Benefits of Walking Tennis and example lesson plan (Mini court, red ball, 2 bounces)

The benets of walking tennis include all aspects of the biopsychosocial model, that is, it can help participants psychologically, physically and socially.

Psychologically, a relationship between frequency of tennis played and improved executive function in areas such as working memory and cognitive exibility have been found. Walking tennis as a form of exercise will also improve brain function due to increased growth factor production, thereby increasing neuron connectivity potential. Exercise can also improve mood and walking tennis will do so too. Exercise can act as an effective antidepressant via its effects on the hippocampus and cell proliferation in this area.

Physically, along with the structural brain changes noted above, physical changes will be noted at all levels. With improvements in strength, balance, coordination, power, agility, mobility and stability maintained or improved.

From a social aspect this obviously will also cross over into psychological wellbeing by developing new friendships giving participants a sense of belonging.

Warm Up Walk & Talk: After the meet we will get them active straight away with a ‘Walk and Talk’. Walk and talk is simply walking around the court a few times giving you a chance to warm up and catch up on things.

After walk and talk - Coach will stop the group and introduce the ‘Walking Awareness’ task for the day. The way we walk is very habitual, so we are often unaware of the way we walk. Walking awareness is about bringing awareness to our walking habits and consequently encouraging improvements. With walk awareness we continue walking around the court but this time we introduce a new thought. Complete one to two laps of the court but with the new way of thinking.

Walking awareness example: Walking but this time being mindful of lining up the roof of the mouth with the pelvic floor.

Stage One: Volley (Pit-Pat); Players stand either side of the next approximately a meter or two away from each other. The aim of the activity is to volley to each other and keep the ball airborne.

A reason for starting at the net with volleys is that it gives you chance to develop/maintain your reaction speed.

Volleying provides an ideal opportunity to challenge your biophysical skill. The relationship between decline in reaction time and falls has been quite well documented, so anything that can encourage this skill could be a life-saver.

Stage 2: Transition Volley; with this activity both players now start off from further back and the ball is fed from the hand (again no bounce) to their partner. The partner, although starting from the service line should look to move in to hit a volley if they can. The feed should also look to move in immediately after feeding in. The intention is for both players to end up at the net resuming a pit-pat type exchange.

Stage 3: Push serve; this stage follows on from the last in terms of theme, but the only difference now is that the activity it is initiated with a push serve. A push serve is performed with the racket held directly above the participant’s head with the elbow straight (arm in line with the ear).

Stage 4: Double bounce box ‘push’ groundstrokes; We now move our attention to the groundstrokes. In this activity we are simply encouraging participants to send the ball over the net so that the ball bounces twice within the mini court.

Stage 5: One in One Out; we then transition to the back of the mini court with ‘one in one out’. During this stage we now direct you to hit from the baseline but still maintaining the technique from the previous drill, with the exception of adding a little to the swing length.

Stage 6: One in One Out, “two in and come in”. This next stage is a progression from the last but with the additional decision making aspect that if the ball is sent to you and the ball is going to bounce twice within the mini court, then you should look to come into the net and play a volley.

Stage 7: Serve, return plus one. One player will serve; the returner will return and then the server will hit one groundstroke back (plus one). If this is successfully completed the returner will stop the ball and then they now become the server. If the sequence is not completed after three attempts the server automatically transfers over to the returner.

Stage 8: Serve, return two in then in; very much like activity during stage 6 when the ball bounces twice in the box then the participant is encouraged to come into the net to volley.

Situational Games and Conditioned Points

During this time the coach can begin to offer you physical/technical input mostly by asking questions that will help you improve your awareness and understanding.

Match play

The match play phase provides an opportunity for players to test their skills within a game situation. This phase is the most important for most of you, therefore we will give plenty of opportunity for you to play.

Warm-Down

An effective warm down will help both physical and mental wellbeing. We will stretch and mobilise one or two important areas.