Tennis Facilities

Cranmore Family Fitness Center has two indoor plexi-cushion hard courts.  The tennis courts are available to members and non-members.

The Training Block: Weekly Tennis Tips #12

 Chris Chaffee

 The Weekly Motivational Quote: It is not the size of a man but the size of his heart that matters. A champion shows who he is by what he does when he's tested. When a person gets up and says 'I can still do it', he's a champion-Evander Holyfield

 The Training Block:  To improve your tennis game and bring your game to the next level you need to hit the gym. When I train for tennis the key to my workout is balancing my workout. I focus my workout on my muscular endurance, strength, flexibility and cardio. A typical daily workout routine includes: squats, lunges, press ups, star jumps, box jumps, jumping rope, pull ups, sprints, crunches, running, biking, and also some light weights. When lifting weights remember it is important in tennis to not lift heavy weights, because that adds bulk. In tennis you want to lift light weights at a higher intensity and try go for more repetitions. This will make you more of a lean, mean, fighting machine.

The Weekly Tennis Tip: The Serve: The serve is one of the most important strokes to master in tennis. If you have a great serve it can easily add confidence to the rest of your game and strike fear in your opponents. The serve can be a complicated stroke, but I will try to simplify it in a few steps.  The serve in tennis is the same motion as throwing a baseball. Try to take a tennis ball and just throw the ball up over the net and into the box you are going to serve into. When you throw the ball you are bringing it back and using your whole body as you throw the ball into the court.

Now, that you have the basic motion down. You want to take your racket and make sure you have the right serving grip. Before you start serving make sure you are in a continental grip (the hammering grip). You want to make sure your arm and your wrist is extremely loose and you are very relaxed. Now, the ball is replaced by the racket and you are going to do the same motion with the racket that you did when you threw the ball. You are going you to pretend you are throwing your racket up over the net and into the box you are serving into.

To begin serving try to start with your feet shoulder with apart so you feel balanced. Start with the racket and ball up out in front of your body. You should have some weight leaning forward. Bring the racket and ball down together as you rock the weight from being forward on your foot to backward on your back foot. When you do this bring your racket and the ball up together. When you bring them up together your knees are bent and your hips are leaning into the court. Now hit up on the ball with your racket and follow through. You momentum and weight should go into the court.

The serve can be tricky, but try to remember to toss the ball in front of you toward the court about 5 inches or so in front. The toss should be up high enough so you can hit up on the ball and get your racket extended up on the ball. Also, don't try to hit as hard as you can.  The looser you are and the more you increase your racket head speed the harder you can hit your serve.  Remember you should also pronate your wrist when you hit the ball. Lastly, remember after contact snap your wrist downward (to help the ball land in the court, and follow through.

Chris Chaffee lives in Fryeburg, Maine and is a certified USPTR tennis pro at the Cranmore Fitness Center. He is offering exciting new programs and lessons at the Cranmore Fitness Center. He is also the Fryeburg Academy Varsity Girls Tennis Coach.

 

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If I give 100%, try my best, physically work as hard as I can, practice as much as I can, then that's all I can do." Andy Murray