Aerobic
Training
Aerobic
Training for Racquetball
The term
aerobic means "with oxygen". In other words, exercise that taxes the
cardiovascular system, but does not overtax it. If an athlete takes off and
runs as fast as he or she can, they will run out of oxygen very quickly. This
is known as anaerobic conditioning. If an athlete runs at about 70% to 80% of
their capacity for twenty minutes, it is aerobic activity. Herein lies the
controversy in racquetball training. Many people mistakenly believe that if
they do 20 to 40 minutes of continuous repetitive activity they are improving
at racquetball. Nothing could be further from the truth. When the body is
trained to do the Stairmaster or bike for 40 minutes and the athlete puts that
body into a racquetball match, the body says "Whoa Jack (or Jill) you
trained me on a Stairmaster for 40 minutes. What's all this start and stop
stuff?" What is the most efficient way to train for racquetball? Play
racquetball, of course. The problem with that is that too much racquetball
leads to injury and overuse problems. Therefore, simulating racquetball
movements without playing racquetball would be an excellent way to supplement
your workouts. The following workout would take about 20 minutes to do and
would simulate the movements in a racquetball match.
High Knee Walk - Raising your knees as high as you can, walk the length of the
racquetball court.
High Knee Skip - Raising your knees high, skip up and down the court.
Butt Kicks - Run the length of the court,
back-kicking your heels up to your butt.
Chicken Walk - Walk the length of the court kicking each leg out straight.
Chicken Skips - Skip the length of the court, up and back, keeping each leg out
straight.
Side Skips - Skip
sideways up and back the length of the court facing the same wall.
Lunge Walks with a Twist - Do a lunge walk, but as you step
with your right leg, twist your upper body away to the left. When you step with
the left leg, twist to the right. Do these very slowly.
Line Hops Up and Back - With the feet together, hop back and forth across the short lines and
service lines (Do 2 sets of 20 as fast as you can).
Horizontal Line Hops - With the feet together, hop back and forth across the short lines and
service lines. (Do 2 sets of 20 as fast as you can).
Jump Rope - One
set of 100 skips, then walk once around the court. (Do this twice).
Star Drills - Sprint
to one front corner of the court and back pedal to center court. Then, sprint
to the other front corner and back pedal to center. Sprint to the back corners
and run up to center court. Be sure to shadow swing at each corner.
Walk around the court twice.
Stand between the short line and service
lines and shuffle back and forth between the lines. Go back and forth twenty times. For added effect, put a shadow swing
forehand and backhand in with the shuffles. Walk once around the court and
repeat.
Do 20 squat-thrusts. Walk once around the court. Repeat
Do 20 push-ups and 20 sit-ups.
Walk once around the court and do 20 wall
sprints. With
your hands outstretched against the sidewall raise your knees and sprint as fast
as you can. Do 20 sprints. Walk around the court and repeat.
Stretch out real well as your aerobic
workout, footwork and speed workouts are done. This workout simulates a racquetball
rally with each movement being only 4-10 seconds. This also works on aerobic
conditioning, footwork and first step explosion.