Learning and playing the game of tennis brings many different benefits to the table. Whether a person grows up playing it from a small age or gets into it in adulthood, it can be interesting to see just what type of impact tennis makes on a person’s life.
These are 17 life-changing benefits of playing tennis. Sticking with the game and moving up in the ranks will allow people to really see just what type of impact can be made by hitting the ball over the net over and over again.
Table of Contents show
1. A Game For a Lifetime
The most beautiful thing about tennis is that a player can play no matter the age. As long as the two players are relatively close in skill, it will be a good battle. This can be true for a couple of five-year-olds just starting up in the game, or two people who are 80 years old.
Since the game is a non-contact sport, older people have a better opportunity to play it as long as they can move around. It is one of the sports other athletes may transition to once they start to get older. It just makes a lot of sense to play tennis and stay competitive when contact sports are a bit tough on the body.
2. Building Integrity
Every sport requires some level of self-officiating, but tennis takes it to another level. Unless the person is playing on tour, chances are they are in charge of making line calls.
Many players try to fudge line calls and hope that they can get an advantage, but they quickly get a bad reputation for doing that. It is better to have integrity in tennis, which can translate to life in general when determining right from wrong.
3. Full Body Workout
Tennis is one of the sports that gives a true full-body workout. Anyone who has played it has felt firsthand just how much the entire body goes through when chasing after balls and hitting shots. It might not seem like it is that grueling of a game when watching it, but playing it is an entirely different scenario.
Getting a full-body workout means that no part of the body is ignored. That means a more complete workout every single time out, and less time needed to spend in the gym and get workouts to focus on other areas. Some sports only give particular parts of the body a workout, leaving athletes to feel the need to work out after a sport.
4. Mental Alertness
Being mentally alert is a necessity in any game that is one-on-one. There is no way of zoning out, which can sometimes happen if someone participates in a team game.
Having strong mental alertness can be a huge benefit not only in tennis, but other parts of life as well. So many people have noticed a pretty big difference between playing a sport like tennis and staying sharp in other aspects of life.
The brain needs different types of activities to stay as engaged as possible. Tennis is a sport that good players can’t just zone out and hope for the best. They must be approaching every move the right way to pull it off.
5. Easy To Build Social Skills
Team sports might be a little bit better for building social skills, but it is not like tennis is not good for that as well. Even if a person is only playing singles, they are meeting new people all the time who share similar interests. There needs to be some level of communication between the two players in order to line everything up, and that will build social skills.
Doubles tennis is also great for building up social skills, as there is a need for communication between partners. At most tennis centers, doubles tennis is the much more talkative game that a lot of people end up liking.
Tennis is such a small community compared to other sports that a lot of people who share this interest end up becoming good friends since they have a similar interest.
6. Increased Bone Strength & Density
Playing a sport like tennis increases bone strength and density that will help in many different ways. Not only does this decrease the chance of an injury, but it makes a person stronger in other sports as well.
Staying active is very important in cutting down on the chance of an injury, as no one wants to have their body breakdown because they are not getting as much exercise they need.
7. Staying Engaged
To go along with mental alertness is the ability to simply stay engaged when playing tennis. Even dropping in level a little bit during a match can make or break a player’s success.
The best players are able to stay thoroughly engaged in a match for hours at a time. Through the good and the bad, staying engaged help.
8. Improved Flexibility
The best players in the world are extremely flexible so that they can have the best court coverage possible. As a player starts to participate in tennis more and more, they want to have increased flexibility as well.
There are natural ways to become more flexible just by playing tennis, but most people are also going to do more stretching and other exercises to help as well.
An increase in flexibility is not only going to help with sports, but it will allow people to feel younger and stay as injury-free as possible during their day-to-day life. A lot of tennis players who focus a lot on flexibility notice that they have fewer injuries than most.
9. Weight Loss For All Types of Bodies
Losing weight while working out is one of the main motivators for people to start participating in any athletic activity. Tennis does a better job than most sports in helping with weight loss, which is for any type of body. Singles play does a much better job than doubles, but both get people out there and lose fat in no time.
Of course, it takes more than just playing consistently to see fast benefits. People should also be focused on eating better, practicing healthier habits, and seeing a change on the scale and in appearance.
10. Improved Balance
Tennis players need to have a good amount of balance if they will succeed on the court. There is a lot of changing of direction, and balance also comes into play as far as hitting strokes during a rally.
It can be a little problematic to slip around the court constantly, but balance in tennis translates well to other sportspeople might play in as well.
11. Increased Stamina
It takes a lot of stamina to hold up and play tennis at a high level. Even those just starting out will find it very difficult to play entire matches without feeling like they need to get in much better shape.
As time goes on, a person will see an increase in stamina that can translate to other parts of their life as well. Tennis players are some of the most in-shape individuals out there as far as athletes are concerned.
12. Self-Motivation
There are no teammates to blame for shortcomings in a tennis game. The truth is, if a person is struggling, they need to find some motivation on their own to ensure that everything turns around. Once someone steps on the court, everything is up to them.
13. Encourages Getting Outside
Too many people stay inside more often than they should if they do not have a sport they fall in love with. While some sports are played most indoors, tennis is the opposite. Just about every tennis court open to the public is an outdoor court, with indoor courts being more expensive and located in northern states.
Countless studies have shown that people need to get outdoors at least once in a while to break up the monotony of the day and be healthier overall. With a sport like tennis, there is a way for people to spend a lot of time outdoors while exercising.
14. Time Management
Getting into tennis involves a good amount of time management for people to find a time to play as much as they would like. Since tennis is a sport without a clock, matches can take a little bit longer than one might think.
While this might be a drawback to tennis in general, those who can manage their time with tennis will also find it easier to be on time for everything else in life.
15. Always Improving
As great as a tennis player might become, there is always a way to improve. It is a bit annoying to some people when they think of it that way, but others like that they always have an opportunity to work on something that can make them a better player.
Those who really enjoy improving are going to be successful in other aspects of life as well. No one knows everything, so having that hunger to improve can make a pretty big difference.
16. Self-Confidence
Improving in any sport is going to add self-confidence to a person. Tennis can get competitive, and everyone is trying to be as good as they can. The more improvement a person notices, the better their self-confidence will be in general.
Everyone starts from next to nothing, and it can be very discouraging to not go out there and have success right away. Tennis is a tough sport to pick up and play well in instantly. Once people start to see some breakthroughs, they have an increase in self-confidence.
17. Clearing The Mind
There is a lot of thinking and strategy that goes into tennis, but it also is a way of clearing the mind. Those who play a relaxed game are definitely going to have a lot more confidence in what they are doing out there.
On the court, no one should be mindlessly hitting, but at the end of the day, a lot of people are just playing tennis so that they can stay active and have an activity that they enjoy.
Think of tennis as a way to stay active and have fun after a stressful day. In that regard, it should be pretty easy to clear the mind and not worry about some of the more challenging things in life.
You can also read:
- 7 Best Tennis Stringing Machines
- What Are Tennis Racquets Made of?
- One-Handed vs Two-Handed Backhand
- 25 Beginner Tips To Improve Your Tennis Game (From a Coach)
