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Balance Training - Made SimpleWhy should you care about balance training? Well, it’s the basic skill needed in every sport. As a tennis player you are changing your center of gravity on every single move you make and balance is therefore the key to not only making a decent contact on all your shots especially the difficult ones, but is vital for keeping you on your feet after shots so you can make it to the next one. The ability to be balanced on the move and at speed is what we call agility . This is because it improves your Kinesthetic awareness, which is basically the ability to know where your body parts are in 3-dimensional space.
This increased awareness allows you to move gracefully around the court and allows your joints to move through the full range of motion smoothly and confidently which greatly enhances your
speed
and also your
power
.
Whilst this may not seem important right away this dramatically reduces your chances of injury and therefore keeps you playing at a high level for longer. So balance training is the precursor to good agility and is something you should be spending time on improving as this will pay you back big time in the future. Balance training aids come in many forms, although you can easily improve your balance with little or no equipment. Here's a couple of easy exercises you can try on your own! Stand on one foot. Reach forward and touch the ground in front of you and stand up straight again (vary hands and legs). Also try this...use a tennis ball and play a game of catch while balancing on one leg.
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