Home Cardio Tennis Workout by Matt

I'm currently massively missing delivering the club's weekly cardio session, so I thought I'd create a little ten-minute workout for you, to enable us to jump straight back onto the court when we're able to.

Warm Up - Jogging on the Spot and Split Steps

1. Start off with two minutes of jogging on the spot and a gradual pace but occasionally upping the tempo with heel flicks, high knees and star jumps to get the blood flowing.

2. Continuous split steps for a minute before going on to do 30secs of split steps but this time landing further forwards.

Core Stretches

1. Stretch out with a resistance band if you have one, if not do a few stretches of the key areas.

2. Shoulder Taps; get in a push up position and lift one hand at a time to tap the opposite shoulder. Try and keep the rest of the body still. Ten taps each shoulder.

3. Plank; rest on your elbows and tips of your toes. Keep in this position for 30secs whilst keeping as still as possible, focus on slow breathing.

4. Side Plank; 30secs each side. Rest of one leg and one arm and keep in that position.

5. Side down and lift your feet up. Twist your trunk to the left then back to the middle before doing the same on the right. Slow twists doing five on each side.

6. Crunchie; Lay on your back and lift your feet up and cross them over. Pull your upper body and arms towards legs, repeat to achieve 20 reps.

Shadow Swings and X Drill

1. Shadow Swings; grab your racket and swing away, try and do ten forehands, ten backhands, ten volleys on each side and finish with ten serves. Might look silly without a ball but a great way to keep your eye in and for you to really focus on a few crucial areas like footwork, swing path and contact point. Additionally try and breath in on racket draw back and breathe out on contact.

2. To build on this add another racket and hold them together and repeat each stroke five times.

3. One legged shadow swings - same however work on your balance and core and play each stroke of one leg ten times each.

4. X Drill; Mark out four corners as wide as you like, ideally at least 2metres if you have the space. Stand in the middle and before each shot split step and side step to the cone and then play your shot before returning to the centre.

5. Repeat for each corner four times. (TOP TIP - maybe avoid using a slippery wet concrete surface when doing this!)

Give it a go and try and repeat a few times week whilst gradually upping the intensity by adding more reps or time you do each drill and remember once we're back on court that Cardio Tennis is every Thursday 6-7pm.