Australian Open - Beat The Heat

The Australian Open presents the opportunity for someone to win the first Grand Slam of the year and get their season off to a flying start, but to win this tournament requires plenty of other things apart from actually playing tennis.

We all know about the mental and physical challenges of playing the game at the highest level but there is one factor that is a real hurdle that every player must come to terms with or they will have NO CHANCE of winning the tournament regardless of their tennis ability and that is – playing in the heat.

When it comes to heat, the Australian Open is the Grand Slam that throws up the biggest obstacles. Every year we see the temperatures rising up towards the 40 degree mark and just think about this, what other Grand Slam do you know of that has the provision built in to either stop play all together or to shut the roof on the main covered court?

But why do high temperatures represent such a challenge to tennis players and what can you do to combat these challenges?

How can you Beat The Heat?

Thermoregulation (regulation of body temperature), dramatically affects tennis performance. If it is not addressed properly it can in fact make you very ill and the worst case scenario is that it can cause death.

The basic problem is this.

The body uses energy to perform physical tasks such as play tennis and 75% of the energy you use is converted to heat. The harder you play (or have to play), the more energy you require and use and you produce more heat.

As you produce more heat, the body is required to dissipate (get rid of) large amounts of excess heat and does so by transporting blood to the skin which is nearer to the outside world so that the heat can lost to the air (including sweat) and the blood can be cooled.

The big problem is that during long matches and/or hard matches the demands placed upon your body increase because oxygen and fuel must be transported to the muscles to produce energy AND blood flow to the skin must be increased to remove heat.

Your body therefore has 3 choices -

1. Provide Oxygen and fuel to the muscles (and overheat – VERY dangerous).

2. Move blood to the skin to aid cooling (and cut blood to the muscles and internal organs – potentially dangerous and can cause muscles to cramp etc).

3. Do a bit of both but neither very well.

The other problem is that if the weather is too hot then the normal passage of heat from the skin to the outside world is reduced if not stopped.

Hopefully you can now see that maintenance of body temperature when you are playing in the heat is critical.

How To Beat The Heat!

If you know you are going to be playing in a hot atmosphere (like you would find at the Australian Open), you will need to try and acclimatize (get used to) to the hot playing conditions. That means actually getting out there and playing in it for short periods of time and gradually building up the time you spend so that your body gets a chance to get used to the conditions.

This is especially critical for those or you (me included) who are not used to playing in the heat for long periods of the year.

One of your main strategies will also be watching your fluid balance.

It is not unusual for players who play in conditions similar to those at the Australian Open to lose over 5 litres of sweat during matches and obviously more during longer matches. Just like your car, fluid losses must be replaced otherwise overheating will take place along with drops in physical (and mental) performance. In fact you are in trouble when fluid losses get above only 2% of your body weight.

So!

You need to be fully hydrated before you start playing, so that means hydrating/drinking (water is the best fluid replacement for pure hydration) the night before you play.

You also need to drink regularly throughout the match (and afterwards even if you lose), NOT just when you are thirsty!

In fact if you are thirsty – you are already de-hydrated!!

So, you need to keep drinking for the following reasons -

• Reduce your level of dehydration and therefore overheating - cold (NOT freezing) drinks empty from the stomach faster than warm drinks

• Re-fuel (by adding some low concentrated carbohydrate)

Water can also help your body turn fat into energy which apart from being a rich energy source will spare the carbohydrate you will need for intense bursts of energy.

The last thing I want to mention is that you should always stay out of the sun when possible i.e. at changeovers.

Try and sit in the shade when you can and even in between points if there are shaded areas on the court.

It wasn't the Australian Open but you can see what happened to me when I played a BIG match in really not conditions