Why Play Tennis?
Here are 30 reasons both physical and psychological:
1. Aerobic fitness by burning fat and improving your cardiovascular fitness and
maintaining higher energy levels.
2. Aerobic fitness by offering short, intense bursts of activity during a point
followed by rest, which helps muscles use oxygen efficiently.
3. Ability to accelerate by providing practice in sprinting, jumping
and lunging quickly.
4. Powerful first step by requiring anticipation, quick reaction time and
explosion into action.
5. Speed through a series of side-to-side and up and back sprints to chase the ball.
6. Leg strength through hundreds of starts and stops that build stronger leg muscles.
7. General body coordination since you have to move into position and then adjust
your upper body to hit the ball successfully.
8. Gross motor control through movement and ball-striking skills that require control
of your large muscle groups.
9. Fine motor control by use of touch shots like angles volleys, drop shots and lobs.
10. Agility by forcing you to change direction as many as five times in 10 seconds
during a typical point.
11.Dynamic balance through hundreds of starts, stops, changes of direction and hitting
on the run.
12. Cross-training through a physically demanding sport that's fun for athletes who
specialize in other sports.
13. Bone strength and density by strengthening bones of young players and helping
prevent osteoporosis in older ones.
14. Immune system through its conditioning effects, which promote overall health, fitness
and resistance to disease.
15. Nutritional habits by eating appropriately before competition to enhance energy production
and after competition to practice proper recovery methods.
16. Hand-eye coordination because you constantly judge the timing between the oncoming
ball and the proper contact point.
17. Flexibility due to the constant stretching and maneuvering to return the ball to your opponent.
18. Develop a work ethic because improvement through lessons or practice reinforces the value
of hard work.
19. Develop discipline since you learn to work on your skills in practice and control the pace of play
in competition.
20. Manage mistakes by learning to play within your abilities, and realizing that managing and
minimizing mistakes in tennis or life is critical.
21. Learn to compete one-on-one because the ability to do battle on court trains you in the ups
and downs of a competitive world.
22. Accept responsibility by practicing skills and checking your equipment before a match, and by
making accurate line calls during a match.
23. Manage adversity by learning to adjust to the elements (i.e. - wind, sun) and still be able to
compete tenaciously.
24. Control stress effectively because the physical, mental and emotional stress of tennis will force
you to increase your capacity for dealing with stress.
25. Learn how to recover by adapting to the stress of a point and the recovery period between points,
which is similar to the stress and recovery cycles of life.
26. Plan and implement strategies since you naturally learn how to anticipate your opponent's
moves and plan your countermoves.
27. Learn to solve problems since tennis is a sport based on angles, geometry and physics.
28.Develop performance rituals before serving or returning to control your rhythm of play and deal
with pressure. These skills can transfer to taking exams, conducting a meeting or making an
important sales presentation.
29. Learn sportsmanship since tennis teaches you to compete fairly with opponents.
30. Have fun - because the healthy feelings of enjoyment, competitiveness and physical challenge
are inherent in the sport.
Need hands-on lessons? Don VanRamshorst is a U.S.P.T.A.
certified professional tennis instructor. Nothing beats the real
deal! Call the Harlingen H.E.B. tennis center for rates and your
next appointment today! (956) 428 - 2092