How do you help your kid restore after a hard workout? What do you know about sports massage? Not too much, I guess. When I was a kid and used to do track and field at my school, all my teammates had a sports massage session once a week. For many years, the athletes of the Eastern European countries have included massage as a part of their intensive and continuous training schedule. And they are right because during intensive and hard workouts and competition, muscle strength and endurance of tennis players are pushed to the limit.

Remember how your tennis player feels after four consecutive tennis matches in a weekend’s tournament. I am sure that he doesn’t feel very good because a body has its own limits and needs recovery.

The goal of sports massage is to enhance the athlete’s performance. Performance is regulated by the efficiency, precision, and freedom with which the tennis player is able to move. Efficiency is dependent on training and conditioning. Sports massage permits more intensive training.

There are four basic types of sports massage. Each kind of sports massage has a different objective and requires a different approach.

1. Pre-event massage. Massage before a match to prepare a tennis player for the exertion of competition.
2. Post-event massage. Massage after competition to normalize the tissues and relax the tennis player after the tennis match.
3. Restorative or training massage. Massage during training allows the tennis player to train harder with fewer injuries.
4. Rehabilitation massage. Massage during rehabilitation to recover from injury more quickly with less chance of re-injury.

When was the last time your junior tennis player got a sports massage? Have you ever thought that sports massage is a part of a tennis player’s training cycle? Some parents can say that it’s “too costly”. But if you pay $80-300 an hour for a tennis private lesson, you probably have money for one massage session a week for your tennis player.

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