The weekly series of posts featuring training techniques briefly appearing during the Netflix docuseries ‘Break Point’ continues this week. In the final clip pulled from Season 1 Episode 3, Paula Badosa is seen throwing a football as a warmup technique. It is so short that getting a clear screenshot of it was a challenge.
Fortunately, I have a much better example from “Are You Ready for Some… Football?!?!” which ran shortly before the US Open started in 2022. The tournament posted a video of Naomi Osaka throwing the pigskin around on one of the practice courts.
Throwing a football is a legitimate functional warmup and training technique for tennis. The motion of the serve is mechanically analogous to throwing a spiral pass. In fact, a player who masters the correct technique with a football should gain solid muscle memory for what the service motion should feel like. An alternative way to experience the same effect is to actually throw a racquet across the court. Using a football is much easier on both the frame and the court surface.
Throwing a football also builds shoulder strength which should translate into a more powerful serve. In fact, you can see Osaka throwing with an exaggerated upward “shot put” motion which is a critical component for explosive power when serving.
The great thing about using a football to develop tennis skills is that a practice court is not required. Tossing a ball back and forth in the parking lot is a great warmup for those times when courts are unavailable for pre-match warmup or training sessions.
While you can use a full-sized leather football to work on this motion, I prefer to use a softer foam ball for pre-match warmup. I have found that the Nerf brand “Pro Grip” ball works well for that purpose.
The foam construction is less likely to cause jammed fingers or bruises than the regulation leather ball. Another benefit is that the Nerf ball doesn’t require inflation, so I don’t have to lug around an air pump and needle.
If you want to supercharge your tennis service training, throwing a football into the mix might be exactly what you need.
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