10-05-2021
Coaching
Clem Higginbotham’s coaching sessions start this Saturday 15th commencing at 10am for children 5 to 9 years old. At 11 he coaches children ages 10 to 12 and he coaches older children from 12 noon. Please contact Clem at 0864022490 to register for these sessions as numbers are limited.
Singles and Doubles Matches Allowed
We move a step closer to normality with doubles matches allowed from Monday 10th with club nights expected to commence quite soon. The clubhouse should only be opened for two reasons, to turn on the floodlights and to use the toilet facilities, members should bring their own supply of drinking water.
New Members
New potential members can now join our friendly club and enjoy membership until June 1st 2022 for our annual rate, thirteen months for the price of twelve. Please visit our website for further information and how to become a member at athlonetennisclub.com.
How Playing Tennis Benefits Members of Athlone Tennis Club
Playing singles or doubles tennis is a great activity that can keep you, our members, in shape whether you’re age 5 or 95. It keeps your cardiovascular and muscular system in top shape even as you age. Plus, you can’t beat a strategic mental game that lets you enjoy the fresh air of the outdoors.
Full body workout: Unlike some sports, playing tennis is a brilliant workout for the entire body. You use your lower body for all that running, stopping and starting, jumping and crouching. And the action of hitting the tennis ball, whether it’s single or double-handed, means that your body does a lot of work as well, in particular your shoulders and upper back.
Improved aerobic and anaerobic health: Tennis increases your oxygen intake while playing, increasing your heart rate and helping your blood deliver oxygen and nutrients to all your muscles. It also helps in maintaining anaerobic health, which allows the muscles to use oxygen in a better way and provide quick energy spurts for explosive power and quick, reactive movements.
Burns calories and fat: Running, swinging, reaching, pivoting, tennis can be a real workout with the right opponent. It’s a whole-body sport, and you can burn a lot of calories because you’re constantly on the move. In fact, for many people, playing tennis can actually burn more calories than other popular types of physical activity, including leisurely cycling or dancing. As a result, playing tennis regularly has been shown to help reduce body fat. Singles tennis can burn between 400-600 calories an hour. That’s not bad for a recreational sport that’s both fun and can be played by just about anyone.
Improves bone health: Playing tennis isn’t good for your muscles alone, it has a positive impact on your bones as well. Bone mass peaks around age 30 and begins to decline after that. You can maximize your bone mass prior to that age through exercise, and continuing to exercise after 30 can slow the rate of bone loss. Tennis is one of the weight-bearing activities well suited to building strong bones.
Heart healthy: Tennis great Bjorn Borg accurately characterized a tennis match as “a thousand little sprints.” The quick anaerobic movements the sport demands burns fat, increases your heart rate and promotes higher energy levels. A typical tennis match can last anywhere from one to two hours and at intervals that are optimal for improving cardiovascular health, which is essential for lowering your risk of heart disease, heart attack and stroke.
Enhances flexibility, balance and coordination: Tennis requires the cooperation of the whole body. The feet manoeuvre you into the right position, the arms and hands position the racquet to make contact with the ball, and the torso and legs provide the power to send the ball flying over the net. All these factors come together every time you hit the ball, and each shot takes flexibility, coordination and balance. Flexibility is great because it can give you a wider range of motion, help prevent injuries and even reduce muscle strain.
Boosts brain power: Tennis requires the brain to be creative, and it involves planning, tactical thinking, agility and the coordination of different parts of the body. Studies show that exercises that require a lot of thinking, such as tennis, can actually improve brain function in ways that aid memory, learning, social skills and behaviour.
Is great cross-training for other sports: Tennis involves quick-fire changes of direction at top speed as you race around the court to return serves and volleys. Playing tennis is a great way to speed up your sprinting and work on your endurance.
Improves discipline and social skills: Tennis makes you more disciplined because the skills needed to master the game take patience, time and dedication. That’s a lot of time spent practicing and focusing on getting better. Tennis helps you in achieving a better degree of socialization as you have to interact with different players especially at our weekly club events every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evening, also every Sunday morning.
Clay Court Season
The clay court season continues with the Madrid Open ladies final seeing Aryna Sabalenka win her major title against number one seed Ash Barty. Alexander Zverev, who overcame clay court master, Nadal, in the quarter final, defeated Matteo Berrettini in the men’s final. The top ladies and men have decamped to Rome for The Italian Open this week, hopefully there will be more surprises there.