"No ball is the same to the one before it. No shot is identical to another. Whenever you’re preparing to receive the incoming shot, you must assess the trajectory and speed of the ball within a fraction of a second and decide how, with how much power and where to try to hit it back”. Rafael Nadal
The components for excelling in a complex sport like tennis are many. Training is important to prevent injuries and to ensure high performance on every terrain (red earth, grass or concrete). Each match can be different in intensity and duration, but without preparation, it is hard to hope ending a match with the victory in your pocket. Physical preparation is integral to improve essential tennis skills such as speed, agility, strength and coordination. Therefore, it is a key component of any specific tennis workout.
To that extent, Technogym equipment is functional for both athletic and specific tennis workouts, which consists of various activities:
- exercises that develop the main tennis skills
- exercises to develop tennis technique on the court
To train the movement composing the shot, Kinesis allows total freedom of movement, thanks to the patented FullGravity technology, which allows moving in every direction, stimulating all the kinetic chains of the body.
However, another key factor for the success in tennis is also the way you approach the game, the so-called winning mentality. Many experts have tried to explain what this mentality is. According to the web magazine Tennisworld, the winning mentality is the expression of extreme self-confidence, or the social condition that determines that willingness to assert oneself, the famous "hunger to win".
In this article, we will talk about how tennis is not only made of training and winning strokes, but also of winning mentality, built with effort and commitment. Two dimensions that contribute to the realization of the dream of a professional career this sport, as Alice Savoretti can tell. The young Italian tennis player explained to us how tennis for her is a blend of tension and sacrifice.
Tennis workout: a 30 minute example
In addition to functional training - essential for the performance of the match - in a tennis workout, it is important to work on the muscles involved in the execution of the shots such as the rotator cuffs, the trapezoids but also the chest and triceps, useful to give more power in the execution of the shot.
A good indoor tennis workout of about half an hour could be:
- an excellent warm-up run to avoid injuries, on a treadmill suitable for monitoring the main metrics such as Skillrun 7000. Run for 5 minutes at 60% of your threshold.
- Arm rotations lying down. Lying on one side with the knees one on top of the other, place one arm on the ground in front of the chest with the elbow flexed at 90 degrees; the other arm is lying along the side and the head is raised from the ground. Turn the shoulder and bring one dumbbell towards the opposite shoulder without moving the elbow. Slowly rotate the shoulder in the reverse direction and lower the handlebar to the starting position. 3 series of 10 repeats x 75% 1RM x 30 seconds
Outward rotation of the arm lying down: with a dumbbell in front of the torso, the elbow flexed at 90 degrees, palm towards himself. Turn your shoulder and move the dumbbell towards the ceiling without moving your elbow. Slowly rotate the shoulder in the reverse direction and lower the handlebar to the starting position. 3 sets of 10 repetitions x 75% 1 RM for 30 seconds.
- Tractions: 2 sets of 12 repetitions at 70% of your 1RM for 30 seconds on Low Row Artis, to work on back muscles and triceps.
- Abs crunches on Abdominal Crunch Selection, Technogym’s equipment for abdominal work. Selection is the new line of isotonic equipment with weight pack, created for the workout of the whole body, and it allows you to work on specific muscle groups. 2 series of 12 repetitions at 70% of your 1RM.
- Stretching, at the end of workout, to stretch femoral muscles, widely used in changes of direction in tennis.
Physical workout, however, is not everything in tennis. As we said before, also the appetite for victories - the winning mentality, needs to be increased day by day. Alice Savoretti, professional tennis player from the Italian region of Marche, has explained to us that it takes time to build it. In addition to a lot of sacrifice.
If it is true that we need victories - she explains - even defeats are essential to achieve success. There are many matches in which you lose, of course, but you go out with your head held high, because you've done your best. That's also an important moment for an athlete.
Effort, tension and sacrifice: the story of Alice Savoretti
Born in Loreto in 1992, Alice Savoretti has been playing tennis since she was a child, after a short parenthesis not too happy with swimming. She declares: "When I was about ten years old, my mother brought, or rather forced me to swim but I didn't like it at all. Then one day I went by chance on a tennis court with my grandfather and it was love at first sight. From there I started playing, at the beginning once a week, then twice, then more and more, more and more... until it became my job".
Winner in 2012 and 2014 of two titles in the single in the circuit of the Italian Tennis Federation, Alice Savoretti reached her best ranking in 2015, being the 405th in the single and 319th in the double the following year.
At the beginning it was very challenging - explains - There are sacrifices to make, especially when you are little, because there is the school, there are friendships and it is not easy to juggle everything. Something must be put aside. When my friends were living their lives, I would be training or I would be away for tournaments and I couldn't do the things everyone did, like going to the movies or to birthday parties. All things that can be defined as sacrifices when projected onto a child's life.
When the others came out I would train or I would be away for tournaments and I couldn't do the things they all did, like going to the movies or birthday parties.
It is difficult for Alice to find a pivotal moment able to sum up her sport: I think that the moment that sums it all up is the victory. When you give your opponent's hand and you have won, or at least you have made a good performance and you feel satisfied with the goals achieved during the match. Then it's not just the victory that's satisfying; There are a lot of games where you lose, of course, but you still come out with your head high, because you've done your best. That's also an important moment for an athlete, or at least for me. I don't know if I can give you a precise moment in a match, but when I think of tennis, I'm thinking of the effort above everything else, the tension and the sacrifice to make a good match.
Energy, tension and sacrifice are the main elements characterising the very long matches, where the final point never seems to come. Alice has many under her belt her, but there is one that she remembers with joy and a bit of nostalgia as it was her first professional tournament win. It was a ten thousand [dollars, ed] final, I had played for three hours after six match points. I remember very well that I was exhausted and that I practically kept going purely because of inertia. Then I got a ball that I managed to close with a smash in the net, a shot like a dunk made by intercepting the ball over my head. I still remember that when I realised I’ve won, I immediately made an incredible scream. I think I've never done it like this before.
