Thursday, March 5, 2009

Workout and Tennis?


I spent the last several months, focusing mainly on tennis and neglecting my strength training and running routines. I didn't want my soreness and fatigue to interfere with my tennis game. I've come to a point where I think, regaining some of my strength and stamina will do me some good. Don't get me wrong, I think I'm still plenty strong (200+ bench, 20+ consecutive pull ups).

Ok to be honest, I'm doing the p90x routine.

Its pretty intense. In fact I'm pretty sored up right now. But its combination of strength training, yoga (flexibility), and plyometrics (explosiveness) will pay dividends to my tennis game. I'm currently in week 1 and its kicking my butt pretty badly actually. The routine is relentless and bc of my ego I'm trying my best to keep pace with the DVD.

I played today with John. My shots definitely had no pop, especially my backhand wing. After warming up a bit, I decided some match play would be a good idea. I've always played very aggressively, but in terms of power and spin. Without my strength I wanted to see if I could win points with my control and placement. Me and John played a 10 point tie breaker and after surging to a 7-3 lead. John just broke back and too it 8 - 10.

For the most part, I could see the ball ok, but I really had to try to end points quickly (legs were dead from the previous nights plyometric routine). This lead to more unforced errors, but on a whole I guess it wasn't so bad of a result.

Definitely going to do some research to see if theres anything I can do to reduce the muscle soreness. I think I just need to get back into the swing of things. I'm really hoping the yoga will increase my range of motion and the plyometrics will make me more explosive and agile on the court.

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