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About Jack Groppel

Jan 19

Written by: admin
1/19/2011 1:07 PM 

Tennis is a great sport activity to develop overall large-muscle control and coordination. You must move and perform ball-striking skills in tennis that require control of your large-muscle groups.

The large-muscle groups of your body get a great workout, not only from the force production but also from the coordination required to get into position. Andersson, et al, observed tennis players to reach higher flexion torques (rotational force production) than other athletes and nonathletes.

Tennis players also demonstrated more strength in lateral movements. Yes, other sports like soccer, basketball, and volleyball are great at doing this as well. But, the thing about tennis is, once you bring in all the other benefits of this great game, other sports start falling off to the wayside.

I’d love your comments on this, because I am sure there are passionate people out there who might disagree with me. It could be the start of a very healthy debate.

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2 comment(s) so far...

Re: Tennis helps develop gross-motor control

I agree that tennis can be good for your fitness, gross motor skills in particular. But the nature of tennis as an interval workout with rests between points make me question how it is better than basketball or soccer where the periods of strenuous activity seem to last longer and the resting periods still involve jogging (soccer). Thanks for your input!

By gmattlowe on   2/4/2011 8:37 AM

Re: Tennis helps develop gross-motor control

Without doubt, basketball and soccer provide tremendous aerobic benefit. No one would ever doubt that. It is simply interesting to see some recent work indicating the role of the rest period during a workout. In other words, to ‘peak the peak’ in getting your heart rate to a higher level (for most this is 75-80% of max, unless very well trained), and then to ‘trough the trough’ in “training” your heart rate to lower quickly. For decades, measurements of fitness levels have almost always involved how quickly your heart rate recovers. Obviously, we can argue some of these points but, if the most recent discussions hold true in the upcoming years, tennis will definitely be viewed as one of the leading activities in which to participate.

By admin on   2/15/2011 10:43 AM