Having a good warm-up before a practice or a match is very important, and also a good cooling down afterwards.
Despite the fact that the pros on the ATP tour and WTA tour doing this, not all junior players are following their example. Below there are 5 reasons for this.
1. When you watch pro matches on television, you see often only the 5 minutes of warm-up
on the court. You don't see the whole warm-up/cooling down they are doing outside the
court. So many junior players are just copying only these 5 minutes warm-ups on the court.
2. Sometimes junior players don't have the knowledge.
Maybe their coach is never doing a warm-up/cooling down, and the players lack the
importance of it.
A warm-up is important for getting your body ready for the battle on the court.
Cooling down is important for a good recovery of your body and avoiding injuries.
3. Sometimes junior players think it takes too much time.
You must learn to add this to your pré-match/after-match rituals!
It's the same as brushing your teeth before going to sleep, at a moment it's like an
automatism.
4. Sometimes junior players are very shy about warming up in front of other people.
But they must stick to their pré-match/after-match rituals!
It's your match and your body, so you must take care of it by yourself.
Even when other players don't do a warm-up/cooling down, you must stick to your own
rituals.
5. Now the role of the parents.
Sometimes the players arrive so late at the tournament location, that they don't have time
anymore for a proper warm-up outside the court. Immediately they have to go to the court
for their match.
Often you see that after a practice or a match, the parents are impatient and want to go
home immediately. They have already spent enough of their valuable time on the tennis
courts. The player cannot do a proper cooling down and is forced to go in the car
immediately after the practice or match.
If only one player in the entire world is going to do a warm-up/cooling down from now on, then the goal of my blog has already been accomplished.
Good luck!