If you have a lifelong love of tennis but are worried about how you’re going to be able to keep playing as you get older, you’ll be happy to know that there are plenty of ways that you can adjust your game so that you can protect your body, stay competitive, and continue to have fun in the process, whether you’re still playing at the club or doing pickup matches at your assisted living community.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three ways to adjust your tennis game as you get older.
Include Flexibility Moves In Your Warm-up
While it’s always important to warm-up before doing anything physical, this is so much more important for people of a more advanced age. Your joints and muscles tend to have less flexibility and become more stiff and rigid as you get older, making it easier for you to pull a muscle or get injured in some other way.
To avoid this, you’ll want to make sure that you’re properly warming up prior to playing tennis. Along with doing a little bit of cardio to get your heart and lungs working, you’ll also want to do some flexibility movements as well. In fact, doing a brief yoga or pilates workout could be a great way to warm-up your body before you play tennis.
Make Adjustments To Your Racquet
It’s only natural for your body to change as you get older. So rather than trying to force your body to do something that it was really only capable of doing when it was younger, it’s wise to adjust your equipment so that it’s better suited to your abilities now.
One great way to do this is to make some strategic adjustments to your racquet. Consider using a lighter racquet so you’re not having to put so much of your strength and energy into simply holding and swinging your racquet as it is. Additionally, you should reduce the tension on the strings of your racquet a bit to help you be able to hit a bit harder with less impact on your arm. Just be sure you practice with this new tension so you can get a feel for it before you play.
Practice Accuracy As Opposed To Strength
Even with all the strength training you can do, as you get older, you simply won’t be able to move as fast as some of the younger players you might be playing against. So rather than trying to match them here, it’s smart to work more on the accuracy of your hits. This way, you can place the ball exactly where you want to on the court to beat your opponent.
If you find that you’re needing to adjust your tennis game as you’ve gotten older, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you in doing this successfully.
