Marcin Bieniek

Tennis requires a lot of energy. Players have to train many hours a day to improve their own abilities and to prepare optimally for the incoming competition. During the competition players can play one match even for 4 hours so quick recovery is needed to get ready for the next rivalry. All these areas are related to the nutritional aspect that unfortunately many players don’t understand and make a lot of mistakes that make them underperform.

Top players value proper nutrition a lot. We can see on their Instagram profiles that they choose healthy products that contain macro and micronutrients that help them achieve solid physical performance. Novak Djokovic is definitely the one who made nutrition more popular around the world. His famous gluten-free diet put more emphasis on daily eating and made players think about their own choices while creating favorite meal. However, looking at the nutritional routines of less advanced players we can see a big difference between their approaches to training sessions and meal plans.

A lot of juniors and recreational players don’t pay enough attention to the ingredients they consume. They select the food-based only on taste. What they like they are going to eat. Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t help their tennis level and it can be the reason why they are not able to achieve the results that they expect. Nutrition is as important as a technical level so without implementing proper steps it is difficult even for ambitious players to be able to perform well, consistently improve their own level and fight for the trophies.

Nutrition is a complex topic. Knowledge is needed to take care of own body and avoid popular mistakes made by athletes at all levels. There is no doubt that effort is needed to stay consistent with healthy nutrition but it will pay off both short and long term.

Below you can find the most common mistakes made by tennis players that are related to nutrition:

Drinking only water

Many players put a lot of physical effort every day. They practice tennis skills on the court and go to the gym to improve speed or power. However, these activities won’t bring great results if the body doesn’t function properly. Drinking only water is not enough to give the body back all the energy and minerals that it loses during the exercise. It is important to always have isotonic drinks in a tennis bag and use them frequently to keep both hydration and energy stores at the proper level.

Not eating before the practice/match

You can work as hard as much energy your body has. If you get on the court with almost no energy you can’t expect to run to every ball at full speed, recover fast between the points and maintain the high level of play for a longer time. Unfortunately, many players don’t care about pre-match nutrition and they can’t understand why given shots don’t work as well as they were working the day before. It is especially visible for players who go to school and have practice sessions right after school. They don’t eat enough food between the school lessons and they come to the court in a hurry to start hitting the balls. This lack of nutritional preparation will always have a negative impact on the quality of the on-court work.

Eating too late after the practice/match

It is scientifically proven that exists the window that is favorable for the pace and the level of recovery. It is 45 minutes after the physical exercise so it applies to the training session as well as a tennis match. Recovery between the training is important to prepare for the next session of improvements and recovery between the matches increases the chance to win another battle. Going home, stretching, taking shower, and doing other things will definitely take more than 45 minutes so players should always have a prepared meal on the court to consume it right after the last minute of the physical exercise.

Not eating enough vitamins and minerals

More and more tennis players understand the role of carbohydrates and proteins in the functioning of their body and mind. However, they don’t have as much knowledge and practice in the field of vitamins and minerals. We can see players eating tons of spaghetti or chicken with rice but we don’t see as often that players consume salads and a variety of veggies as a meal or just a snack. These micronutrients play a vital role in the body so when a player doesn’t provide enough amounts it will definitely increase the chance to deteriorate performance and have a serious injury.

Nutrition is another field that can help you get better as a tennis player. Champions believe that improving in one area even a few percent is worth the work because it gets them better. Take the same approach and start treating your nutrition as another training that makes you healthier, stronger, and faster. Choose wisely what and when you eat and drink and you will see the visible difference in your body shape, mood, and energy level.

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