Happy Holidays

The holidays are a special time for all. We enjoy being with family and friends. Sharing stories, laughter, hugs and kisses--Priceless!!!!
Tennis Racquets For Kids is grateful to all of the people, especially the children,who continue to want to bring happiness to those less fortunate. Thank you for supporting our cause. We wish all A Happy and Healthy New Year!!
If you have any questions regarding the charity, or how to donate tennis racquets, visit TennisRacquetsforKids.org

Tennis Cross Training-XFIT

Many tennis players get their cardio benefits, but choose not to address their exercises to strengthen and stretch their muscles, joints, tendons, and bones by going to the gym. With a little extra work, tennis players could improve their level of play, help recover from injuries or prevent them from happening in the first place. It doesn't take that much time, maybe, 20 minutes to just do basic maintenance. Beyond that, 40 minutes could be allotted toward improving hand-eye-foot coordination, agility (footwork), explosive movement (plyometrics), anaerobic/aerobic capacity (cross-training), reaction time, and stroke production.I'd like to impart my experience from tournament tennis and martial arts in a way that is both interesting, exciting, and enriching for all players by addressing the attack and defence tactics that both disciplines have in common. I suggest that players looking to improve their athletic performance combine their current fitness regimens with sports specific techniques. These techniques include work outs that practice their strokes in between sets of conventional push-ups, crunches, squat-thrusts (burpees), squats, lunges, and jumping jacks. Stroking on forehand and backhand sides high, middle, and low with topspin, backspin, or side spin, using open stances, closed stances, and front stances for ground strokes, volleys, overheads and serves could be implemented with one's hand. A table tennis paddle can be used in a crowded space and progression to added resistance can be accomplished by utilizing a paddle ball racquet. Depending on space considerations, racquetball racquets and tennis racquets could be used as well. Consider using both right-handed and left-handed sides and eventually simulating short points in shadow-boxing or in this case shadow-stroking solo routines as a martial artist practices their martial routines (known as kata,kuen, abakada, or Pyrrhic). Remember that although functional core training exercises are in vogue right now, I feel that if you really want to make an exercise sports specific with tennis in mind then combine these and other exercises with your tennis racquet while doing your strokes and footwork between sets or within the set...just ask some of my former clients:Ivan Lendl,and John McEnroe. posted by: Spencer Gee

If you have any questions regarding the charity, or how to donate tennis racquets, visit TennisRacquetsforKids.org