How can a tennis players fitness be comparably tested against athletes of other sports

I'm looking to put a fitness challenge together where sports people, of similar levels but from the disciplines of tennis, football, rugby (union and league), athletics, cycling, rowing, distance running, boxing, basketball, squash, badminton and triathlon can undertake a series of fitness tests to see who comes out on top. Has anyone got suggestions to what fitness tests I could include to determine various levels of fitness between sports? I thank you in advance for your help





Fitness Challenges

Hi Geoff


I would take 1 football player and 1 tennis player, pit them against
each other in the Gym on a treadmill for 1 hour

Murray against Rooney.

1 set each of Keepy Uppy ball and one of Short Tennis.

I think I'd know who'd win.

Seriously though, stamina would be my choice of tests and swimming butterfly might be the best litmus test of that.

Can't we just throw them all into a cage, and have them fight it out? That's the normal way of defining physical supremacy.

Put a football player and a tennis player on court in 80-95 degree heat and run and hit for 3-4 hours (5 depending on the score) and see who is standing at the end. No contest!!!!!! BTW if its Fed he won't even break sweat!!!!!!!

We have no *applause* smiley yet MTS but good one

Thank you yummy, honestly the fitness of the tennis guys truly amazes me and I watch a lot of sport. Tennis players definitely the fittest of the fit in my humble opinion.

MTS1 wrote:Thank you yummy, honestly the fitness of the tennis guys truly amazes me and I watch a lot of sport. Tennis players definitely the fittest of the fit in my humble opinion.

I'm not so sure. Tennis players are likely to be just as fit as anyone, however, I'd argue they are by no means above and beyond most other disciplines of sport. I've seen no real evidence to support the idea that tennis players fitness is better than most other sportsmen, in any case. Except cricket.

You say that these lads have to run around for 3 or 4 hours, but what about the distance? In the end the baseline warriors are not going to be running much more than 5 miles. The average footballing midfielder does about 6 miles a match. Other positions in football, and other styles of player in tennis, are going to do less.

Strength wise, tennis is non-contact so we can't really compare, but since they only need strength to hit a ball, as opposed to stopping other people from getting to it, again I can't see them being beyond the average footballer, and of course nowhere near a rugby player.

Where I think tennis players strength will lie is short sprints, for obvious reasons. Can't see many other disciplines beating the tennis players for that, except of course for athletes.

Overall I think comparison would reveal only minor strength differences between different sports; these guys have all day, every week to improve on their fitness and ultimately they'll gear that fitness set-up to improve mainly on the things they need to do well in the sport, whilst covering all the other bases to keep themselves in good shape too.

Having watched my younger son training in a martial art from Thailand with the instructor doing all the exercises with them, I can say that they have got to be the fittest guys on earth or are a bunch of freaks from Saturn.

Ballet dancers are freaks too !

(So are street dancers)

Jubbahey wrote:Having watched my younger son training in a martial art from Thailand with the instructor doing all the exercises with them, I can say that they have got to be the fittest guys on earth or are a bunch of freaks from Saturn.

Ballet dancers are freaks too !

(So are street dancers)

Dancers are heavily underestimated, as you say. In order to be so flexible they have to have strong muscles that can take the strain.

I got kicked in an unfortunate area by a dancer once. It hurt.

It may not look that way, but I feel terrible for laughing at your misfortune!

Green wrote: It may not look that way, but I feel terrible for laughing at your misfortune!

Haa..... I remember the pain to this day.

Apparently the supremely awesome footballer Rio Ferdinand used to do ballet to improve his balance?

Coo

Can't see him in a tutu though

I also think I should say that Sir Steve Redgrave was one of the fittest guys at his peak.

Re the dancers; My daughter was a dancer (world championships) and was superfit, the stamina needed for her dances was fantastic. She has since retired, but the muscle mass in her legs, calves especially is still considerable. Puts my matchsticks to shame