Tennis Warm-Up: A 10-Minute Routine Before You Play

You arrive with four minutes to spare, the court is free, your partner is already stood on the other baseline and the first ball comes over at full pace. Your first serve goes long, your second goes into the net, and somewhere around the third game your shoulder starts to feel tight. Nobody planned that. It happens because the body was asked to do match work before it was ready for it.

A good tennis warm-up is not a ritual or a stretching class. It is a short sequence that does three jobs: it raises your body temperature and heart rate, it moves the joints you are about to load, and it lets you build swing speed from slow to fast before the score starts. This guide gives you a ten-minute routine you can do in a car park or on the baseline, the order that makes sense, what to do with the hitting part of the warm-up, and how to change it for hot, humid climates like the ones most of Southeast Asia has all year.

Why warming up matters in tennis

Tennis is a stop-start sport. You jog, sprint two steps, stop, rotate, hit, recover and repeat, often with an overhead serve in between. That mix loads the shoulder, the trunk, the hips, the calves and the Achilles tendon in quick succession. A warm-up gives those tissues a gentler introduction than the first point of a match does.

Be realistic about what the evidence says, though. There is no magic number. Some sports medicine groups have built tennis-specific programmes: the Emory Sports Medicine Center, for example, describes a 10-step “Tennis 10+” on-court warm-up and cool-down on its tennis medicine pages, and says it is associated with fewer and less severe injuries in adult players who follow it. That is the programme’s own description, not an independent review, so treat it as a sensible structure rather than proof. The practical case is simpler: you will hit better in the first game if you are warm, and you give your body a fair chance of staying injury-free.

What a warm-up should do

• Raise your temperature and heart rate with easy, continuous movement.
• Mobilise the joints tennis uses: ankles, hips, thoracic spine (upper back), shoulders and wrists.
• Activate the muscles that stabilise you: glutes, calves, trunk and the small muscles around the shoulder.
• Rehearse the movement patterns: split step, lunge, rotation, overhead reach.
• Build swing speed gradually, from half pace to match pace.

Dynamic versus static stretching

For years the standard warm-up was a row of players holding a quad stretch and a shoulder stretch. The research has moved away from that as the main event. A meta-analysis of 104 studies on pre-exercise static stretching (Simic and colleagues, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 2013) found small negative effects on maximal strength, smaller and non-significant effects on power, and concluded that static stretching should not be the only activity in a warm-up. The smallest negative effects were seen with holds of 45 seconds or less.

So the working rule for a recreational player is simple:

1. Before you play, keep moving. Use dynamic stretches: leg swings, walking lunges with a twist, arm circles.
2. After you play, hold the longer static stretches while you are warm, if you like them. They feel good and help you wind down, even though the evidence that they prevent injury is not strong.
3. If you are naturally stiff in one area, a short hold (under half a minute) inside a wider warm-up is not going to hurt you. The problem is relying on long holds alone, cold, immediately before you sprint.

The 10-minute routine

Do this in order. It assumes you have a bit of space and nothing but your racket and shoes. Move at a “conversational” pace: you should be able to talk, but you should be getting warmer.

Minutes 0-3: raise the temperature

Start with easy full-body movement.

• Light jog or brisk walk, 60-90 seconds. If you cannot jog, march with high knees.
• Side shuffles along the baseline, there and back twice. Stay low, do not cross your feet.
• Skips or easy high knees, 20-30 seconds.
• Arm swings: big arm circles forward and back, then hug yourself and open up wide.

You are done with this block when you feel slightly warm and your breathing has picked up. In a cool, dry climate that might take three minutes; in a hot one it can take less.

Minutes 3-7: mobilise and activate

Ten to twelve slow, controlled reps each, no bouncing.

• Leg swings, front to back and side to side. Hold a fence or your racket for balance.
• Walking lunges with a twist: step forward, rotate your upper body over the front knee, and stand up. This opens up hips and the mid-back together.
• Bodyweight squats, then a few calf raises. Calves and Achilles tendons take a lot of load in tennis, so give them attention.
• Hip circles and ankle circles if your feet feel stiff.
• Torso rotations: feet shoulder-width apart, racket held across your chest, turn left and right with your hips staying quiet at first.
• Shoulder prep: arm circles getting gradually bigger, then crossed-arm swings, then a few easy “windmill” swings. If you have a resistance band, ten external rotations on each side are a good, light activation drill for the shoulder.
• Wrist and forearm circles, then open and close your hands. Tennis elbow is a forearm issue, and this takes thirty seconds.

Minutes 7-9: move like tennis

• Split steps: ten of them in place, then ten stepping to the left and right as if reacting to a ball.
• Shadow swings: forehand, backhand, volley and serve, slowly and then at about 70% pace. Make sure you finish each swing.
• A few sprints: two or three 5-10 metre runs at 70-80% effort, with a stop at the end. You want to feel your legs ready to accelerate.

Minutes 9-10: serve rehearsal

If you can, hit a few serves after you have hit ground strokes, not first, since the shoulder deserves a gradual build. If you are on the court before anyone else, put the serve rehearsal here as shadow serves with the racket and a gentle toss.

The hitting part: mini-tennis and the knock-up

Ten minutes of movement gets you ready to move. The hitting warm-up gets your timing ready. Here is a simple order that works with a partner or at a club knock-up:

1. Mini-tennis from the service lines, 2-3 minutes. Hit softly and keep the ball in. This builds rhythm without asking much of your shoulder.
2. Baseline rallying, 3-5 minutes. Start at half pace and add speed every few shots. Forehands and backhands should both get time.
3. Volleys, 1-2 minutes. Stand at the net and exchange short volleys with your partner. This matters more in doubles, where you will be at the net half the match. For tactics once you are in the match, see our doubles strategy guide.
4. Overheads, a handful. Ask your partner to lob you a few easy ones.
5. Serves, 5-8 total, starting at about 60-70% pace and building. Keep your second-serve routine in the mix so you are not meeting it for the first time at 30-all.

The most common mistake here is skipping straight to full-pace rallying because the clock is ticking. If you have only a couple of minutes, cut the rally time but keep the build-up pace: go from soft to firm, never firm straight away.

What if the knock-up is limited?

Many social sessions give you a few minutes on court before points start. That is why the off-court section above matters. Do your movement block while you wait for the previous group to finish, and use the on-court minutes only for hitting.

Warming up in heat and humidity

If you play in Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or anywhere else near the equator, the standard advice needs one adjustment: you can overheat in the warm-up itself.

• Do the movement block in the shade or in a cooler indoor space and keep it light. You do not need to be sweating through your shirt before you serve.
• Start hydrated. The ITF’s heat illness protocol for tournament medical staff emphasises educating players about hydration and cooling before and during play in hot conditions. It also notes that cramping on its own is not a reason for a medical time-out at events, which is a reminder that prevention matters more than reacting. Drink before you play; do not wait for thirst.
• Shorten the warm-up in extreme heat, not skip it. The routine above can drop to six or seven minutes if it is very hot, but keep the shoulder, calf and trunk work.
• Have a cooling plan for changeovers: shade, water, a towel and, if you have one, a cold towel for the neck.
• Know when to stop. Dizziness, nausea, confusion or stopping sweating despite the heat are reasons to leave the court and get help, not push through. Details on playing through the wet and humid months are in our guide to tennis in Bangkok’s rainy season.

Cool-down: five minutes at the end

You do not need a long cool-down, but five minutes helps you wind down.

1. Easy walk for a minute or two so your breathing settles.
2. Static stretches for calves, quads, hamstrings, hip flexors, chest and shoulders, 20-30 seconds each. This is where the long holds belong.
3. Drink and eat something sensible within the hour.
4. Notice what hurts. A tight muscle is normal. Pain in a joint, sharp pain, or discomfort that gets worse each session is a reason to see a physio rather than another stretch.

Common mistakes

• Skipping the warm-up on short sessions. A shortened version is better than none.
• Static stretching only. Hold-and-wait stretches do not raise your temperature or rehearse movement.
• Starting with big serves. Serve last, and build.
• Going from zero to match pace. The first ten minutes of hitting should be about rhythm, not winners.
• Warming up only the arm. Most tennis injuries are about the whole chain, from legs through trunk to shoulder.
• Ignoring existing niggles. A warm-up is not a treatment. If something hurts before you start, get it assessed.

Warming up when you play with new people

The social side matters too. If you are meeting new partners, the knock-up is also the moment to agree things: who is serving first, whether you are playing sets or timed games and what you will do about line calls. It helps you start calmly, which helps your body, too. If you are still new to the game, our beginner’s guide covers the basics, and our explainer on social tennis covers the etiquette around drop-in sessions.

If you live in Bangkok and want level-matched people to hit with, Breakers runs Open Play: drop-in social sessions where you book a seat for your level and arrive without a partner. You can see the next session in the Breakers app. Open Play runs in Bangkok for now. You can also read how the sessions work on the format page and find somewhere to play on the court directory.

A printable version

If you want a quick reference to keep in your bag:

Block	Time	What you do
Raise	0-3 min	Jog or march, side shuffles, skips, arm circles
Mobilise	3-7 min	Leg swings, twisting lunges, squats, calf raises, torso turns, shoulder circles, wrist circles
Move like tennis	7-9 min	Split steps, shadow swings, 2-3 short sprints
Hit	5-10 min	Mini-tennis, baseline rally, volleys, overheads, serves, all building in pace
Cool down	5 min after	Walk, then static stretches, fluids

Adjust it to your body. If you are older, returning from injury or have a medical condition, ask a physio or doctor to tailor it; nothing here is medical advice.

Sources

• Emory Healthcare, Tennis Medicine Program, “Tennis 10+” warm-up and cool-down: https://www.emoryhealthcare.org/centers-programs/sports-medicine-center/tennis-medicine-program/wellness
• Simic L et al., “Does pre-exercise static stretching inhibit maximal muscular performance? A meta-analytical review”, PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22316148/
• CSEP, “Getting the most from your stretching routine” (2015): https://csep.ca/2015/12/08/getting-the-most-from-your-stretching-routine/
• ITF, Heat Illness Protocol: https://www.itftennis.com/media/16742/itf-heat-illness-protocol.pdf
• ITF Coaching Review, “Hydration in hot weather: Tennis exercise drink recommendations”: https://itfcoachingreview.com/index.php/journal/article/view/360