Three strength and conditioning tips for recreational tennis players from a world-class pro

Strength and conditioning coach Francis Bougy has worked with plenty of athletes—both as part of former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka’s full-time team and at the Patrick Mouratoglou Academy with the likes of Alizé Cornet, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Holger Rune, and Stefanos Tsitsipas—but his coaching philosophy translates from the elite to recreational level and emphasizes overall athletic proficiency.

Read more: Get to know Francis Bougy, Victoria Azarenka’s strength and conditioning coach

“It’s not good enough to merely train to the specificity of a sport,” Bougy explained during the off-season. “If you look to any top athlete in any sport, they have general athleticism, coordination, movement that could translate to any sport. For tennis players, they can also play soccer. Soccer players could play basketball. If you play basketball, you can play handball. There’s definitely a base that begins in childhood and develops as they grow up.”

The good news? It’s never too late to build an athletic base, and here are three tips to help you build one:

1. Don’t skip the warm-up.

For a recreational player in the fitness aspect, the warm-up is really important for them to make sure they can play their sport and just enjoy. They want to be able to go out there and feel like they won’t have any injuries or physical issues.

2. Prevention is the best defense.

Most of the pain comes from the shoulders for tennis players, because all of the swinging of the racquet can strain the front part of the body. The shoulder ends up in an unnatural position, which can lead to an imbalance of strength, so you need to strengthen the back part of the shoulder, the external rotation. That will help you keep playing as much as you want while remaining pain-free.

3. Be aware of your court positioning.

Your stance on the court is really important: which position you need to be in to be in to hit the ball to compared to the position you’re in on the court. That comes down to decision-making and understanding how to position your body for a ball that may be far away or right on top of you. Making small adjustments can not only maximize your power and precision but also minimize your risk of injuries.