Archive: April 2007

No racket required

Cardio tennis may be the perfect workout for beginners and pros

The first thing you’ll notice about cardio tennis is just how loud a tennis facility can get. That’s because music is blaring from a radio, the instructors are yelling encouragement and the participants—yes, the participants—are cheering themselves on when they aren’t trying to catch their breath.

This isn’t Wimbledon.

This is cardio tennis, a mix of cross training, running and a lot of tennis.

At The MSU Tennis Facility, in East Lansing, manager Heather Mactaggart said that anyone who is interested in taking the hour long program is welcome to attend a first class for free. Participants are asked to wear shoes with non-marking soles and athletic gear. Ages run anywhere from 20 to 60 (and beyond), and you don’t have to be a world class athlete or even have your own racket. Judging from the errant balls, flying over and into the net, walls, ceiling and just about anywhere but the court, you don’t even have to be good at tennis, either.

“Our instructors have as much fun teaching as the people who participate in the class,” said Mactaggart “People come to this class and get whatever they want out of it.”

The class itself begins with a warm up that consists of various exaggerated tennis strokes, led by pro Tarik Enustun, that is meant more for dynamic stretching than true tennis. As the music volume is turned up, three tennis courts are used for the next session of the class.

As participants line up on one court, they hit three balls over the net, run through a rope ladder before moving to the next court to hit balls, then through another ladder and onto the last court.

Once that cycle is done, several balls are served to smaller groups who step up to the line, one at a time, to return the balls, while moving side to side, front to back and running to another court to repeat the process.

The class ends with challenges with other participants done in pairs and individually, but in a friendly matter, and again, a lot of encouragement from instructors and fellow classmates.

The best thing about this class is that you can chose to get out of it what you put into it. Hard core athletes can use it to push themselves through the different challenges, while beginners can pick and close their activities and still manage to get a workout.

“We want people to get a good workout,” Mactaggart said. “We want them to come in and feel good about themselves and hit a few balls along the way. This class is all about movement and footwork and you’ll get a lot of that.”

Think you have what it takes, or does the class sound like something you’d like to try? Call The MSU Tennis Center and tell them you read the cardio tennis story in Healthy & Fit Magazine and ask for your free class.