someone for help and sometimes people need to lean on us. Ask for support when you need it and be open to give it when you see the need.
🎾 Evening switch off: To finish the day I allocate 20min to do either tennis stretches or I do Tennis Yoga, I follow this up with lying down on my back and doing 5min of deep breathing (box breathing) during this time I process the day and then let go.
🎾 Sleep: During challenging and anxious times we need to make sure we get enough rest. If you are house restricted, you really have no reason to be not getting 8-10 hrs of sleep a night. What is important is to keep to the sleep time routine. I aim to be in bed by 10 pm and wake just before 6 am. If you are house restricted it is very easy to stay up late watching screens and then sleeping in through the day. If you have encountered this before you know firsthand how lazy and unmotivated you can feel. Stick to your sleep times!
Having worked with many top tennis professional players one thing they all have in common is they have routines they follow. Morning routines, nighttime routines, pre-match, during a match, post-match, and everything in between. The bulk of pro players are extremely organized and prepared, this helps keep them focused on what they are preparing for and also helps them stay in the moment. We should all learn from their example and be as prepared and focused as we can be when times are challenging!
We hope you can implement some of our Tennis Training Tools & Tips during this time.
We wish you a safe and healthy time ahead.
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