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Become a Two-Sport Athlete Why you should be playing both tennis and pickleball
the low to high swing is crucial for pickleball, because it is used for the serve, return, third shot, and dinks in pickleball. In addition, tennis players have excellent footwork, utilizing the closed stance when moving forward or stepping into shots, and the open stance when running to the side, moving Playing both on a regular basis has countless benefits. You start to adapt your swing to a more compact stroke as you play more, using more of your body instead of just your arm. Both have a swing that consists of legs, hips, and core to generate speed. In addition, playing both improves your court awareness backwards, and dinking. THE BENEFITS OF PLAYING BOTH
for situations like covering the middle, angles, positioning, and movement. In terms of fitness, both sports consist of interval sprinting, which means using an explosive move to the ball followed by a rest period in between points. This improves cardiovascular health as well as strengthens your legs and core. At the Franklin Creek Sports Complex, we want our members to become two-sport athletes. Grab a paddle if you haven’t tried pickleball before, and pick up a racket if you’ve never played tennis. These two games are a fun way to exercise, and they complement each other extremely well. If you would like to give either a try, stop by Franklin Creek and speak to one of our world-class court sports professionals!
BY MIKE HARDMAN Have you tried pickleball? Many of our tennis players here at the Club have never really tried that crazy sport with the paddle, whiffle ball, and the tiny court. Not only is it fun, but it helps improve your tennis game. The same goes for playing tennis if you are a pickleball player. Here’s why you should be playing both regularly to improve your overall court sports abilities. PERKS OF PICKLEBALL FOR TENNIS PLAYERS Pickleball has a lot of close- quarter’s action. You see a lot of fast hands battles, put away volleys and overheads, low volleys, drop shots, and soft touch shots, all at close range. Your goal in pickleball is to move to the no-volley zone and put the ball away. This helps improve your net play for tennis, where players frequently hang back and play the baseline. Also, at any moment on the pickleball court, the ball could be blasted at you. This keeps you focused on keeping your paddle up and out front, which transitions well for tennis players with the ready position. PERKS OF TENNIS FOR PICKLEBALL PLAYERS The tennis technique is a major advantage to possess for pickleball players. If you have the ability in tennis to drive the ball, hit backspin and topspin, use the swinging volley, and play with the open and closed stance, you have an advantage over pickleball players who don’t play tennis. Understanding
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