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Tennis Court Construction – Asphalt

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One fine morning you make a decision that you want to construct a tennis court for yourself. Then you find that your mind is surrounded with lot of thoughts and ideas which makes the thought confusing. So here is some information that will make your task easy!!! Tennis court should be such that it looks nice and also it should perform well so as to keep the maintenance low.

One of the most popular tennis courts are the Asphalt tennis court. The biggest advantage of this tennis court is that the maintenance cost is lowest or even negligible at times. This advantage of an Asphalt tennis court makes it very popular among the small organizations like school, apartments or even a homeowner. But before concluding on the court one should first figure out the needs. The size and number of courts, the finish of the court etc the color, speed and cushioning can be customized to the owners preferences. An Asphalt tennis court consists of 4 inches to 6 inches compacted road rock with 1inch of Asphalt and acrylic color coating. These tennis courts can be categorized into Standard or Cushioned tennis court.

Standard Asphalt Tennis Court

The color coating process begins once the stone base and Asphalt has been installed and the asphalt has cured for two weeks. The court is flooded to trace out the uneven areas of the court (the areas of the asphalt surface). These low areas need to be filled up by applying patch binder mix. To seal the asphalt surface one needs to remove out the minor errors or imperfections by applying two coats of acrylic resurfacing product. Then the court is painted by two coats of acrylic followed by the playing lines. The pace in which the ball will bounce can be controlled by adding sand as required to the acrylic resurfacing products and acrylic court paint. The coating protects the court from weather and affects the playing characteristics of the court. A hard Court results in a fast game which means that the ball bounces of the court surface in a very low angle. One disadvantage of the standard asphalt tennis court is that it is sometimes very hard on the body and joints of the layers.

Cushioned Asphalt Tennis Court

When we apply a resilient layer on the asphalt court what results is a Cushioned asphalt tennis court. Cushioned court can be used for all weathers round the year matches. This characteristic of the court makes it favorable among the players. But the cushioned courts are relatively more costly than the hard courts. The cushioning is applied in between the acrylic resurfacing product and the court paint. Once the resurfacing product is applied, five to nine coats of cushion is applied. This includes first two to three coats of heavy rubber granules followed by fine rubber granules three to six coats.

The Playing Lines Specifications of the Tennis Court:

The outside dimensions of the playing lines for the doubles match should be 10.97m*23.77m and for singles8.23m*23.77m. The lines should be in between 2.5-5 cm in width. The base line should be 10 m in width and the centre line should be in 5 cm in width.

Orientation of the Tennis Court:

A tennis court should be laid so that the players are not distracted due to the sun or the shadow lines. The player should be able to follow the plight of the ball.

Every Tennis court is different and the outcome of the game really depends to some extent on the surface of the tennis court. Players must be aware of the surface so that they can judge and adjust their game plan accordingly.

In Mens Tennis

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The 1968 season in mens tennis was a critical one in the advancement and growth of tennis. Previous to this season the mens tennis world was in an era that we know as the amateur era in mens tennis. The amateur era refers to the era in which only players that were not professionals were allowed to play in Grand Slam events.

The amateur era officially ended after the first Grand Slam event of the year. After the amateur era the beginning of the open era would begin. The term open era simply refers to the era in which professionals and amateurs can both play in Grand Slam events.

The first grand slam event of the year would be the Australian Open. This would be the last tournament of the amateur era and it would be won by William Bowrey. Bowrey had never won a Grand Slam event previous to this one and he would actually never win another Grand Slam event in his career. Despite the fact that he had a relatively insignificant career outside of this victory he will always be remembered as the last victor of the amateur era.

The beginning of the open era featured a couple of players that had not won Grand Slam tournaments in years. These players were able to bounce back in this year after not winning Grand Slam events for more than 6 years.

The first tournament of the open era was the French Open. The French Open would be won by Ken Rosewall. Rosewall made a remarkable comeback after not winning a Grand Slam event for 12 years. He had won 4 Grand Slam tournaments in 4 years, but then did not win for 12 years. His victory in the tournament turned around his career and he was able to win three more Grand Slam tournaments after that victory.

Rod Laver would be the winner of Wimbledon in 1968. Rod Laver was formerly a dominant player in Mens tennis. In 1962 he won every Grand Slam Event in the year. He did not win another event until 1968, but this victory set him on a dominant streak. This victory helped him bounce back and he went on to take all four Grand Slam Events in the 1969 season. This victory set him on path towards being the most dominant player of the beginning of the open era.

The last tournament of the year would be the US Open. The US Open would not be won by a former champion, like the last two majors. Instead Arthur Ashe was able to win the first Grand Slam of his career. He was a very relevant player at this time and this victory would be one of three Grand Slam victories over the course of his career.

In tennis today you will often hear that a player has the most wins in any given event since the beginning of the open era. 1968 is when all of that changed and the open era of which is spoken about commenced.

How Will The Andy Murray Tennis Game Compare To The Federer Tennis Game This Season

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As the current professional tennis season gets underway, it wouldnt be stretching the truth to say that all eyes will be on the four players who are currently topping the mens rankings Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray. Although the matches the matches that they play are sure to be mostly dominated by these big four players, what seems to be of interest to tennis insiders and fans this season is how well the Andy Murray tennis game will stand up against the Roger Federer tennis game, particularly since both players are now, what some fans and sports insiders believe, reaching the end of their prime match-playing years.

It cant be denied that both players have, over the years, given us some fine examples of professional mens tennis. Even though Andy Murray is yet to reach the same dizzying heights as Federer when it comes to winning those big Grand Slam tournaments, he is still widely considered to be just as good a tennis player with some tennis insiders dubbing him the best tennis player never to win a Grand Slam. Despite this and all his achievements, the Andy Murray tennis game has simply never been quite enough to win him one of those elusive trophies, even on the home courts of the All England Tennis Clubs Wimbledon Championships. Federer, however, has been a different story, consistently winning those big tournaments its only in recent years and with the arrival on the scene of that dominant Serb Djokovic that the Federer game has started to wane.

Although these two players dont share the same kind of rivalry as Nadal and Federer, they did meet this year at the Dubai Open where incredibly they both placed higher than Djokovic. In the semi-finals the Andy Murray tennis game actually triumphed against Djokovic, and he managed to beat him 6-2, 7-5. Unfortunately he couldnt continue this when he faced Federer in the finals, and eventually lost to the Swiss player 5-7, 4-6. This interesting finals match has also promoted tennis insiders to believe that Federer is starting to regain his game again, and that this season will see him play some of his best tennis. What that means for Andy Murray we just dont know, but we can be sure there will still be some exciting tennis tournaments ahead for both players.

The History Of Tennis Apparel

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Men’s and women’s tennis apparel has evolved over the years since before the first matches at Wimbledon. Trends in tennis apparel are influenced by changes in the social aspects of life. As people become bolder, so does their clothing, including active wear and tennis apparel.

Men’s tennis apparel, prior to 1946, consisted of shirts, sweater vests or cardigans, and full-length flannel pants. Bunny Austin influenced men’s tennis apparel as the first top-ranked player to compete in white shorts.

Common men’s tennis apparel of clean-cut white shorts and pants has been replaced by the bright, colorful, tight lycra athletic shorts that cover but don’t leave much to the imagination. Some competitors wear looser shorts or blue jean shorts over the longer athletic shorts.

In 2005 men’s tennis apparel saw changes that have perhaps been influenced by the daring women’s tennis apparel. We have recently seen men running around the tennis courts in Capri pants and peek-a-boo cutouts on their tight lycra muscle shirts. Colors of hot pink on black have made their debut in men’s tennis apparel.

Women’s tennis apparel has followed a similar path beginning with the very modest long, flannel, and bustled skirts, corsets covered by blouses with high collars and neckties, and skimmer hats. In 1884, Maud Watson won the first Wimbledon Ladies’ Championship in tennis apparel of white, full-length, bustled two-piece dresses. That began a long run in white tennis apparel and hem lengths which kept going up.

Lottie Dodd was a 15-year-old Wimbledon competitor in 1887. Her skirts, which happened to be part of her school uniforms, were half-way up to her knees. In 1905, May Sutton contributed to the shocking boldness of tennis apparel by exposing bare wrists and rolling up the sleeves on men’s shirts she wore. Those shirts were said to have been her father’s.

By 1914 the hats, corsets, and bustles were gone, but Dorthea Lambert Chambers won seven Wimbledon Championships wearing several layers of starched underslips called petticoats. Color followed in tennis apparel fashion when Suzanne Langlen wore colorful silk chiffon, short sleeves and white stockings under her calf-length skirts.

Bustles, corsets, hemlines, sleeves, stockings, long pants, and modesty have disappeared in tennis apparel. Current tennis apparel worn by stars like the Williams sisters and Dominik Hrbaty are tight, form fitting, cover very little, allow for ease of movement, and are bold like the players who wear them.

You can save a lot of money if you shop in the right places for tennis apparel and in these difficult times we need all the money we can get or are able to save.

Off Court Tennis Training For Young Players

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It is always recommended for young players from the age of 8 years and up, to do a thorough fitness assessment and postural analysis to determine their height, weight, flexibility, physical strengths and weaknesses. It also gives them the ability to look back in subsequent years and see areas they have improved on, track their growth and development etc. After the assessments a tennis program should be designed to target certain areas such as strength, speed, cardio vascular endurance, flexibility etc.

If tennis is the main sport of a young player, then training away from tennis should be structured to help gain benefits for tennis, this is what we call specific tennis training.

Tennis Training programs should take into account the movement dynamics (high speed, agility and power endurance) and dimensions of tennis (lateral, forward, backward, up and down, rotational etc). Strength is the foundation for development in all-young players. Increases in muscle strength will help to improve movement, power, endurance, injury prevention, co ordination and confidence. There have been 100s of times I have had a coach or parent tell me their young player needs to move quicker or have more power. Doing power and agility exercises will help to a degree, but without a solid strength base benefits will be minimal.

Examples of strength exercises for tennis are:

Body weight: (push ups, squats, planks, lunges etc)

Suspension training: It is highly recommend for young players, it has many benefits and is very low risk for injuries. We use suspension training with the majority of our young players and get great results in strength, balance and co ordination.

Resistance band training: Resistance bands have been around for decades and are a great way to work certain muscle groups in the body. They are commonly used for rehabilitation from injuries, injury prevention and to challenge the musculoskeletal system (muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments) to promote muscle strength. Resistance bands are low cost and are good to travel with.

Muscle loading: It is using weight (dumbbells, weight plates, barbells, machines etc) to challenge the musculoskeletal system. This form of training has huge benefits for athletes, but for younger athletes it can be very dangerous, particularly on the joints of the body. It is hard for a coach or parent to know when a child should start lifting weights. Research tells us, this form of training should be avoided until the age of 16. In most cases it would be accurate, however we need to take into account the body type, physical maturity and natural strength of young athletes before determining when to start their strength program. Obviously working with a specific tennis conditioning trainer will help make that decision. A tennis conditioning trainer should start all players off by lifting no more than 5% of their body weight for upper body exercises and 5%-10% for lower body exercises. Until you have seen a trained professional avoid using weight training for players under the age of 16 years.

As important as strength is, it is also necessary to look at other areas of training for tennis to help boost a young players development. Cardio vascular endurance (running, swimming etc) Anaerobic cardio vascular training (agility) flexibility (stretching), co ordination and core stability should also be targeted and structured into the off court tennis training plan.

Young players should be encouraged to participate in a range of structured sports (soccer, basketball, netball, gymnastics, swimming etc.) and also fun unstructured exercise/play. Participating in other sports (e.g. Basketball, soccer) away from tennis will often give young players an increase in cardio vascular endurance, co ordination and strength.

It is best to consult a qualified tennis conditioning trainer to help structure a plan for off court tennis training. Getting them to work in with the coach is highly recommended, as the coach will have some knowledge on areas of strength and weakness.

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