| Sports That Help Your Tennis | |
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You might be wondering why I haven't mentioned the other racquet sports as good complements to tennis. Only one of them has a strongly positive influence on tennis, and that is table tennis. Unlike most other racquet sports in which spin, especially topspin, is either useless or detrimental, table tennis uses spins much as tennis does. Just like in tennis, topspin makes the ball drop sooner and kick faster and higher on its bounce. Slices make the ball curve, skid, and carry deeper just like in tennis. And, most important, table tennis strokes don't require any motions that will become bad habits on the tennis court.
Most of the other racquet sports have a mixed influence on tennis, and they will be discussed in Sports That Hurt Your Tennis. One racquet sport that should not harm your tennis, but is probably only slightly helpful is badminton. Often called the world's fastest sport, badminton will certainly improve your reaction time, and it should help your overhead and positioning as well. The other badminton strokes are so different, they shouldn't affect your tennis strokes.
One of the few big-ball sports that uses spin similarly to tennis is volleyball, primarily in the serve. The volleyball serve motion is similar enough to an abbreviated tennis serve that when I'm teaching spin tennis serves to volleyball players, they often say, "Oh yeah, that's like what we do in volleyball!"
Basketball also deserves mention as a tennis complement. Its tennis benefit is concentrated mostly in the area of conditioning, but it offers some broadly applicable footwork and coordination benefits. The one tennis stroke it might specifically enhance is the lob, the trajectory of which is measured in somewhat the same way as a distant basketball shot.
Football might offer some conditioning benefit for tennis, and a receiver who can focus on a football despite an impending pounding should find it easy to focus on a tennis ball despite someone leaving their seat in the stands.
Of the remaining ball sports, most can cause significant trouble to one's tennis while also providing some potential benefits. We'll address those next week.
The non-ball sports, such as running, inline skating, and mountain biking, all offer tennis benefits limited mostly to conditioning. Some types of dance might also develop applicable footwork skills. Fortunately, none of the non-ball sports incline an athlete toward any bad tennis habits. Athletes who train intensively and develop musculature adapted narrowly to one sport can find that some of those muscles interfere with tennis strokes, but for casual participants, the non-ball sports should help get you in better shape for tennis without messing up your strokes.
Please check out next week's feature on the sports that might make a mess of your tennis strokes.
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