Post-Match Routines: Conserving Legs and Energy

The preceding post on post-match routines covered the reasons you need to take care of your mind and body after a match and how to replenish yourself. In this post, we go over your second recovery objective: to save your legs and conserve energy. Your priority should be to minimize stress on your legs. If they're stiff and tired during a match, you'll feel slow like there's lead inside. But you want them light and fast so you can get to any ball.

• Standing consumes energy and fatigues your legs. You need to take care of physical recovery with exercises and stretching, explained here. Otherwise, you should stay off your feet whenever you can.

• Take off your tennis shoes when you don't need them. Tennis shoes are heavy and stiff compared to running shoes or slippers.

• Elevate your legs to reduce the heaviness you feel from leg fatigue. The research is not conclusive as to the benefits, but you will feel a difference after spending 10 to 30 minutes. Taking pressure off your legs will reduce swelling and add to the resting component.

• Get some alone time where you're doing nothing. Chatting and socializing constantly is fun but takes up energy as well. You need to listen and pay attention to other people, which takes up resources. You don't need to completely isolate yourself, but try to find at least 30 minutes where you're relaxing.

• Minimize stress. When you're stressed, your brain will release adrenaline and cortisol, and your muscles will get tense. The key to addressing stress is to avoid things you know will stress you. But the best method is to work on mindfulness so fewer things outside your control will stress you out. In a state of mindfulness, you're not judgmental about things that happen. Mindfulness is also an important skill to use during a tennis match.

• Practice breathing deeply. Shallow breathing causes stress and slows recovery. There are also negative long-term effects from shallow breathing. Deep breathing improves your oxygen intake, makes it easier to relax, and will help you focus.

Resting, hydrating, and eating well do not complete proper recovery. You must also help your body recover with light exercises and stretching. More on that here.

At competitive events, you want to be at your top physical and mental state so you can perform your best. Part of your top performance is accomplished by proper maintenance during the tournament. A good post-match routine is critical to your well-being and your ability to play your best the following day. Your routine must help you recover your mental, physical, nutritional, and emotional states. The goal is to recuperate well enough to be mentally and physically energetic and to feel good about moving your body and paying attention to the ball.

Post-Match Routines: Replenishment

In this series of articles you will learn about post-match routines that you can implement to get your mind and body ready for competition. When thinking about before and after-match routines, look at each action as a part of a connected chain. What you do after the match influences how you start the following day, nearly as much as your pre-match preparation. Your calculus should consist of a formula that takes care of your mental and physical energy and emotional state. That means every time you do something, the purpose should be understood. For example, you played your match early and won. After completing your post-match routine, you will go to the movie theater instead of shopping at the mall because you want entertainment to take the edge off but without expending a lot of energy from standing on your feet.

Before getting into the weeds, let's pivot to the motivation behind this series of posts. Imagine you're No. 1 in the world and about to play in the Australian Open finals. Your birthday is right before the final match. Instead of resting, you go clubbing to celebrate your birthday! Do you expect you'll perform your best the next day? You'll probably perform at 60% of your abilities after a night out partying. That happened to Marat Safin in the 2002 Australian Open – he was tied with Lleyton Hewitt as the youngest to reach No. 1 in the ATP (until Alcaraz broke their record in 2022). Safin won the 2001 U.S. Open, beating the great Pete Sampras in straight sets. Everyone expected Safin to dominate the tennis world, yet his ascent to the top post was short-lived. The decline began when Safin lost to Thomas Johansson in the Aussie Open in a surprise defeat. Safin went clubbing in preparation for his championship match. That sapped his mental and physical energy and limited his ability to play out a tough but beatable opponent.

Rest and recovery. Every time you're on the court, you're using resources to play. During a match, especially against someone close to your level, you use more resources than you're accustomed to. Even after a quick match, I felt slightly more drained than from a tough practice. That difference comes from competitive stress.

Your mind and body recover the most through rest, where resources are used to help fix muscle tears and replenish cell-level elements.

Your first set of recovery objectives are hydration, electrolyte replenishment, and high protein intake.

• Hydration and electrolyte replenishment need to be a round-the-clock affair. However, there are several ways of hydrating, and some approaches are healthier and better. You want to avoid the pattern of barely drinking during the day and then drinking a lot of water in a short period. It stresses your organs. Instead, you should sip water frequently and supplement with electrolytes.

• Do not drink sugary drinks or drinks with artificial ingredients. Carbs are essential to replenishing energy, but highly refined sugar in large quantities (often present in drinks marketed for sports such as Gatorade) gives you an imbalanced spike. The artificial ingredients are taxing on your body because the synthetic components must be processed and eliminated.

• Protein is essential for recovery, and you must consume a lot of protein throughout the day. Many rising tennis players are unaware of how deficient they are in protein intake during tournaments. The assumption while I was growing up playing is that high protein intake is for weightlifters. But research shows that runners and cyclists must consume on the higher spectrum. You can do some research on protein intake, but the recommendation is to consume between 1.5 grams per kilogram to 2.5 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. Listen to your body and feel it out, but it's better to consume more protein than less.

Read the other part on conserving energy or stretching.

Post-Match Routines: Stretching

Nick Bollettieri said at the 2019 U.S. Open, "You're as good as your fitness takes you." For your first-round match, you'll be fresh and ready to fight with all you've got. After that match, if your opponent was tough, your body might feel beat-up and depleted. The constant sprinting, stopping, and changing directions cause stress and tension for your muscles. Playing also takes up energy, and sweating expels electrolytes. The cost of playing thus reduces your ability to play at full capacity and constrains your game. Stretching, resting, and good nutrition will get you closer to your baseline fitness.

Stretching is your best friend. Your primary form of physical recovery will consist of stretching. Stretching will help you increase blood flow into your muscles and help flush out toxins accumulated during an intense tennis session. Stretching will also help you heal faster and bring back your full range of motion. The mental engagement from stretching is meditative and will help calm your mind. However, if you avoid stretching, each subsequent match will lead to tighter muscles and fatigue. Muscular tightness could lead to injuries.

When to stretch and how intense should you make it? I'm going to ignore some of the convention on this and use my personal experience. I've always been told to stretch right after my match but realized as a young adult that it helped only a little. After a long brutal match, you're beat. I learned that resting and replenishing myself with nutrients should be a priority and then, after some rest, allocating a good hour to warm up and stretch was most effective. So, the alternative approach is as follows:

• Immediately after my match, I would jog for 5 minutes and do a very light stretch (about 10 minutes). Barely any pull or pressure on the muscles. All I did was find a comfortable position and use gravity to help with the stretch. Doing this helped me loosen up and recover some range of motion.

• I would let my body recover for the day, hydrate, and supply myself with plenty of nutrients and electrolytes (more on that here). After resting, I would jog or cycle for 20 minutes to warm up my body again. Then I would get into a 30-minute full-body stretch. The prior recuperation always provided me the energy to focus on stretching properly. This is where I felt I optimized the most of my stretching and helped the body get back its full range of motion. Make sure to listen to your body. If you feel you have a deep tear somewhere, avoid stretching it. Your goal is to help with recovery and not push your limits.

Stretching should be your baseline post-match recovery routine. If you're a competitive athlete looking to make a bigger dent in the rankings, then you must also incorporate fitness training and some tennis practice as well so you can use the time spent at tournaments to improve.