When it comes to playing tennis at any level (beginner to professional), there is a whole range of things that need to come together. You need to have a strong core and legs as well as great stamina. But tennis is not a marathon either, so being able to quickly bring your heart rate down after a point is key! What Features does our smartwatch need for tennis?
With all the smartwatches offering great tennis-related metrics that can help us track these things, it’s hard to figure out what features are the most important for tennis players. That’s why we are breaking down features from all sorts of smartwatches that will be beneficial to your practice!
1. Sport Tracking Mode – WHOOP
When it comes to who tracks your metrics and sports the most accurately, the winner is almost always WHOOP. The catch here is that it’s not a smartwatch. It does not have a screen and serves as a high-tech app and heart rate monitor for elite athletes.
It’s one of the best trackers for tennis, with an automatic workout mode that will detect the sport (tennis) based on similar patterns. It measures your heart rate, calories burned, and activity duration, and gives you an exertion score after you answer a quick question about how hard you think you worked.
The reason this ranks so high on our list is that it gives athletes one of the most accurate recovery scores so that tennis players can train effectively. This isn’t the only major useful feature for WHOOP users. They also have a journal that allows users to answer questions based on the activities they did the day before.
Using this info, it can compute on a 90-day average which activities hurt and help your recovery. That’s why this is one of the best sports apps you can get if you are a serious tennis player.
2. Workout Coaches – Garmin Vivoactive 4
The Garmin Vivoactive 4 has a feature that is a must for tennis players, which is one of the reasons we included it on our list of the best Garmin smartwatches for tennis enthusiasts. It delivers on-screen workouts that specialize in activities from strength training to off-court cardio. Having a virtual coach with you showing you the exercises, including the correct form for things like bear crawls or dumbbell rows, is crucial. Not only does it help strengthen your muscles but, it helps with injury prevention.
The Garmin Vivoactive 4 also has two other features that are definitely worth mentioning.
- Hydration tracking is huge. Most tennis players are dehydrated and don’t understand the necessary amount of water intake they need to be at their best.
- Menstrual cycle tracking is another great feature. Menstrual cycles affect women’s bodies, especially during athletic activities. Being able to predict and manage this is important for training.
3. Work On Your Mental Game – Fitbit Sense
Everyone always says that tennis is 80% mental. But not a lot of people work on this aspect of the game. Something spectacular about the Fitbit Sense is that it provides a six-month subscription to the app Calm. This is great because meditation and visualization are important parts of tennis.
The Fitbit Sense has a number of other qualities that also complement tennis training. Let’s look at them in bullet form.
- All-day activity tracking gives us a final readiness score after we wake up. When yesterday’s all-day tracking and our Fitbit sleep tracking are combined, our readiness score is determined, which helps tell us how primed our body is to take on more tennis.
- Heart rate zones can let us know whether we are in fat-burning mode, cardio mode, or peak zone. This is important because training your cardiovascular system for point-play is different than building muscle.
4. Safety Features and Sturdiness – Apple Watch Series 7
Something we love about the Apple Watch is that it is always developing with safety and toughness in mind. The new Apple Watch Series 7 is great for tennis because it is a tough cookie to crack. They improved their hardware so we don’t have to worry about bumps and bruises.
But some of their health monitoring features also make a lot of sense for tennis and athletes. For starters, you can take an ECG at any time to see if your heartbeat has any irregularities.
Another feature that is important is Apple’s SOS/Fall Detection system. Accidents happen and if you are ever playing in the Florida heat you know it’s not uncommon to feel a little woozy on the court. This Apple Watch Series 7 can detect if you have fallen or passed out and alert emergency services.
Compare prices and choose your favorite merchant to buy the Apple Watch
| Product | Supplier | |
| Apple Watch 8 | Amazon | Check Price |
| Apple Watch 7 | Amazon | Check Price |
| Apple Watch 7 | eBay | Check Price |
| Watch Ultra | Amazon | Check Price |
| Apple Watch 7 | Apple | View offer |
| Apple Watch 7 | Target | View offer |
| Apple Watch SE 2 | Amazon | View offer |
5. Sharing Workouts Using WHOOP and Apple Watches
When it comes to sharing information with your coaches, it should be seamless. WHOOP is the best for tennis athletes on teams or on the tour. WHOOP has several subscription options that allow data to run across the board with your coaches. The downside is that it is 24/7 access and no way to control when you share it and when you don’t.
Apple Watches, of course, let you go into competition modes with friends and other users. This is great because not only do you get motivated to compete to reach your goals but you can see what others are doing when they allow you to. This may not give as much information to your coach as WHOOP will, but it also protects your privacy.
All the Smartwatch Features for Tennis You Need
It’s never a bad thing to have a handful of features that are going to make you a better athlete and a better tennis player, which is part of why it’s so helpful to have a great smartwatch as a tennis player. Being able to track your workouts on a device like a smartwatch or WHOOP is incredible because you can constantly monitor your health and make adjustments to increase your recovery scores.
Smartwatch features for tennis like being able to watch a workout and follow it right on your wrist helps players build physical and mental strength. Working with a Garmin preloaded workout is a perfect way to get strong in the gym and on the court. But, you can only crush it if you are feeling your best, which is why their hydration tracker is amazing as well.
These are just a few of some really helpful features that can help you serve up many more aces. Or maybe you need to speed up your footwork? No problem: any of the watches above can help get you on track with their tennis-related features.
All we need now is that the smartwatch would be able to monitor our tennis strokes.
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Last Updated on December 7, 2022
Brittany Collens is one of our top sports writers. She is also a professional tennis player which helps her authority on subjects such as health and fitness.
She has a degree in journalism and has previously written for well-established sports magazines in Massachusetts.
Brittany lives in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States.