Forget rules -- this tennis workout is quick and dirty

It was a perfect morning for tennis -- 70 degrees, blue sky -- and the perfect court for it, terraced into a verdant hillside in the upper reaches of Bel-Air. Birds were singing, which is about the only sound a player wants to hear along with the satisfying thwock of the ball hitting the strings. But instead, a boom box belted out Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez at 132 beats per minute and an instructor shouted, “Kill it! Crush it!” as students attacked short balls at the net.

If this wasn’t the genteel game I was used to, that’s exactly the point. Called cardio tennis and officially launched at the recent U.S. Open, it’s being touted as a high-energy workout that burns more calories than singles or doubles by elevating the heart rate into the aerobic training zone for most of an hourlong class.

Usually limited to four to six people, it starts with a 10-minute warm-up followed by 45 minutes of cardiovascular conditioning -- including team games and forehand, backhand and volley drills -- ending with a five-minute cool-down.

Created to get players into better shape and draw new ones to the sport, it’s the brainchild of the United States Tennis Assn. and the Tennis Industry Assn., a trade group that has seen participation decline or remain flat in recent years.

To reverse that trend, cardio tennis is being billed as “a third way to play” and a quick and dirty workout that’s both fun and fat-burning. That’s where that aerobic music comes in, in an effort to inspire movement and funk-ify the sport’s fuddy-duddy image.

The workout is being offered at 760 public and private courts across the country, including 70 locations in Southern California, which is how I found myself on a homeowners association court on Beverly Glen Boulevard, the nearest class I could find on the Westside (though one in Mandeville Canyon is scheduled to start up soon).

Like any good tennis player, the first thing I did on arriving was size up the other class members and their ability to clobber me.

Who was the lefty who would be my own personal Rafael Nadal? Who had Lindsay Davenport’s serve? Who had Lleyton Hewitt’s wheels? There were four other women, in their 30s and 40s, and with varying degrees of experience: Tina, who’s been playing since high school; Kathy, who learned the game six months ago; Jennifer, who hadn’t picked up a racket in 10 years and just had a baby; and Azadeh.

It turns out I needn’t have fretted, not because my forehand was better than theirs but because this class doesn’t so much pit you against other players as it does yourself -- and your fitness level. Five minutes into the first drill, called “running the lines” -- sprinting forward and backward along the painted court boundaries -- I was forced to admit that my daily doubles game wasn’t cutting it. My footwork was clumsy, I was gasping for air, and sweat was running off me in sheets. The last thing on my mind was competing against my teammates.

I will admit that, as I side-shuffled my way around orange cones set up for that purpose, I noticed another woman cheating, excuse me, walking instead of moving laterally. Far be it from me to say anything, but I’m used to tennis teachers correcting your every move. Turns out the student, a regular, was doing what I should have done, which is to slow down and pace yourself for the long haul.

Although some cardio tennis classes offer heart-rate monitors (and, oh joy, the chance to strap on the previous user’s sweaty one), the self-check method is in force here. Self-check as in, “if you feel like you’re out of breath, stop, and if you feel like it’s hard to shuffle, walk,” said Chris Ojakian, a U.S. Professional Tennis Assn. instructor, who has taught for the last 17 years (at Farm Neck on Martha’s Vineyard and the Breakers resort in Palm Beach, Fla.).

Though I had come knowing I would need to keep my heart rate at 65% to 85% of my maximum in order to be in my aerobic training zone, math isn’t what I want to do when I’m working out. And I didn’t notice any of the others stop, take their pulse and consult a chart on the wall -- that would have broken our rhythm.

We were rarely at a standstill, except for short demonstrations for the newcomers before each drill. Ojakian and his assistant, Andrew Suarez, kept us moving, feeding us forehands and backhands as we ran diagonally across the court, then had us put our rackets down for hand-eye coordination exercises, such as the beanbag toss. (We shuffled in a ring around Ojakian, reversing directions, when he yelled “switch!” and catching the beanbag he threw without warning.)

“This helps train your eye by forcing you to focus on an object while moving laterally,” he explained later. “It mimics what you should be doing when the ball hits the racket, which is watching it.” (A la Roger Federer.) “Instead of watching where you want it to go.” (A la me.)

After 25 minutes of drills, and 10 more of circuit training at five stations (calf raises, squats, lunges, jump-rope and a balance exercise), the idea of swinging a racket seemed almost restful. Tina, an interior decorator and a class regular, agreed. “I play doubles twice a week, plus I work out with a personal trainer three times a week, and I never sweat as much as I do here. It’s the best form of cardio, better than the Stairmaster and the treadmill. Look at me, I’m dripping!”

Weren’t we all. And laughing, as we teamed up for the cardio phase of the class to play what Ojakian calls ping pong. (He feeds the ball, with each person hitting it once and exiting while her partner jumps in to keep the point going, ad infinitum (one hopes).

Ojakian shouted out the score, punctuated with “Oh, she got it!” and “What a get!” and “She’s a ringer!” which, though none of us was, were encouraging words. I was having so much fun, I even stopped strategizing.

After “match point!” we gathered for a cool-down stretch of the legs, shoulders, neck and torso, and I felt dismayed. Was there another class directly after this that I could piggyback onto? Not, alas, until cardio tennis gets more popular.

The next day, so sore I was walking with a hitch in my step like Walter Brennan in “The Real McCoys,” I was glad the workout ended when it did. I ached from my inner thigh to my outer calf. (All those side shuffles had pointed up a serious weakness in my game.)

Although this class didn’t help me fine-tune my strokes, it did sharpen some of the basic skills I’ve let slip (viz. “Move your feet!”). I even learned to love the music, which, as it turns out, isn’t a required fixture of cardio tennis, just an option available at some locations. And really, who needs it, when your own heart provides the backbeat?

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Taking a swing at cardio tennis

Cardio tennis anyone?

Where to learn: Chris Ojakian, www.ojakiantennis.com, (310) 770-1918. Classes seven times a week at three Westside locations. For other teachers and classes around the Southland and across the U.S., go to www.cardiotennis.com.