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No matter what type of exercise or sport you are involved in, improving your overall fitness is a great way to improve your health. However, performance will be the most significant improvement if you train to develop skills specific to your chosen activity.
To play tennis, you will need to have flexibility and cardiovascular endurance. To become goodat playing tennis, you need to improve your skill-related fitness components such as agility, speed, power, and hand-eye coordination. This is what separates two areas of fitness development.
Getting Fit vs. Improve Performance
All people, from all walks of life and regardless of their desire to participate in or perform an activity at the highest level, should be aware of the health-related elements of fitness. These are:
- Composition of the body
- Cardiovascular endurance
- Flexibility
- Muscular endurance
- Muscular strength
You can reduce your risk of developing heart disease by improving your cardiovascular endurance. You can improve your flexibility by extending your range of motion and lifting things off the ground. This will improve your daily activities like reaching for items on shelves high up.
Skill-Related Fitness Components
If you are already following the ACSM guidelines but want to do more training for a specific goal in your fitness, you can consider the six skills-related components to your fitness: 2
- Agility
- Balance
- Hand-eye coordination and/or foot eye coordination
- Power
- Time to react
- Speed
All fitness components are important. Certain athletes are more likely to benefit from the skill-related components of fitness. While everyone can benefit from walking every day, those who walk to exercise their heart rate and build speed don’t have to worry about running a mile in five minutes.
Baseball players must also target all skill areas to be able to compete at their best. Weightlifters, however, can focus their efforts on strength, power, balance and power.
Skill-Related Fitness Components
If you are already following the ACSM guidelines but want to do more training for a specific goal in your fitness, you can consider the six skills-related components to your fitness: 2
- Agility
- Balance
- Hand-eye coordination and/or foot eye coordination
- Power
- Time to react
- Speed
All fitness components are important. Certain athletes are more likely to benefit from the skill-related components of fitness. While everyone can benefit from walking every day, those who walk to exercise their heart rate and build speed don’t have to worry about running a mile in five minutes.
Baseball players must also target all skill areas to be able to compete at their best. Weightlifters, however, can focus their efforts on strength, power, balance and power.
Speed
Speed is often thought of as an event such as the 100-meter sprint. Speed is a relative term. A 100-meter elite sprinter must be extremely fast but only for around 10 seconds.
A marathon runner might try to increase their pace to beat a personal best. They could aim to run for 10 minutes per mile, but that would mean they have to go a little more than four hours.
Although they train differently, these fictional athletes have the same goal: to become faster in their respective sports. Speed training will vary depending on what sport you are training for. No matter what sport you are, high intensity interval training is a great way to increase speed.
This training requires you to work at a high level of intensity for a set period of time.
Depending on the sport you are involved in, the length and intensity of your intervals will vary. Runners may try HIIT speed drills such as these:
- Marathon training: Try mile repeats. This is a type of interval training in which the runner runs for a mile and then stops to rest.
- Sprint training: Shorter intervals are the key. Sprinters would do better if they ran shorter, more intense intervals, ranging in length from 40-400 meters. After running, rest and then repeat.
These same principles apply to swimming, cycling, and even sports such as soccer and basketball. Interval training can be a great way to improve your speed. It involves high-intensity intervals that are specific to your sport.
Agility
Agility refers to the ability to move quickly while changing direction easily. For example, basketball players are extremely agile. They must be able to move in all directions, including jumping, sliding and twisting in rapid response to the ball’s movement and that of other players. Their bodies must be taught to change direction and respond quickly.
Exercises that improve agility include:
- Ladder drills – Use an agility ladder for quick and precise foot placement.
- Cone drills – Set up cones in “T” shape or star shapes, then sprint, slide or backpedal depending on the cone you are approaching.
Coordinating
Many sports and activities require a good hand-eye coordination (or foot-eye), such as badminton and soccer, and softball and ultimate Frisbee. Each requires you to be able see and react with your hands and/or your feet to achieve a predetermined goal.
You can think of hitting a golf shot off the tee, catching an eagle fly, or blocking a goal in soccer or hockey. Try these exercises to improve coordination:
- Playing catch
- Jumping rope
- Juggling
- Dribble a ball
- Tossing objects at targets
Balance
Balance skills are essential for gymnasts, skaters and surfers. Balance training isn’t just for athletes.
The ability to balance your body in a way that allows you to stay upright is called balance. It refers to proprioception. This is the ability to adjust your body position to remain upright. 4
Balance is an essential part of many sports. There are also many activities that require balance for safety and performance. Balance training is beneficial for trail runners, as it helps prevent them from falling after slipping on a wet path or rolling their ankles. Balance training is a great way to improve your balance.
- Standing on one foot
- Standing yoga poses
- BOSU Ball Exercises
- Balance discs are used to perform squats and lunges. Push-ups can also be done using balance disks
Reaction Time
The speed at which you respond to external stimuli is called reaction time. Take a look at a tennis match. The top players react instantaneously to the ball hitting their opponent’s racquet. They sprint towards the spot where they expect it to bounce.
Your mind-body connection is crucial for your reaction time. Your body responds to stimuli in the same way your eyes do.
This mind-body reaction is largely dependent on knowledge about the sport or activity being discussed. Professional tennis players can predict and interpret the ball’s movement almost immediately. This knowledge allows them to respond faster and more accurately to stimuli.
A novice tennis player might see the ball hitting the opponent’s racquet but may not be able to understand what they are seeing, which can cause their reaction time to slow down. These activities are good for improving reaction-time training, although they tend to be sport-specific.
- Fielding a baseball (softball, baseball).
- As other players attempt to score (soccer or hockey, lacrosse), you need to protect the goal.
- Such tools include lopsided reaction balls
- Hacky sack or table tennis
A word from Verywell
Focus on the health-related aspects of fitness if you’re new to exercising or returning to it after a long absence. Your daily life will improve by increasing your flexibility, cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength, endurance, and muscular strength. You might also lose weight and gain muscle, which can improve your body composition.
After you have established a strong fitness foundation, it is time to start training to increase performance-related parameters. Focusing on these six skills-related components can help you improve your performance and compete in your chosen sport. You can get help from a coach or personal trainer if you are unsure where to start.
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