Healthy Nutrition for Optimal Tennis Fitness

To the majority of tennis players performance enhancement means practicing their tennis strokes: to identify the weak link - forehand, backhand, serve or volleys - and then focus on the improvement; or maybe to strengthen their strengths, or work on the tennis fitness. Maybe a few work on the mental toughness as well.

But how about if you get into a long match and after an hour or two, you have absolutely no energy to perform your strokes, strategy and show your mental toughness? You forgot to eat! Nutrition - an extremely important yet often a forgotten piece in your tennis game - needs to be practiced as well.

Nutrition can make the major difference in the third set, when you either fade away to the opponent because you don’t have any energy left, or you feel energetic and can execute your game plan until you win the match.

What is tennis nutrition?

Every tennis player will benefit from a “healthy” diet. What is good for health is good for tennis. Everybody’s needs are slightly different depending on the age, fitness level, intensity of play, environment, competition level and other factors. But the general “rules” apply to all tennis players.

Balanced diet

You need to eat a balanced diet that consists of carbohydrates, proteins, healthy fats, minerals and vitamins, and water. If you get the habit of not eating any processed food, only the food in its simplest state, you cannot go wrong. Read the labels and if there’s an ingredient that you cannot pronounce or that you don’t know what it is, don’t eat it. If your food contains partially hydrogenated fats, don’t eat it. If it contains high fructose corn syrup, don’t eat it. Eat most of your foods in their natural state and if possible, organic.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates and water are your most important nutrients. You need carbohydrates for fuel. Choose high fiber versions of carbohydrates if possible. Eat cereals, oatmeal, bread, rice, pasta, sweet potatoes, fruits and vegetables. You can always have an all natural sport bar in your tennis bag for “emergencies”.

Water

Water, water, water… staying well hydrated will increase your performance tremendously. Avoid drinking sodas, regular and diet, all together. There’s absolutely nothing nutritious about them. If you want to have some flavor in your water, put a little bit of lemon juice in it. As a sweetener, use Stevia (calorie free), honey or maple syrup. If you like to drink juice, choose real unprocessed juice (not from concentrates) without added colors and chemicals. Don’t drink juices on the court - too much sugar can be hard to digest during an intense activity. Drink plain water - it is the most refreshing and hydrates you best.

Protein

For muscle recovery, eat protein. Tennis players don’t need the same amounts of protein like strength athletes. If you eat sufficient amounts of carbohydrates, the body will use them for energy production instead of using your muscle proteins. Therefore you won’t need any high doses of protein. If you include some protein food in each meal, you will be well covered. Eat beans, high protein cereals, eggs, meat, chicken, fish, cheese, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese or kefir…. Don’t eat any processed meats or products; try to get everything in the most natural form.

Fats

Healthy fats are important as well. They will slow down absorption of the carbohydrates and you will have energy for longer periods of time. Add nuts to your cereal or oatmeal -walnuts and almonds are the best; put natural peanut butter on your bread or in your oatmeal, drink milk with higher percentage of fat rather than fat free, put olive oil in your salads, or blend in some flax seed oil into your cottage cheese. Eat fatty fish and whole eggs.

Meal plan

Always eat a good nutritious breakfast. Remember that after all night of fasting, your muscles are depleted of all glycogen and you have low energy levels. Include a lot of carbohydrates in your breakfast, for example cereal or oatmeal with raisins and walnuts and pour milk over it. This is filling, nutritious and will give you great start of the day.

During the day eat smaller meals but more often. In that way you will supply your body constant energy. If you eat big meals, your digestive system gets overloaded and you may feel sluggish. The excess of food that is not digested tends to store as fat.

Before tennis practice

What you eat before your tennis practice is highly personal. Try to experiment with what gives you the most energy and still keep your stomach light. The majority of the pre-practice meal should be carbohydrates, for example bread with peanut butter. Have always a banana or a sport bar in your bag to snack on if you feel like you are running out of energy. And never ever forget to drink water. The performance decreases rapidly only during mild levels of dehydration.

Create new habits of healthy eating of natural, nutritious foods, and see how your energy levels become high and how your tennis game will improve.