Tennis Warm Up Techniques

A good dynamic warm-up routine prior to playing tennis helps to prevent injuries, elevates your heart rate and body temperature, and gets your mind thinking about the task at hand. A dynamic warm up is a way to stretch out your muscles with movement. The way you move during the exercises elongates your muscles; this improves your flexibility and range of motion. Ideally, you want the warm up to last for 15 to 30 minutes.

Jogging and Shuffling

Jogging around the tennis court is a good way to wake up your body, loosen up your muscles and get a good blood flow to your muscles. Three to four forward laps is optimal. Reverse your jog; go backward around the court for one lap. Continue the warm up with a lap of sideways shuffling. Shuffle in one direction around half the court, reverse your direction and finish the lap. The carioca shuffle, sometimes referred to as the grapevine, is another shuffling technique to try. This is done by crossing over in front of your right leg on the first step and then behind on the next. Do the carioca for half a lap and then reverse your direction to finish the lap.

Walk the Lines

Warm-up techniques that use the lines of the court are other ways to get your body prepared for the match. Starting at the baseline, walk up the doubles sideline on your toes. When you get to the net, turn around and walk on your heels to the baseline. This exercise works the lower legs. Using the same line, you can work the upper legs. As you walk up to the net, take a step and pull your knee up to your chest. Wrap your arms around your knee and hold this position for a second. Release this leg, take another step and repeat with the other leg until you get to the net. Warm up your quad muscles as you walk back to the baseline. With each step, lift your foot high enough that you can grab your ankle and pull your leg up to your buttocks. Hold this for a second, release your leg and repeat with the other leg.

Shoulder and Arm Warm Up

Techniques to warm up and loosen the muscles of your shoulders and arms start with arm circles. Simply hold your arms straight out to your side at shoulder height. Start with small forward circles for 30 seconds, and gradually increase the size of the circles for another 30 seconds. Continue the warm up by reversing the direction of the circles. To test your coordination, try circling one arm in one direction and the other in the opposite direction at the same time. A good technique for your wrists and forearms is to hold both arms, shoulder high, straight out in front of your body. With a closed fist, circle your wrist toward the outside 15 times and then reverse the circle.

Shadow Stroke

Shadow stroking is simply going through the motions of the strokes without actually hitting a ball. Grab your racket and pretend you are hitting a forehand. Start in your ready position, swing, hit an imaginary ball and return to your ready position. Repeat the swing 10 times. Perform this routine for your backhand, volley and serve. This not only loosens up your muscles, it reminds your body what muscles to use for each stroke.