Articles by Fran Perel of Parkland Pilates of Coral Springs

Tennis & Pilates

A growing number of tennis players at every level have taken to Pilates for everything from injury prevention and recovery, rectifying muscle imbalance, improving flexibility, to building core and stabilizer muscles.

Many professional athletes have discovered Pilates as a way of improving their game as well as preventing injuries. Well-known tennis players who do use Pilates include Venus and Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati. Martina Navratilova says that Pilates has helped her body regain the flexibility of her prime, while Pat Cash, the former Wimbledon champion, still does Pilates as a key part of his fitness program.

Pilates, says writer Martin Amis, who does it twice a week, is the reason he no longer groans when playing tennis. Elena Baltacha, one of Britain’s top players says, “Pilates helps with a lot of injury prevention. I’d recommend it to anyone.” Baltacha herself reportedly spends an hour a day doing Pilates.

Racket sports are by their nature one-sided. Most players repeatedly use the same hand and arm to hit the ball, generally in the same direction, with the head and neck usually adopting the same position in anticipation of playing a shot. Such pronounced left- or right-sided movements load stress on the structure of the body, producing a physique that is out of balance and more liable to break down with over-use injuries particularly prevalent.

Further problems can result from the fact that few tennis players have a bio-mechanically perfect serve. Repetitive, inefficient patterns combined for the quest for power give rise to problems in the collection of joints that make up the shoulder. “Tennis elbow” or inflammation of the muscle tissue and ligaments at the base of the elbow is caused by chronic twisting of the arm plus repeated shocks to a small bony ridge on the outer elbow.

While even the very best Pilates instructor may not help you to serve like Venus Williams or Rodger Federer, a Pilates program of exercises will work the body more uniformly to prevent over development of one side, while also strengthening the deep abdominal muscles needed for a stable base from which to hit that winner. Addressing flexibility through the shoulders and upper back while lengthening the tighter front muscles of the torso will boost your power and range of motion and make it easier to reach for the drop shot in front of the net.

Why not try Pilates? Change your body, change your game, and change your life!