Tennis Technology and Training Tuesday
Michael Berrer is a German professional tennis player who retired in 2016. His career high ranking of 42 was achieved in 2012. He also has the distinction of appearing on one of the earliest Tennis Channel “Bag Check” features. Berrer was the first player who pulled exercise tubes out of his racquet bag on that series.
Resistance tubes are a great piece of training equipment to carry in the racquet bag. They are great for dynamic warmup of the arms, shoulder, and core muscles. Resistance tubes also don’t take up a lot of space or add significant weight to the bag. There isn’t a valid excuse to not carry one.
Another former ATP professional, Kacper Owsian, recently produced a terrific video demonstrating a quick and complete warmup using resistance tubes. While I personally would recommend looping the tubes to a fence rather than the net strap, he covers basic elements of a thorough dynamic warmup. In addition to what he demonstrates, I add chest presses in my warmup routine.
The tubes are also good for general off-court resistance training. While working remotely in the COVID era, I secured a resistance tube with a door anchor in my home office. It is a perfect (and silent) way to get in a few reps when those Zoom meetings drone on.
In addition to the benefits of dynamic warm up for match preparation, the exercises that Owsian demonstrated in his video strengthen and stabilize the muscles for injury prevention. It is infinitely better to prevent an injury than to go through the grueling rehab process. A tennis player who doesn’t regularly engage those muscles is playing with fire.
 | SPRI Xertube Resistance Bands Exercise Cords, Red, Medium |
 | SPRI Xertube Resistance Band Door Attachment |
