Let’s take a brief pause on the tennis lessons here because I want to discuss a little bit about injuries in tennis.

Mark Phillipousis’s comeback at the Australian Open wildcard play-off was cut short when his infamous knee injury flared up again leaving the possibility of retirement. Jelena Dokic who was also attempting a comeback at the same play-off suffered a similar fate.

She won her first three matches but withdrew in the quarter final after injuring her thigh. And then there is Richard Gasquet, the world number 8, who withdrew from the Adelaide International tournament yesterday because of a knee injury. Why are players so often succumbing to injuries?

It is my belief that the primary cause of injuries in professional tennis is down to poor scheduling and a lack of a proper off season. I would advocate moving the Australian Open to sometime in February thereby giving players the whole of December off and keeping January for training and preparation

There are a vast number of players who play tournament after tournament chasing the ranking points they need to break into the top tier. I often think this attitude does more harm than good causing unnecessary injury although ultimately the decision is with the player. I would be intrigued to see what would happen if the authorities removed this decision by reducing the schedule.

Now I’ll give you a couple of simple tips which you can employ to prevent injuries;

I would suggest being strict with yourself and warming up before every session. This is very often overlooked especially by adult club players despite them being among the most subceptable to injury. A decent warm-up will increase the blood flow and oxygen to the muscles. It will increase body temperature, the speed of nerve impulses and your joints range of motion making you faster and reducing the risk of muscle and/or ligament tearing.

Your warm-up will not only help injury prevention but also improve your performance. My routine would include a gentle jog utilising various tennis specific movement patterns and gentle stretching Then I would begin to hit balls, starting slowly from the service line and gradually edging back until rallying baseline to baseline progressively adding speed and power.

In addition to a warm-up, a cool-down routine is also necessary. I know you want to get straight to the bar but seriously this part cannot be missed! The cool-down slows the heart rate, helps remove waste products such as lactic acid, reduces the potential for muscle soreness and helps restore muscles to the condition they were in before exercise. I would recommend beginning a cool-down with light jogging and follow that with gentle stretching.