This week we resume coverage of Principle 3 from the USTA’s section Friend at court known as ‘The Code’. Today’s post brings us back to the first part of this principle that I deliberately skipped last Wednesday. The previous episode focused on the evolving guidelines around warm-up duration, but the principle itself starts with a much more fundamental reminder.
A warm-up is not an exercise.
USTA Friend to Court 2025, The Code, Principle 3 (Partial Excerpt)
The Code makes it clear that the cooperative warm-up has a specific purpose. It exists to prepare both players for the physical demands of the match by immersing themselves in the movements and rhythm of the sport. It’s a shared courtesy rather than an opportunity to practice point-ending patterns or calibrate ambitious shots. Tennis has always relied on a social contract that precedes competition. The warm-up reflects that tradition.
This distinction is important because many players misunderstand or deliberately ignore the intended goal. Last September I wrote about the phenomenon of opponents trying to ‘win the warm-up’. Instead of pulling together, they take winners at every opportunity. While intimidation is a possible motive, it is sometimes also a sign of poor control. Be that as it may, the behavior reflects a fundamental misconception. The idea that you warm up by the way you play is not part of tennis etiquette.
Some players defend non-cooperative warm-ups with the saying, “You play like you practice.” A warm-up is not an exercise. That distinction matters because in practice, players build skills, refine mechanics, and ingrain habits through repetition and intentional effort. Warming up serves a completely different purpose. It is a short cooperative ritual designed to prepare the players on both sides of the net for the demands of competition, without introducing competitive behavior. Treating the warm-up as exercise is contrary to both the etiquette and the physiology of the sport. The warm-up is simply the start of the match. When players confuse warm-up with practice, they not only misunderstand the Code, but also the basic logic of how athletes prepare to perform.
A cooperative warm-up prepares the body for impact forces, joint mobility and timing. It also helps both players adapt to the surface and conditions. Treating this ritual like an audition for your highlight role cheapens the goal and undermines the shared benefit. It can also be strategically counterproductive. If my opponent wants to show me all the big opportunities before the start of the match, I will happily accept the free scouting report. Many players reveal quirks, directional preferences or subtle cues when waving at full speed at the winner during warm-up. That information is useful.
In college tennis, the abuse of cooperative warm-ups became so widespread that the ITA eliminated them entirely. Players warm up with their team, walk onto the field, perform the toss and start. The solution was to remove the cooperative element, as too many athletes viewed it as an extension of training rather than a prelude to competition. For the rest of us, the cooperative warm-up remains the cultural norm, and the expectation of courtesy still applies.
Realizing that a warm-up is not a practice also makes it clear why its quality matters. A rushed or chaotic warm-up doesn’t accomplish its purpose, which is one reason last week’s post focused on the five-versus-ten-minute debate. Sufficient time and respectful behavior during warm-up are not random niceties. They influence injury prevention, match readiness and the integrity of the early phases of play.
The warm-up is not the time to test your best passing shot or serve at full speed. It’s time to build a rhythm, loosen the muscles and prepare your body for competition. The warm-up is a joint investment in the match you are going to play. If players treat it as practice, everyone loses. If both players respect the intention, the match that follows is almost always better.
- Friend at Court: The Handbook of Tennis Rules and RegulationsUSTA, 2025
- Friend at Court: The USTA Handbook of Tennis Rules and Regulations, USTA, 2001. (On paper.)
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