Nutrition for Tennis Players

What to eat before a match

Wimbledon's idea of the breakfast of champions may be as outdated as Stefan Edberg's little white tennis shorts - although they are sorely missed. A player should eat a light meal one to two hours before storming the court. Although Anna Kournikova is rumored to eat candy bars and drink coffee before a match, there are better foods to enhance your performance. When you are playing a lot of tough tennis, carbohydrates like potatoes, pasta, and rice are an excellent source of energy and nutrition. But too many carbs can be stored in your body as fat if they are not burned off with exercise. A good rule of thumb is to eat a combination of protein, carbohydrate and fat (often found in protein sources) before a match. Four great pre-match foods ideas are:

1. A salad with chicken or tuna/greens with a half of a sandwich. Add low-fat dressing, but not fat-free dressing to your salad. You will need a little fat to avoid hunger during your match.

2. Bananas and nuts. Bananas are high in potassium and are often eaten by the pros during long matches because they can help ward off muscle cramping. Combine with a high-protein food like nuts to have a light pre-match meal.

3. Cereal: A bowl of cereal is a great booster before a match because it's high in carbs, the primary fuel source. Steer away from sugar cereals: They will send your blood sugar shooting - what comes up must come down!

4. Peanut butter on crackers: A spread like peanut butter or hummus provides just the right amount of protein, fat and carbs when combined with half a bagel or crackers.

Food For the fight

Nutrition is one of the most important and complex htmlects to training. Proper nutrition can make a good athlete great and a great athlete good. Here are the Top five tips for nutrition:

Eat consistently: You need to eat five to six medium size meals or snacks a day (once every three hours).

Build the meal with glycemicly-correct carbohydrates. Eat low glycemic carbohydrates such as apples, pears or green beans, throughout the day. Also, incorporate a lean protein source such as eggs. This will keep the energy levels up throughout the day.

Eat high glycemic carbohydrates such as white bread, cereal or raisins plus a protein immediately after intense exercise (within 10 min.). Your carbohydrate to protein ratio for each day should be 2:1. Learn to love water and stay hydrated!

Remember that vitamins do not give you energy. Your body uses vitamins to help convert food into energy. In the morning take a multi-vitamin, an antioxidant complex, vitamin C (500mg) and vitamin E (500mg). At night take the same vitamins, except for the multi-vitamin.

Cross-training

Cross-training keeps the body conditioned by including more than one exercise in a particular workout schedule. It works the body in different ways in order to maintain a level of fitness. For all sports, cross-training works more muscles so the abnormal stresses of competition are less likely to cause injury.

The term became popular in the 1980s, but cross-training has been around as a concept for a long time. A lot of it had to do with people maintaining their sanity in the wake of the fitness craze. For example, adding biking and swimming can complement a weekly weight room workout to improve aerobic fitness.

How to cross-train

A great cross-training workout incorporates aerobic conditioning five times a week, biking twice a week, running once, swimming once, and stairclimbing once.

Flexibility should be part of the schedule, stretching one week and doing yoga the next.

Cardiovascular exercise should be the foundation of a cross-training program. A stairclimbing machine or an elliptical trainer is ideal. Swimming is great because it takes the stress off the legs while offering a good overall workout. Including multiple activities in a workout schedule balances overall fitness.

Running will strengthen the legs and the cardiovascular system but the upper body may be undefined.

Muscular Strength and endurance can be added to an athlete’s aerobic base by including a weight program.

There is also cross-training within workout types. For example, an athlete could vary his strength training, one day doing weight training and the day after doing push-ups and pull-ups.

How the body reacts

Cross-training helps muscles to adapt more easily.

Although cross-training can tax the same muscle groups, the difference between running and biking can teach an athlete to use specific muscles in slightly different ways. Cross-training helps muscles to adapt more easily.

This variety can also alleviate or reduce overuse injuries like muscle strains, ligament sprains, or tendinitis.

The body accommodates to different types of stresses in different ways when athletes cross-train. For example, if an athlete exclusively runs for physical fitness, going cross-country skiing for a weekend will be quite trying on his body.

But if an athlete combines running, a rowing machine, and weightlifting, he will adapt to the rigors of cross-country skiing more effectively. Muscles and muscle memory will adapt to a new activity better with cross-training.

Training for tennis

Train to stay in the fight.

...it's crucial to prepare and train for all surfaces.

Athletes are getting bigger, stronger, and faster all the time. As a result, athletes and coaches are looking for a competitive edge. Current theory on sports training requires a training progression that becomes tailored to meet the specific athletic needs of tennis players.

Training
Your training is the systematic approach to improving your performance. This approach relies on a thorough evaluation of the sport, your playing style, history, physical parameters, injury potential and performance characteristics.

Planning
The key to any successful program is planning, mastery and progression. The following areas need to be evaluated to determine the needs of each player: predominant injuries, bio-mechanical demands, metabolic demands, surface demands and style of play:

Injuries hinder performance on the court. Approximately 60 percent of all injuries in tennis occur from overload or overuse. This means that repetitive use of a particular part of the body without the proper rest can lead to pain and inflammation. This is generally seen in the rotator cuff (shoulder) and elbow, stress fractures and shin splints in the legs and even chronic recurring pain. Traumatic injuries account for the remaining 40 percent and include the more severe injuries such as ankle sprains, knee injuries or fractures. Other commonly injured areas are the wrist, low back and leg (adductors, gastrocnemius and hamstring).

Examination of metabolic demands for tennis indicates tennis is 70 to 80 percent anaerobic and 10 to 20 percent aerobic. The anaerobic system powers bursts lasting from 25-40 seconds, while the aerobic powers activity that last longer than two minutes. At the elite level, 80 percent of the points last less than 20 seconds. This shows us that the anaerobic system needs to be trained so the player can effectively compete at a higher level. Recreational players should also train anaerobicly.

Playing surface is another variable that needs to be addressed when examining the training regimen for tennis players. The type of surface you play on can increase your chance of injury or manipulate the metabolic demands. This is why it's crucial to prepare and train for all surfaces.

The final variable is what type of player you are. There are several different types--a baseliner who plays from deep behind the baseline, an aggressive baseliner who plays near or inside the baseline or a serve-and-volleyer or all-court player who uses the whole court. Some styles invariably have shorter points while other styles tend to have longer, more grinding points. Prepare yourself accordingly.

All About Warming-up

IPI’s Movement Prep

“...how can this time be best utilized_”

A traditional warm-up for tennis consists of some light jogging around the court and static stretching, both standing and on the ground.

The warm-up can often be our least productive period of the practice, even though it sets the tone for the entire day. To improve the productivity of this period we must ask, “What is the purpose of warm-up,” and “How can this time be best utilized_”

A warm-up and flexibility program should achieve the following goals in eight to 10 minutes:

Elevate your core temperature and heart rate
Elongate the muscles
Decrease inhibition of opposing muscle groups to improve your speed and decrease your chances of injury
Maximize your hitting and on-court time for proper movement bio-mechanics
There are three main categories to movement warm-up:

General Kinesthetic Warm Up
Mobility Exercises
Dynamic Flexibility

Movement preparation involves walking, skipping, jogging and running movements, specifically designed to systematically achieve the above goals in a short time period. It will increase your core temperature while decreasing the potential for injury.

You will also improve athleticism, core stability, proprioception (unconscious perception of your body position and movement), coordination and movement speed.

Reduce injury with stretches

The simple truth about stretching

Stretching keeps your muscles lengthened, delivers increased oxygen to your muscles, and speeds removal of waste products such as lactic acid. Whatever your physical condition, you can benefit from stretching.

If you are active, stretching is critical to your workout. It helps in two basic ways: it promotes flexibility and helps prevent injury. If you work out, you should be careful to stretch both before and after exercising. And if you do not work out, stretching is an easy, relaxing way to get in touch with your body while reaping some fitness benefits.

If you have any reason to be concerned about your muscles or joints, consult your physician before starting a new stretching routine. And remember that stretching should not be painful. If you experience pain, discomfort, or shortness of breath, give your doctor a call.

Range of motion


Each joint has a given range of motion (ROM).

The ROM defines how far you can extend the joint in all directions.

ROM is determined by a number of factors (including temperature, genetics, and recent activity).

But one thing is clear: if your muscles are well stretched, the range of motion increases. A wide range of motion prevents sports injuries because your joints can withstand more abnormal movements caused by the speed, contact, or exertion of competition. Thus, stretching regularly will help you on the tennis court when you extend a little farther than normal to hit the winning backhand.

When you hit that unseen bump on the ski slope, you will not be as likely to pull a groin muscle if you have stretched the night before.

Speed Drills

Drills must be done for quality, not quantity.

There are two ways to improve speed. The first is through stride length, which means you are able to put explosive power into the court to propel your body in the direction of the ball.

The second is stride frequency which will also have a correlation to your adjustment steps.

Drills must be done for quality, not quantity. This work will help develop the nervous system so you feel naturally "wired" like the top, super-fit players.