The Benefits of Boxing Training for Tennis
By: Nikunj Tyagi
Tags: Tennis, Sports, Boxing, Training, Cross Training

Yes, I know what you must be thinking. How in the world does such a ruthless sport like boxing mix well with tennis, a gentleman’s game? Both sports are more similar than you would expect. Keep reading for my story, and some advice on conditioning for your tennis game.

I am a 16 year old athlete who plays tennis and competes in tournaments year round. To play at the higher levels, it is imperative that you must have higher levels of fitness than everyone else. So, to reach there, I made sure to keep an eye on what I ate and did rigorous training along with my tennis practices. However, once quarantine started, all tournaments stopped, so I had some time to reflect on my fitness level for tennis.

Tennis is a very difficult sport, needing precise hand-eye coordination, quick agility, and endurance to play up to 3.5 hour matches. The training that I did for tennis was composed of mostly cardiovascular activities, with agility ladders, jump ropes, and training with cones. However, one big thing I realized was missing was upper body training. So, I started to research good workouts that engage your whole body, and I found boxing.

When most people think of boxing, they think of a brutal sport in which thugs fight and beat each other bloody. I never really thought of it as a sport, I mainly just thought of it as something that bad people do for fun. However, as I started researching more into it and started training with boxing exercises, I realized that true boxing is an art which requires discipline, flexibility, and immense physical fitness. In fact, ESPN ranks Boxing as the world’s hardest sport, and the qualities needed to be a great boxer can be used in every aspect of life. Here are some reasons that boxing is especially great for tennis:

Footwork — In tennis, footwork is extremely important, and this same style of footwork is seen in boxing. Both sports use jump ropes and agility ladders for training, and this is all because of the way the feet are positioned. In both sports, you are standing with the front of your body facing away from the thing you are hitting, but when you strike, your arm extension into the strike is led by the turn of your hips. This positioning leads to the footwork being very similar, so whether you’re shadowboxing, heavy bag training, or sparring, your footwork for tennis will also improve. Strategy — Both boxing and tennis share very similar strategy because you have to be able to defend and attack with efficiency. The mental aspect of both games is very tough to master because you are always moving forward or backwards, attacking or defending, and you need to be able to deliver a knockout blow no matter where you are. Both games are mostly mental, because you need to stay focused in the game longer than the opponent because of the lightning fast points and punches. Hand-Eye Coordination — While tennis has more hand eye coordination needed to master the sport, in boxing you need to know exactly where you are punching, and where there are empty spots that u must cover with other body parts. A big aspect of boxing, speed bag training, can help with this hand eye coordination greatly. Cardio — Both tennis and boxing require immense stamina. Most matches in both sports are determined by who can last longer at a higher intensity. In boxing, there are short sets in which you give the most intensity possible. This interval training method is great for tennis because you are building stamina to stay in the longer points and not give up. Both sports have stamina in the way that there are short periods with large amounts of energy being used in them, rather than a sports like soccer or cross country, where you are pacing yourself over a longer period of time.

Overall, tennis and boxing are very similar in the physical fitness and intensity needed. Boxing is a great conditioning training for tennis, and if cross-training attracts you as an athlete, you should definitely give boxing a try. You don’t even need to get in the ring with anyone, but you should do the training exercises. However, make sure your boxing conditioning isn’t taking away from your tennis training. If it causes unnecessary soreness or pain, it is perfectly fine to stick to normal training methods.