Why Playing Tennis Is a Great Sport
10 Mental and Physical Benefits of Playing Tennis
While there are just over 10 benefits from playing tennis, we've selected some of the best that cover both the physical and mental side of things.
Physical Benefits
Perhaps the most obvious benefits tennis offers are the physical ones. Nothing beats getting out and running around in the fresh air, and tennis is a great motivator.
Raised Hand Eye Coordination
Tennis is a sport that requires a high degree of hand-eye coordination. This is because it requires you to have great timing, be able to move the ball efficiently, produce a technically sound hit and recover.
All these skills are only possible if you have a great awareness of where your body parts are in space and you have excellent hand-eye coordination - tennis is a sport that demands it!
In a sport like golf, no matter how sedentary you are, you have to be technically very solid in order to make a solid hit.
Of course, a tennis racket and tennis ball are much larger than the head of a golf club and a golf ball, but the point is still that you need to know where the ball will land, what to do and what to do after it bounces. If you want to hit the ball cleanly, make very small adjustments very quickly.
Also, in tennis, you need to hit the ball from both sides of your body and use both hands together, which is another great benefit of the sport.
Keeping your eye on the ball and keeping track of where it's going to drop and what you need to do in preparation for your shot is an important element of playing good tennis.
Assessing depth, analyzing the geometry of the court, and understanding how your inputs affect the outcome of the shot are all important factors in improving your hand-eye coordination when playing tennis.
Enhanced Cardiovascular Capabilities
It goes without saying that playing tennis for hours will improve your cardiovascular abilities.
To do this at a consistent level throughout a practice or game, you need to have great cardio.
However, if you do a lot of long-distance running or cycling, for example, it may not be the type of fitness you're used to.
There is a lot of explosive movement in tennis and you take short breaks between each point, so training your fast twitch muscle skills is a great way to build your endurance on the tennis court.
Moving in Multiple Motion Planes
Another physical benefit of playing tennis is that, unlike many other sports, you're always moving across multiple planes of motion.
This is great for developing new movement patterns, increasing your agility and improving your balance.
Improves Range of Motion
Playing tennis is great for improving your range of motion as it requires you to do full swing and stretch to reach the ball.
Of course you can overstretch and cause injury, but overall, tennis is a great sport that, when played with solid technique, naturally increases the range of motion in your hips, elbows, shoulders and knees!
Muscle Tone and Strength
One of the lesser but still most important benefits of playing tennis is the muscle toning and strength benefits you get from it.
It's also a great sport to build your core strength, as there's a lot of twisting, turning, and changing direction. After an intense tennis match, you may feel more pain than you expected!
Mental Benefits
Tennis is an incredibly mental sport. In fact, this is the area where most matches are won and lost.
Improves Problem Solving Skills
If there is one important aspect of the mental aspect of tennis, it is that tennis is a problem-solving game. There are no other sports that require as much problem solving as tennis, because almost every hit you hit is a reaction to what your opponent throws at you.
It's all too easy to self-destruct while playing tennis if you let your expectations and ego get the better of you. The simplest way to approach the game is to play the ball in front of you, while taking each dot one at a time.
However, it is much easier said than done, and you should always have some form of strategy when playing a tennis match.
Even if it's as simple as playing to your opponent's backhand as much as possible or aiming to hit as many balls crosscourt as possible, it's important to have an attack plan if you want to be successful on the court.
Adapting to new conditions, court surfaces, balls and playing styles is all part of being a better tennis player!
Increases Mental Endurance
The scoring system in tennis means you can score more points than your opponent and still lose a match! This means you have to be incredibly flexible to play tennis well and overcome challenges.
Learning from your mistakes but not letting them disappoint you is something the best of the game achieve, and in life
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