Monday's Important Things : Muscles

The spring season is officially upon us, and so break out new spring segments for the tennis site. Today we begin a weekly discussion of things that are important for tennis. Of course, the topic is muscles today, and I'm sorry for all of our lady fans that there is no shirtless pictures of Mr. Hostennis on the hard drive of my computer. Maybe we can get him to post them on his own personal website, or perhaps the tennis team will get together one last time for a "Men of Bruin Tennis Shirtless Calendar." I wonder whose page would get the most views?

In any case, strong muscles definitely lend to a strong tennis game. Why else would professionals spend about as much time in the gym as they do on the courts? So what does all this hefting of heavy iron bars do for one's tennis game?

First of all, lifting weights can lead to prevention of injury. Of course, as muscles get stronger they are able to take more strain. Over the course of a quick and intense season, injuries are not uncommon. Ask Mikey, Johnny, Luke and a variety of others who experienced aches and pains last year. However, regular weight training can decrease the occurrence of these pains. Okay, this is fairly obvious, so let's move on...

Secondly, muscle strength gives stability to your tennis game. This is important in many instances. One great example is when you play against a power player, someone who pounds their shots with the aggression of Rafael Nadal (of which there would only be one, namely Rafael Nadal, but you get my point). Throughout the course of a match, good shots and solid form are not enough to combat heavy topspin and powerful groundstrokes. There needs to be strength to push back against your opponent's often tiring game. A good base of strong legs and solid core strength will help you endure through that. And you'll also have the strength to carry on your footwork and stroke through your own attacking shots, which takes us to...

Power. Yea, if you want to hit the ball harder consistently, you need bigger muscles. Well, okay, not really beefy muscles, but stronger muscles. And I'm not talking just about arm muscles so you can swing your arm faster. Real power is generated throughout the body in a swing, especially from the legs. As these parts are made stronger, you can coil your body up more often and rip through forehands, backhands, hit overheads over the fence like the mighty Johnny Kauffman and more!

I chose Luke's picture here for a reason, his game best showed the fruition of weight training. Play a match against Luke and he will simply wear you down with the pace of his shots (generated by strong legs and core) and the grinding topspin. Also, his intense training allows him to not give in when the matches get long. I look back to some of the times where he took down tougher opponents, or challenged them right to the end and can see the importance of strength in these matches. Luke's match in the Sectional final against Preston is a great example. When Preston got mentally and physically tired in the second set, Luke was in physical shape to pounce on this let down and pick up the pace and aggressiveness of his own game to steal the second set and send the match into a deciding third set.

There are other benefits too, of having nice muscles. Yes, Russell, they do look good on the beach. And if that's what motivates you to hit the weight room this spring and summer, then great. I'd love to see us stabilizing our games and getting more powerful all the time.

Hmmm, maybe shirtless tennis camp would be a possibility...