I hope you have been enjoying watching some of the French Open this week, it has been great to watch some top quality matches and see how the players excel in so many areas. As always, I enjoy being able to take inspiration from the professional tour and see where I can implement it into junior training to create high quality athletes.

Arguably, balance is one of the most important factors in tennis; this quality underpins all movement. It is the management of equilibrium in both static and dynamic situations. Think of how wide the top players can be stretched off the court, yet can maintain dynamic balance. The best players look so fluid in their on-court movement due to exceptional levels of balance.  

The benefits of improving a player’s balance include reducing the risk of injury and improving performance via enhanced proprioception (the body’s ability to perceive its own position in space). This underpins balance, it is both a conscious and unconscious process. The sensory information of the position and movement of the limbs without looking is more unconscious, whereas kinaesthetic awareness is more conscious, for example the player adjusting to balancing on one leg.

Players with great proprioception perform more effectively and efficiently on court thanks to enhanced spatial awareness, postural control and agility capabilities. Try it now and see how it improves your players’ balance! 

This week’s Exercise of the Week – Stability – Four Cone Touch – concentrates on dynamic balance and allows player’s to improve the ability to pivot with the lower body and twist the upper body. In my sessions, I like to include it as part of the warm up and implement it alongside more dynamic movement and med-ball exercises too to improve stability and overall on-court performance.

DON’T MISS – As it’s French Open time, I’m offering you 15% off a new annual membership of our SuperMovers At Home programme (this is where the above video comes from) – just use code FRENCH15 at checkout! Valid until 14th June, 2021. Click here to purchase – https://www.tennissupermovers.com/store

 Check out last week’s exercise – Exercise of the Week 07 – Straight Line Change of Direction

Let me know how you get on in your sessions, email me at howard@tennissupermovers.com or tag me in Instagram @howardgreensupermovers. 

Have a great week!