Pilates training has become the go-to exercise for Tennis & Squash players to remain injury-free, players such as Martina Navratilova, Venus & Serena Williams, and Andy Murray have all said Pilates is the secret that keeps them injury-free. Navratilova is now retired, but she says that Pilates has helped her body regain the flexibility of her prime. Pat Cash, the former Wimbledon champion, still does Pilates training as a key part of his fitness routine.
If you would like to step up your game and get that edge over your competitors. Then Pilates is for you. Don’t forget that your competitors might also be using Pilates.So if you don’t want to get left behind, you really need to start Pilates as soon as you can, to at least be on a level playing field.
“I started doing Pilates a few weeks ago, which I think has already helped. I did three or four Pilates sessions and my body feels good compared to the last few years when I’ve come here. So hopefully I’ll be good to go for the next two weeks.” – Andy Murray, The Independent
Many squash players worldwide have taken up Pilates to improve their performance and the Squash Player magazine recently featured a full Pilates programme for squash. A growing number of tennis and squash players at every level practice Pilates, and there are so many benefits including the following;
- Increase your upper body strength for a more powerful serve
- Increase your lower body power, (your core-the powerhouse), to improve the power of your strokes
- Improve your flexibility to reach for those shots
- Reduce injury, in fact, prevent injuries in the 1st place. To stop getting those niggling injuries. So allowing you to train harder and longer, (to get better and better), and of course play in more games :)
How Does Pilates Help Squash & Tennis Players?
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. Typically they do this with their 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. This produces a physique that is out of balance and thus is more liable to break down with overuse injuries particularly prevalent. With incidences of Tennis Elbow and other repetitive strain injuries, there are specific exercises to strengthen forearm extensors to provide the support required to prevent and treat these injuries while giving support and stability to wrists, elbows, shoulders, etc.
Further problems can result from the fact that few tennis and squash players have a bio-mechanically perfect serve. Repetitive, inefficient patterns of movement combined with 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 best Pilates instructor may not help you serve like Serena Williams or Rafael Nadal but Pilates will help you work the body evenly, building strength in the torso to aid in the mobility of the entire body. A program of specific exercises will work the body more uniformly in order to prevent overdevelopment of one side. The custom Pilates workout will also strengthen the deep abdominal muscles providing a stable base from which to hit the ultimate ‘kill shot’. The range of motion through the middle of the body is improved upon during every Pilates exercise, as the core initiates all movement. The shoulders and upper back, typically a difficult region to stretch, will gain flexibility through precise movements that will subsequently enhance far-reaching swings, and your ability to reach that drop shot.
