Why Play Tennis?

                                                                   by Rasim Sehovic
 

We have all heard tennis referred to as the sport of a lifetime. But, is that really true?

According to world scientists from a variety of disciplines, there is no doubt that tennis
can improve your over all health, including your mental and physical skills.

 

Physical reasons to play tennis

 

Tennis enhances your:
 

1. Aerobic fitness by burning fat and improving your cardiovascular
    fitness and maintaining higher energy levels.

 

    2.  Gross motor control through movement and ball striking skills.

 

    3.  Hand eye coordination because you are constantly judging the timing
          between the oncoming ball and proper contact point.

 

    4.  Flexibility, due to constant stretching and maneuvering to return the
         ball to your opponent, before and after your matches.

 

    5.  Speed through a series of side to side and up and back sprints to chase the ball.

 

    6.  Dynamic balance through hundreds of stops, changing direction and hitting on the run.

 

    7.  An aerobic fitness by offering short, intense bursts of activity during a point followed
         by a rest, which helps muscles use oxygen efficiently.

 

    8.  Agility by forcing you to change direction as many as five times in ten seconds
          during a typical point.

 

    9.  Bone strength and density by strengthening bones of young players and helping
         prevent osteoporosis in older ones.

 

    10. Nutritional habits by eating appropriately before and after a competition to practice
           proper recovery methods 

 

    11. Fine motor control and general body coordination.

 

 Psychological reasons to play tennis

 

Tennis helps you:

 

    1.  Develop work ethic because improvement through lessons or practice reinforces
         the value of hard work.

 

    2.  Managing mistakes by learning to play within your your abilities, and realizing that
         managing and minimizing mistakes in tennis or life is critical.

 

    3.   Learn to compete one on one, the ability to to battle on court trains you in the ups
          and downs of a competitive world.

 

    4.  Control stress effectively because the physical, mental and emotional stress of
          tennis will force you to increase your capacity for dealing with stress.

 

    5.  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 in life.

 

    6.  Plan and implement strategies since you are naturally learning how to anticipate
         your opponent's moves and plan your countermoves.

 

    7.  Develop performance rituals before serving or returning to control your rhythm of
          play and deal with pressure. These skills can transfer to taking an exam, conducting
          a meeting or making an important sales presentation.

 

    8.   Learn sportsmanship since tennis teaches you to compete fairly with opponents.

 

    9.   Learn to win graciously and lose with honor.  Gloating after a win or making excuses
          after a loss doesn't work in tennis or in life.

 

    10.  Accept responsibility by practicing skills and checking your equipment before a match,
           and by making accurate line calls during a match.

 

    11.  Learn teamwork and develop social skills and have fun!

 

All these benefits make tennis the ideal sport for children to learn early in life. What parents
wouldn't want their children to have these advantages through their growing years?

And it's never to late for adults of all ages to take up the game. The human can be trained and improved
at any stage in life.  The key is to start to play now to get the most out of these benefits throughout
 your lifetime.  And that brings us to a conclusion that tennis is truly the sport for our lifetime.