As I sit at MatchPoint NYC Cafe, familiar phrases like “Chicken nuggets and french fries” echo around me. It’s November 1—the day after Halloween—and the candy tales are in full swing. I love a good party and quality treats, but I’ve always seen my body as a ‘temple.’ Though my high-performance tennis days are over,…
All of us should have a healthy and varied diet to provide us with the nutrients we need to be healthy, feel good and have energy. For an athlete, food is also essential for: •Increase in physical performance •Faster recovery •Have fewer injuries and illnesses The ideal diet for an athlete is not very different…
Over the years of working with coaches, parents and athletes to optimize sports performance, get rid of nagging injuries or tap into the latest cognitive training, I have found that many people get stuck in inertia of training, competition and/or the latest fads before they ask themselves the simple question: “Are you training or…
A major health problem that has consumed much of the United States over the last decade is that of childhood obesity. Proper nutrition and formulating a healthy diet has become a major point of emphasis, but there is still work to be done to educate much of the public on how to eat right….
When tennis players talk about their “inner game,” they’re talking about the mental side of tennis, such as improving focus and concentration. But there is another key inner part—the digestive system. How gut health impacts performance In a healthy digestive system, the cells that form the paper-thin lining of the small and large intestines…
Tennis is a great game for staying in shape. The fitness you develop from a regular tennis game has an added bonus: It carries over into the rest of your life. By playing tennis, you also improve your functional fitness or your ability to do ordinary things, like carry a sack of groceries in from…
You spend all that time and effort to improve your groundstrokes, but if you put a little extra time increasing your speed getting to the ball, that could make all the difference in beating your nemesis. If you could only get to that ball in time to set up and hit that winner down the…
The fast changes of direction, pivots, side-steps and jumps of tennis mean that ankle injuries are very common. Most ankle injuries in tennis are sprains—an injury to the ligaments that hold the complicated bones of the ankle together. This injury is often called a rolled ankle (ankle inversion sprain), because it usually happens when the…
There is no shortage of high-quality tennis coaches on Long Island, and the area has helped grow some of the best players in the country. But few of those coaches carry the type of background and experience brought to the table by Andrea Retolaza. “Andrea has the combination of a professional background and the technical…
You wouldn’t take your expensive Ferrari out for a race without properly warming it up. So why when going out to do battle on the tennis court as a weekend warrior, unless of course, you are fortunate enough to be a tennis pro or an exercise trainer, don’t you properly warm up your precious machine,…
