Tennis is truly the sport for a lifetime! It’s been proven.

WHY YOU SHOULD PLAY TENNIS

Health Benefits of Tennis: Why Play Tennis?

Its historic moniker has been the “sport for a lifetime”. But is this really true? According to world-renowned scientists from a variety of disciplines, there is no doubt that tennis is one of the best sports for you to play.

Here are the facts:

• People who participate in tennis 3 hours per week (at moderately vigorous intensity) cut their risk of death in half from any cause, according to physician Ralph Paffenbarger who studied over 10,000 people over a period of 20 years.
• Tennis players scored higher in vigor, optimism and self-esteem while scoring lower in depression, anger, confusion, anxiety and tension than other athletes and non-athletes according to Dr. Joan Finn and colleagues at Southern Connecticut State University.
• Since tennis requires alertness and tactical thinking, it may generate new connections between nerves in the brain and thus promote a lifetime of continuing development of the brain, reported scientists at the University of Illinois.
• Tennis outperforms golf, inline skating and most other sports in developing positive personality characteristics according to Dr. Jim Gavin, author of The Exercise Habit.
• Competitive tennis burns more calories than aerobics, inline skating, or cycling, according to studies on caloric expenditures. With these results in mind, let’s take a look at 34 specific reasons why you should consider playing tennis regularly!

Physical Reasons to Play Tennis

Tennis helps your:

• aerobic fitness by burning fat and improving your cardiovascular fitness and maintaining higher energy levels.
• anaerobic fitness by offering short, intense bursts of activity during a point followed by rest which helps muscles use oxygen efficiently.
• ability to accelerate by practice in sprinting, jumping and lunging to move quickly.
• powerful first step by requiring anticipation, quick reaction time and explosion into action.
• speed through a series of side-to-side and up and back sprints to chase the ball.
• leg strength through hundreds of starts and stops which build stronger leg muscles.
• general body coordination since you have to move into position and then adjust your upper body to hit the ball successfully.
• gross motor control through court movement and ball-striking skills which require control of your large muscle groups.
• fine motor control by the use of touch shots like angled volleys, drop shots and lobs.
• agility by forcing you to change direction as many as 5 times in 10 seconds during a typical tennis point.
• dynamic balance through hundreds of starts, stops, changes of direction and hitting on the run.
• cross-training by offering a physically demanding sport that’s fun to play for athletes who are expert in other sports.
• bone strength and density by strengthening bones of young players and helping prevent osteoporosis in older ones.
• immune system through its conditioning effects which promote overall health, fitness and resistance to disease.
• nutritional habits by eating appropriately before competition to enhance energy production and after competition to practice proper recovery methods.
• eye-hand coordination because you constantly judge the timing between the on-coming ball and the proper contact point.
• flexibility due to the constant stretching and maneuvering to return the ball toward your opponent.