I’ve been spending a lot of time over the past 6 to 8 weeks watching many webinars. I have mostly watched tennis coaching webinars and some sport psychology-related webinars. During the time when playing tennis was limited it became important to develop an exercise plan. Many kids were taking the easy way out and not doing much exercise. Inertia was in full play. An object at rest would stay at rest. Too many kids have been members of “Excuse University.” They have been, and might still be, on their way to majoring in rest.
Consequently, I held a few zoom meetings with the goal to exercise together. I developed an exercise program for the group. Actually I developed 3 home exercise programs that involved no weight and no equipment. What you needed was a willingness to move and a good attitude. Listed below is home exercise program #1. You can do this anywhere, not just at home. I’ve added explanation for the exercises. You can google search the terms for an explanation as well. I’d suggest spending 20-30 minutes for each workout session.
Exercise Program #1 – Emphasis: Movement
General Warm-up
- Leg Swings both ways (forward and to the side; good for hamstring and hips)
- Heel Cord Stretch then Hip Flexor Stretch (lean into the front leg where back knee almost touches the ground)
- Quad stretch and hold (right hand hold right foot behind your butt)
- Hamstring stretch (static or dynamic options)
- Upper Body Dynamics plus rotations (a variety of upper body movement stretches)
Active Dynamics
- High Knee Skips (skip while alternate raising one knee high then the other knee)
- Side Shuffles (3 shuffles one way then back)
- Karaoke Two-Step (cross one foot in front of the other and then behind the other)
Jump Rope Simulation (no rope needed; rotate your wrists like you have a rope)
- Regular (two-foot hops)
- Bounce to Heel in Front (one foot is jumping while the other heel taps the ground in front of you; alternate left to right)
- Bounce to High Knee (same as above but one knee goes up while the other foot bounces)
Upper Body/Core
Push-ups #_____
Shadow Tennis – tennis footwork with swinging your arm; no racquet; move 10 feet; 15 second intervals; rest 10-15 sec and repeat, repeat); recover to the center after each shot.
Lateral both ways (alternate forehand-backhand groundstroke with recovery split step in middle of “court”)
Lateral same shot & recover (wide forehand then recover and repeat same shot; then backhand after a few forehand intervals)
Return of Serve deuce side + left-back-right-forward directional (RS+ hit a wide ball toward ad side, then a deep ball, then a wide ball deuce side, then a forward ball into the court)
Return of Serve ad side + right-back-left-forward directional (same pattern but reverse)
Upper Body/Core
Plank ______ seconds/minutes (sides of forearms on the ground; front of shoes touching the ground; body parallel with the ground; now “suffer” as your body shakes and you are no where near done!
Static Stretching
Drink some water and feel better about yourself.
You deserve it.