Tennis Players who do Pilates
Roger Federer, Venus Williams, Serena Williams,
Elena Baltacha, Martina Navritilova and Pat Cash

Pilates and Tennis Conditioning

The fitness demands of the tennis player are quite high. Tennis requires agility, balance, range of motion, power, stamina, and endurance. Tennis players must be able to fully extend their arm over their head to connect with the ball. This extreme range of motion requires considerable flexibility. Power is required to produce a strong serve and ground strokes.

"I wanted to get really fit. I wanted to lose some weight. So I've been doing Pilates and yoga, trying to lean out my body so I won't be bulky."
Her regimen: Pilates two or three times a week ...
"Pilates gave me results within a week."
Serena Williams, Ranked World No. 1 in both singles and doubles, 13-time Grand Slam winner

Powerful strokes require strength, timing and balance which can result from having a strong core. A strong core holds the body upright, improves balance and allows a player to move his arms and legs freely. If the core muscles are weak the body will not work effectively since other muscles have to pick up the slack.

Tennis is by nature one-sided. As a result tennis players often have muscular imbalances between their dominant and non-dominant side. These imbalances can lead to injuries of the shoulders, back, and elbows.

Benefits of the Pilates Tennis Conditioning Program

• Increases core strength to improve stroke power
• Improves balance and control for quick reaction to direction change
• Strengthens shoulders and arms to improve stroke velocity
• Increases racquet head speed
• Improves flexibility and stability to control shots
• Improves muscle control to prevent over-use injury
• Increases upper and lower body strength and endurance
• Reduces back injuries by increasing flexibility
• Provides higher levels of concentration

To improve tennis players need a program that can correct muscle imbalances, strengthen essential core and stabilizer muscles and prevent injury. With its focus on core strength, flexibility, stability and balance, Pilates is a great tool for tennis conditioning. Using her athletic background and Pilates expertise, Mary has designed a Pilates for Tennis Conditioning Program to help tennis players improve their game performance and prevent injuries.

The Pilates Tennis Conditioning Program

Mary begins each Pilates for Tennis Conditioning Program by assessing a tennis player's movement including postural alignment, flexibility, coordination, strength and balance. The Pilates based exercises focus on increasing core strength, stretching and strengthening both sides of the body equally to improve stroke power. Other exercises focus on flexibility and balance to improve a tennis player's agility, coordination and prevent overuse and back injuries. While some of the exercises and stretches may be familiar, it is an understanding of the underlying Pilates techniques that make them so effective.