They might be fit as a fiddle but why are tennis players not muscular? The answer lies in the diet and exercise regimen they follow. Visit us to know more.
Why are tennis players not muscular? The main reason for that would be simply because tennis itself takes a lot of on-court fast movements. A player must have agility and endurance for the most part of it to make it in the pro leagues.
One needs to have strength as well however being muscular would indicate too much bodyweight and that would reduce both on their speed and endurance causing them to not perform as active as they should.
Tennis is a sport in which if you have too much in one area it will alter with the performance of your game, for example, having too much speed and no endurance will tire you out just too quickly. Having good endurance and no speed or power, its all gonna alter with the player’s performance so we need to keep the right balance intact.
Why Are Tennis Players Not Muscular?
Most Tennis players are not muscular because the sport of tennis depends a lot on endurance, speed and agility. Tennis Players need to stay lean, fit and agile to be able to move around the court for hours and hours at a time, this would be very difficult with any type of bulky muscle on their body.
The main reason why tennis players are not muscular are:
- Big muscles are not really required to play tennis: While big muscles might help with hitting powerful shots, these are only one part of the game of tennis. Bulky muscles would restrict movement too much, and players would have to finish points in a few strokes at most. Tennis is about control and power for the most part, not hitting the ball as hard as possible every single time.
- Lower body strength is more important than upper body strength: It is very important for tennis players to have good musculature in their lower body. This is because, in tennis, most of the work is done by the legs whether it be moving around on the court, or delivering powerful shots. The legs need to be strong enough to also run and change direction with ease, but they also need to provide the power behind serves, groundstrokes, and even volleys.
- Big muscles don’t always mean greater power: Racquet head speed, form, power in the legs, and other factors all play a huge role in hitting powerful shots in tennis. In fact, the most powerful shots in tennis are going to come from an extremely fluid motion and by hitting the sweet spot consistently.
- Flexibility is more important than big muscles: Flexibility and the ability to change directions rapidly are important aspects of tennis that will be lost if a player is bulky and muscular.
Both the male and female pro tennis player tries to keep their body in good forms, having a muscular body in tennis would provide flexible disadvantages in your game. Meaning you won’t be able to react as quickly as you should and you would be easier to tired and that’s a huge disadvantage when competing.
Having a lot of weight on the body will cause the body to be easily damaged, moving on fast reaction speeds for the ball plays will defiantly strain body parts as well. Keeping a slim figure body provides more benefits that one would thing in the world of tennis. Just look at the top ten rankings in the world of tennis and you will see what I am talking about, none are bulked like how you would see other famous athletes are.
It is common to even see tennis players that are on a slim form still trying to lose a bit of weight so that their body gets less pressure and more flexible. the sport tennis takes up a lot of side-to-side movements on the court so I can see why being muscular is a no-no.
Am not saying power is not relevant in the game because it is and hitting your balls with superb power is definitely a good thing is just being muscularly bulk isn’t a relevant part. The fact that a person isn’t bulk doesn’t mean he is not strong that’s where a lot of person gets it wrong at times.
Benefits Of Not Being Muscular
A player will gain more agility and endurance while reducing the chances of damaging themself on the court at the same time. If you were to take notice on any pro tennis player you would see that their lower body contains more of a pro athlete look, meaning more muscles seems to be in theIr leg structure.
Their lower body has more muscles than their upper body making it easier to carry their upper half giving their body the perfect balance. Most of the players who make it into the pro league would try to make due to this body type structure. Tennis is not a muscular sport like the NFL or boxing sport where being bulk is very beneficial.
Does Muscular Means More Power In Tennis?
A more muscular person would be able to provide a more powerful serve when playing in a tennis match, this is not 100% accurate not all the time this would be true a less built person can also create a more powerful serve. The ratio would still be on the side of the more muscular person to present a more powerful serv. As mentioned above the power is great is the stamina and following up speed and accuracy that is going to win games for you.
All that aside I do hope you get the concept of what we are saying, muscles are good it just the fact of having too much will slow you down on the court. Tennis takes a lot of running up and down on the court and quick reaction moves so it’s not beneficial for a player to become muscular that would only give more of a disadvantage more than the advantage.
What Is A The Right Body Structure For Tennis
To get a deeper understanding of whats the body types that are best in tennis would be take a look at the listing with the top 50 tennis ranking tennis players chart. Doing so will provide you with whats too much to have and what’s too little to have, it will also provide you with what to work on as well. This question has been asked by many however there is not a specific answer that one can give that would represent the perfect body structure to have.
The most recommended answer would to just have a body structure that can easily be manipulated around the court. Most would want a specific weight figure however that’s not possible to give I can, however, recommend not being over 205 lbs this will be all depending on your height as well. As a pro tennis player, you will find it not as easy as most would gain due to the frequent time spent on the tennis court.
Tennis is a sport that will keep your body healthy and fit, it won’t provide you with a lot of upper body muscles but it will help in endurance and speed. It’s one of the best workouts especially for the women both male and female benefits from the ups and down on the tennis court.
Final Thoughts
In the sport of tennis, you don’t need big huge muscles to dominate the game its kind of the opposite, or I should just state that the player just needs to be in shape and fit. The next time you hear a person asking Why are tennis players not muscular, you can not answer with all the facts and reasons you have just now read.
Tennis is more of an endurance sports more than anything so we see why being muscular would not have played a great role, however, the power is a great attribute to the sport as well. In terms of power once you connected a shot fully with your tennis racquet especially if it’s connected in the center of the sweet spot you will be getting the maximum reacting play of power from that tennis racquet.
Thanks again for reading our article on Why are tennis players not muscular, please remember to check out a few of the other related articles that we have like for example why are tennis player so skinny. If you didn’t get what you wear looking for in this article I am positive that this one will provide all the information you need and more of why it is so beneficial to be on the slimmer side in tennis.
Tennis is not like most other sports out there where being more muscular or muscular built has a great impact in the way how it would affect our professional career. The key in tennis is to keep as fit as possible with as little weight as you can so that moving around on the tennis court won’t be a hassle or problem when reaction to some quick ball plays.
