Match point

Chapter 28 Core Strength
The upper body strength training of the tennis event, the arms and shoulders, is only part of it; the forearm and wrist, this is the difficulty.

This point is actually similar to table tennis.

To put it simply, tennis is also a sport that requires a very delicate touch and precise control. If you spin more and less, catch the ball earlier and later, and close the racket faster and slower, there may be huge deviations in the effect of returning the ball, or even It's the difference between victory and defeat.

In the mini duel between Gao Wen and Jilong, at the last point of the first game, Jilong used his sideways forehand to create an absolute advantage and almost scored, but Gao Wen still did not give up, he gritted his teeth and caught up with the tennis ball. In the case of , complete the stroke and win the point in the end.

At that point, Gao Wen's backhand at the end of the shot used the small muscles of his wrist and his natural touch to turn the tide.

If the closing movement is slower or the speed of the racket head is slower, then even if Gao Wen finishes touching the ball, the return ball may go out of bounds and cannot return to the field; if the wrist strength is weaker or the forearm swing speed is slower, then The result is the same, out of bounds is a high probability event.

In other words, Gawain's success in counterattack mainly relied on the strength of his upper body, especially the strength of his forearm and wrist.

Most of the hitting action in the tennis game is done while moving. Even if the feet are not steady, at least the upper body movements of pulling the racket and swinging the racket can be completed. At this point, there is no way to complete the swing action at this time, which means that the strength of the back, shoulders and arms cannot complete the force action.

So, in this case, the only thing you can rely on is the forearm and wrist.

At this time, the role of small muscle strength is the key.

Not only extreme catching, but also technical actions such as putting small balls, pulling spins, lobbing high balls, etc. also require small muscle strength to play a role; there is also the most frequent and common line-changing shot, that is, Changing from a diagonal to a straight line or from a straight line to an oblique line, such a change of line, has very high requirements for the forearm, wrist and feel.

Why do some players change the line and hit the ball so easily and freely in the game?In fact, it is the suppression of power.

Serena Williams' line change is often the suppression of absolute strength; Novak Djokovic's line change is more of a package of small muscle strength, giving full play to delicate touch and precise ball control .

But whether it's Williams or Djokovic, upper body strength plays a big role.

Therefore, the upper body strength training of tennis is very cumbersome, and there are special training for the wrist and forearm; and not only special strength training, but also flexibility training, ball feeling training, hand feeling training and so on.

In the daily training of tennis, players often use tennis balls as footballs to conduct training on juggling, controlling and passing the ball.

In the training of upper body strength, tennis and table tennis do have many similarities, but the most obvious and direct difference lies in:

Even for upper-body strength training, tennis training requires players to keep their knees bent—at least, most of the drills do.

It can be seen from here that tennis requires players to be aware of the existence of leg strength at all times. Knee bending is a kind of spring function, and it is also a state of maintaining movement and vitality. Even in upper body strength training, the lower body cannot be forgotten. Strengthen muscle memory through such actions.

Finally, the most critical core strength.

At this very moment, Gao Wen was training his core strength.

I saw Gao Wen lying on a yoga ball with his back, his waist, buttocks and lower limbs were all suspended in the air, his thighs were straightened, his calves were bent, and his calves formed a [-]-degree right angle with his body. He used the muscles of his waist and abdomen to control his balance and Knee angle, just this one action needs to mobilize the muscles of the whole body.

At the same time, hold a [-]-kilogram dumbbell with both hands, straighten your arms, and hold it high above your face—there must be no slack, otherwise blood may splash on the spot when the dumbbell is dropped.

Then, the hands move straight up and down slowly, and the angle between the hands and the face changes from a 180-degree right angle to a [-]-degree flat angle, showing a perfect horizontal line from fingertips to knees.

Pause for a while with the dumbbells in front of the head, and feel the burning sensation of the waist, arms, buttocks, thighs and calf muscles.

Then, the arms slowly returned to their positions again, returning to the [-]-degree right-angle position above the face, completing an action.

During the whole movement, it is necessary to ensure that the arms are completely straight and must not be bent; at the same time, the back is close to the yoga ball, keeping balance and stability, and must not shake, and the waist and hips must not collapse. Feel the muscle stretching in each position , tense, relaxed changes.

Slowness is the core of the whole movement. It cannot be solved quickly, but needs to be experienced slowly.

A group of twenty times, a total of three groups.

This is only the first small part of core strength training, but it can be seen from here that what tennis training pursues is not strong muscles, but the toughness and explosiveness of muscles. From the figure, it can be clearly seen that tennis players and boxing, The obvious difference in strength sports such as weightlifting.

So, what exactly is core strength?

The so-called core refers to the main trunk area below the shoulder joint and above the hip joint. It is mainly composed of the waist, pelvis and hip joint as a whole, including 29 muscles.

The core muscle group is responsible for stabilizing the center of gravity, transmitting force, etc. It is the main link of the overall force, and plays a pivotal role in connecting the upper and lower limbs and the force. It can be understood as a bridge, and the upper and lower limbs are highly coordinated. Bridge, the more stable and solid the bridge is, the higher the conversion rate of power transmission will be.

In fact, simply understand it as balance and transmission, and you can probably see an outline.

In competitive sports, the importance of core strength is very common. Different sports may have different situations, but in the final analysis, the support of core strength is still needed to give more support to technical movements, especially in tennis.

If you look at it separately, the strength of the lower body is responsible for the footwork, and the strength of the upper body is responsible for hitting the ball. But if the two cannot be connected together, the entire technical movement will be divided and broken. It is difficult to connect the movements of the entire game. Core strength The importance is also highlighted.

It is precisely because of this that tennis players tend to have special figures, rarely showing an inverted triangle outline like bodybuilders. In many cases, the muscles of the waist and abdomen are very thick, and even a clear six-pack abdomen cannot be seen. Muscles, eight-pack abs, which is also known as the "tennis waist".

The connecting role of core strength is fully reflected here. All the "Big Four" are like this, and only Murray's figure is relatively thin, but overall, they are all standard tennis figures. "Tennis waist "The power is very solid.

(End of this chapter)