Wheelchair tennis champion Dana Mathewson’s top tips

As the first American woman to win a Grand Slam Major title in wheelchair tennis and one of the top wheelchair tennis players in the United States, 33-year-old Dana Mathewson knows what it means to be at the top of her game.

Always an athletic kid, Mathewson played a variety of sports in her youth when she was able. “I’ve always liked soccer. I liked softball. I tried tennis once or twice at summer camp, but wasn’t really into it,” she says during a recent video call.

But after developing a rare autoimmune disease called transverse myelitis (TM), she became a partial paraplegic, “or basically someone who needs to use a wheelchair to run or get around,” she says.

After the encouragement of her mother (who she says may have been, intrusive sometimes) she took up adaptive sports – and this time tennis stuck. The rest developed thanks to Mathewson’s sheer talent and drive.

Dana Mathewson: My condition closed many doors that I thought were my only doors leading to athletic pursuits. But luckily mum had talked to a lot of different people when I was in the hospital and found out what wheelchair sports and adaptive sports were.

At that stage of life I had never seen anyone with a disability who was not 90 years old. I just wasn’t exposed to much at the time, and I think that’s actually the case for a lot of Americans. Our country is so big that you don’t come into contact with a lot of different demographics.

At first I was one of the kids who wasn’t interested in wheelchair sports. I thought it sounded really boring. I couldn’t imagine what it would be.

But my mom said, “No! I want you to be active. I’ll sign you up for all kinds of camps.” And tennis was one of them.

Mathewson: I’m a big breakfast person. I can’t start the day without breakfast. I know there are many who wake up and all they need is coffee and an apple. I’m not that girl.

I love waking up and eating scrambled eggs or an egg white omelette with toast. If I’m really in the mood, I sauté mushrooms and spinach and add it. That way I have protein and carbs to get me going. Eating that hot meal just helps me feel ready.

Other than that, I think I’m very big on vegetables. I’ve never been a big meat eater since I was a kid. So if you were to offer me a steak, I wouldn’t really want to eat it. But I don’t have the vegetarian mindset of not wanting to eat meat for ethical reasons, I just haven’t really enjoyed it.

Mathewson: I have a whole team of trainers down here in Orlando that I work with. My strength and conditioning team has specific programs that I have to do every day.

So, for example, Mondays and Wednesdays are lifting days. So for me it’s a lot of upper body, but we actually let me do things just to keep the muscles I have in my legs active. That will involve me using the SkiErg machine, rowing machine, free weights, bench press and stuff.

Then Tuesdays and Thursdays are more conditioning based, so we’ll have court conditioning drills.

Friday is a course where I combine pulling a sled, rowing, lifting and battle rope. It’s brutal.

There is good variation between fitness and strength. I think if you go all one way or the other, you can burn your body out – or you’re not giving your muscles the exercise they need.

When I was in college I was just very obsessed with the idea of ​​being thin and being toned. I think a lot of girls fall into the trap of “well, I’m only going to be on the elliptical for 30 minutes or I’m going to be on the bike for an hour.” Yes, it burns calories, but it doesn’t actually burn calories in the same way that burning muscle does.

Mathewson: After training, we do a lot of stretching. It was something that I have to admit I didn’t do for most of my career and I was just lucky that I didn’t have any injuries. But now that I’m getting older, I really see the importance of stretching and cooling down after a workout.

I also think it’s important to recover mentally. I set aside time to play with my dog, call my friends, or even just sit on the couch and watch TV. I love Real Housewives. It’s good to have things in your life that bring you joy!

A few years ago, my mindset was like, “I have to work hard. I just have to put my head down and be productive all the time.” But I think being lazy is actually productive sometimes. It’s what makes you think. Benign couch potato, being a slacker, being alone for a while is what recharges my batteries.

Mathewson: It’s been something I’ve really had to work on in recent years. Tennis is such a mentally based sport, and I didn’t realize how much until I got to the more elite level. Because at that point everyone has a good forehand. Everyone has a good backhand. Everyone has a good serve. Maybe one person is a little better than the other. But what really makes people win more often is their mindset.

And I think as an early tennis pro I heard that, but I didn’t really embrace it or I didn’t really understand it, but I do a lot now.

A lot of what I’ve done is positive self-talk while I’m playing or before the game. I tend to give too much credit to my opponents before a match even starts. If you do, you’ve already lost the game right? Because you already think like Well, she hits super big or she’s really fast. She will get everything.

I have been taught to visualize positive results. The night before a game I will give myself work on things I want to do because I am very goal oriented. What I mean by that is that I will give myself tasks for a match. I’ll write them down on a note card and then try to visualize what it would look and feel like to achieve the goals. I do it again and again and again.

Mathewson: I think you’re right that some people have more of that stubborn mindset, which helps you be more resilient. What I mean by that is you get knocked down five times, then you get up six because you’re stubborn enough to keep trying. But I think it can also be a learned trait.

Using tennis as my personal example, only one person each week in a tournament wins, right? So that means everyone else has to lose. You play X number of tournaments per year. So there is a lot to lose that you have to get comfortable with in tennis!

It’s games week in and week out, and most times you lose. You might win a few, but in the end you’ll probably get an L. Unless you’re Serena Williams. Because tennis is my job, it teaches you resilience because you learn how to reframe losing.

Mathewson: Tennis is really technical, so yes it can be frustrating. That can turn a lot of kids away from it. Or maybe kids get frustrated because they don’t have a team to play with, and that can be difficult.

But tennis is one of the coolest sports because it allows you to pick up a racket and play with anyone on any day. You can just go to the park, meet someone and play with them. You don’t need a whole team to play, like basketball or football.

But aside from that, I’d say just stick with it and trust the process. Because it’s not always easy.

There are sacrifices that have to be made for a sport that people don’t always think about when they’re kids. Like maybe you will have a tournament on a weekend when you want to go to an overnight stay. Or maybe you’ll get frustrated that a practice didn’t go well, or that others are playing better than me.