September Newsletter 2016
California Athletic Clubs ranked #45 out of the top 100 clubs in the U.S.!
Labor Day
We will be open Labor Day, Monday, September 5th 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Back To School Bootcamp
September 6th – 30th
Tuesdays & Thursdays
6 pm
The summer has been LONG! We get that. You’ve been vacationing with the family, probably eating healthy (right?...Riggght?), and NOW the kids are back in school. Time to get back to work!
- 60 Minute Sessions
- Team & Individual Challenges & Workouts!
- Top 3 Individuals will receive prizes based off the following:
- Attendance
- Most Improved Performance
- Most Spirited
Pricing: $96 (non-members +$10)
Sign-Up at the Front Desk
For any questions, contact Dr. Andre Acebo at:
[email protected]
Fitness Corner with Dr. Andre Acebo
Chiropractor and Strength Coach
PRSC Fitness Director
This month, I'm writing to parents of teens, whether your son or daughter is into sports or video games (or both) proper training starts with an assessment of their current fitness status. This includes posture, flexibility and movement patterns. Then goals and limitations are addressed. The fun part is designing a doable program with achievable results, given the time frame available. All of this takes time, a keen eye and a willingness by the coach or trainer and the young trainee to not cut corners. Paying attention, adherence to training principles, and follow through are key traits of any good youth coach.
Adults working with young people must have patience, be able to connect with and motivate their young students. This applies to athletic kids, couch potatoes, "gamers" and everyone in between. All people, young and old need to be physically fit. Not everyone is into competitive sports, but strength, coordination, flexibility and endurance are all vital to our health and well being.
Here are some of the programs that myself and some of our trainers and coaches excel in.
Fit Kids (included with club membership) Kids 5-11, developing basic coordination and fitness, while learning and practicing many new skills. Play and game based activities as well as body weight challenges.
Speed, Agility, Quickness, & Strength- Learn proper sprinting, acceleration, deceleration, and change of direction of mechanics. Great for athletes of all levels.
Strength & Conditioning- Focus is on all around fitness using basic exercises. Includes mobility and posture correction.
Olympic Weightlifting- Ideal for all athletes. The goal is to develop power throughout the entire body, especially the hips and legs. Vital for athletic success. Developed for ages 12 & up.
Karate- Traditional martial arts, develops confidence, character, and self discipline. Offered to ages 10 and up. $60 per month for members/$80 for non-members
These programs are happening now!
Dr. Andre Acebo D.C
Fitness Director PRSC
Chiropractor
USA Weightlifting - Senior Coach
NASM - Corrective Exercise Specialist
CrossFit & CrossFit Kids Trainer
[email protected] or (805) 712-7769
Tennis:
SPORT SCIENCE
Health Benefits of Tennis: Why Play Tennis?
By Jack L. Groppel, Ph.D.
Its historic moniker has been the “sport for a lifetime”. But is this really true? According to world-renowned scientists from a variety of disciplines, there is no doubt that tennis is one of the best sports for you to play.
Here are the facts:
1. People who participate in tennis 3 hours per week (at moderately vigorous intensity) cut their risk of death in half from any cause, according to physician Ralph Paffenbarger who studied over 10,000 people over a period of 20 years.
2. Tennis players scored higher in vigor, optimism and self-esteem while scoring lower in depression, anger, confusion, anxiety and tension than other athletes and non-athletes according to Dr. Joan Finn and colleagues at Southern Connecticut State University.
3. Since tennis requires alertness and tactical thinking, it may generate new connections between nerves in the brain and thus promote a lifetime of continuing development of the brain, reported scientists at the University of Illinois.
4. Tennis outperforms golf, inline skating and most other sports in developing positive personality characteristics according to Dr. Jim Gavin, author of The Exercise Habit.
5. Competitive tennis burns more calories than aerobics, inline skating, or cycling, according to studies on caloric expenditures.
With these results in mind, let’s take a look at 34 specific reasons why you should consider playing tennis regularly!
Physical Reasons to Play Tennis
Tennis helps your:
1. aerobic fitness by burning fat and improving your cardiovascular fitness and maintaining higher energy levels.
2. anaerobic fitness by offering short, intense bursts of activity during a point followed by rest which helps muscles use oxygen efficiently.
3. ability to accelerate by practice in sprinting, jumping and lunging to move quickly.
4. powerful first step by requiring anticipation, quick reaction time and explosion into action.
5. speed through a series of side-to-side and up and back sprints to chase the ball.
6. leg strength through hundreds of starts and stops which build stronger leg muscles.
7. general body coordination since you have to move into position and then adjust your upper body to hit the ball successfully.
8. gross motor control through court movement and ball-striking skills which require control of your large muscle groups.
9. fine motor control by the use of touch shots like angled volleys, drop shots and lobs.
10. agility by forcing you to change direction as many as 5 times in 10 seconds during a typical tennis point.
11. dynamic balance through hundreds of starts, stops, changes of direction and hitting on the run.
12. cross-training by offering a physically demanding sport that’s fun to play for athletes who are expert in other sports.
13. bone strength and density by strengthening bones of young players and helping prevent osteoporosis in older ones.
14. immune system through its conditioning effects which promote overall health, fitness and resistance to disease.
15. nutritional habits by eating appropriately before competition to enhance energy production and after competition to practice proper recovery methods.
16. eye-hand coordination because you constantly judge the timing between the on-coming ball and the proper contact point.
17. flexibility due to the constant stretching and maneuvering to return the ball toward your opponent.
Psychological Reasons to Play Tennis
Tennis helps you:
18. develop a work ethic because improvement through lessons or practice reinforces the value of hard work.
19. develop discipline since you learn to work on your skills in practice and control the pace of play in competition.
20. manage mistakes by learning to play within your abilities and realizing that managing and minimizing mistakes in tennis or life is critical.
21. learn to compete one-on-one because the ability to compete and fight trains you in the ups and downs of a competitive world.
22. accept responsibility because only you can prepare to compete by practicing skills, checking your equipment and during match play by making line calls.
23. manage adversity by learning to adjust to the elements (e.g. wind, sun) and still be able to compete tenaciously.
24. accommodate stress effectively because the physical, mental and emotional stress of tennis will force you to increase you capacity for dealing with stress.
25. learn how to recover by adapting to the stress of a point and the recovery period between points which is similar to the stress and recovery cycles in life.
26. plan and implement strategies since you naturally learn how to anticipate an opponent’s moves and plan your countermoves.
27. learn to solve problems since tennis is a sport based on angles, geometry and physics.
28. develop performance rituals before serving or returning to control your rhythm of play and deal with pressure These skills can transfer to taking exams, conducting a meeting or making an important sales presentation.
29. learn sportsmanship since tennis teaches you to compete fairly with opponents.
30. learn to win graciously and lose with honor. Gloating after a win or making excuses after a loss doesn’t work in tennis or in life.
31. learn teamwork since successful doubles play depends on you and your partner’s ability to communicate and play as a cohesive unit.
32. develop social skills through interaction and communication before a match, while changing sides of the court and after play.
33. have FUN… because the healthy feelings of enjoyment, competitiveness and physical challenge are inherent in the sport.
Summary and Reason #34
Is it any wonder that scientists and physicians around the world view tennis as the most healthful activity in which you can participate? There may be other sports that can provide excellent health benefits and some which can provide mental and emotional growth. But no sport other than tennis has ever been acclaimed from all disciplines as one that develops great benefits physically, mentally and emotionally.
Tennis is a sport for kids to learn early in life. What parent wouldn’t want their children to get these benefits through their growing years?
It’s not too late for adults and seniors too! The human system can be trained and improved at any stage of life.
Here’s the key… you must begin playing tennis now to get these benefits throughout your lifetime. And that brings us to reason #34: Tennis is truly the sport for a lifetime! It’s been proven
A Note From Gary…
Getting A Grip on Your Game
After viewing alot of tournament play this summer, I noticed an abundance of players who still seem not to understand the importance of performing a specific shot with the correct grip. For exampIe, I still see an inordinate amount of players still using forehand grips for serves and volleys! One way to limit your progress as a tennis player is to not understand the importance of what grips you should use in a particular shot.
Where you position your hand on the eight-sided handle has a HUGE impact on each ball you hit. Your grip affects the angle of the racquet, where you make contact, and ultimately the speed, spin and placement of your shot. There are no "perfect" grips that you have to use on each shot, each one has it's own advantages and limitations, and some are clearly better than others for certain strokes. Let's take a quick peek and determine the best use of each of the common grips that are used on the hard courts we all play on.
FYI: The details of how your hand(s) holds the racquet can't be explained adequately in a written article, it's really a visual learning process. So please venture onto the internet, to You Tube for example, and search for action videos that will walk you through gripping techniques listed below in a more precise and easy to see fashion.
Continental Grip
The Continental is used primarily for serves, volleys, overheads, slices, and defensive shots (sounds a lot like all the shots you need in a doubles match, huh?) I tend to use the example: a "hammer grip", it's the grip you would use to hold a hammer to put a nail into your wall to hang a picture on. Hitting with the Continental grip on the serve and overhead is standard, as it allows your forearm and wrist to naturally pronate (turn inward) through contact. This results in a more explosive and versatile shot with the least amount of stress on the arm. It’s also the preferred grip on volleys since it provides a slightly open racquet face for underspin and control. Since you need quick hands at net, having the same continental grip for forehand and backhand volleys is also crucial.
Eastern Forehand Grip
To get to this grip, place your hand flat against the strings and slide it down to the grip. Or you may hold the racquet in a Continental grip and then turn your hand clockwise (for righties), so that the base knuckle of your index finger slides over one bevel. This is generally considered the easiest grip for learning the forehand. It’s versatile, allowing the player to brush up the back of the ball for topspin or flatten out the shot for more power and penetration. It’s easy to switch quickly to other grips from the Eastern, making it a wise choice for players who like to play an all court game utilizing a variety of shots.
Semi-Western Forehand Grip
Moving your knuckle one more bevel clockwise from the Eastern forehand grip puts you in a semi-Western grip. The semi-Western allows a player to apply more topspin to the ball than the Eastern forehand grip, giving the shot greater safety and control. Still, you can drive through the ball with this grip to hit a flat drive or it affords a player the option of taking a bigger swing at the ball since the topspin will help keep it in the court. With a strike zone higher and farther out in front of the body than the Eastern forehand, it’s good for controlling and being aggressive with high shots.
One Handed Eastern Backhand Grip
From a Continental grip, shift your knuckle back one bevel counterclockwise so that it’s on the very top of your grip. This is a versatile grip that provides good stability for the wrist. You can roll the ball for some spin or hit through it for a more penetrating drive. While solid for handling low balls, an Eastern backhand grip is not ideal for hitting high topspin shots, say from around the shoulders. It can be difficult to control these balls, and many times players switch and use a continental grip to slice the ball back defensively.
Two-Handed Backhand Grip
There’s no doubting the popularity swing and this grip, but there is some debate about the ideal way to position both hands. One of the most accepted ways is to hold the racquet in your dominant hand with a Continental grip. Then take your nondominant hand and put it above your playing hand in a semi-Western forehand grip. A more compact stroke than the one-hander, the two-hander relies on shoulder rotation and an efficient swing to provide power. That’s why it’s particularly effective on the return of serve. It’s also good on low shots, and the extra arm lets you power through on balls that are at shoulder level.
Take some time and evaluate your grips and perhaps use this guide to help you understand your own shot making techniques a bit more and ramp up your game!!
See Ya' On The Courts, Gary
Congratulations to Kirstin Lane and Cathy Reimer!
Winners of our August Tournament! Well played ladies!
September Tournament! September 24th & 25th
Times TBD
Men’s A Singles Women’s A Singles
Men’s B Singles Women’s B Singles
Men’s A Doubles Women’s A Doubles
Men’s B Doubles Women’s B Doubles
Mixed A Doubles
Mixed B Doubles
Champions will receive Tennis Warehouse Gift Cards!
Play in each division completed in one day!
Men’s and Women’s Doubles Saturday
Mixed and Singles on Sunday
Call Mariano with questions or to sign up, 805-239-7397
