Racquet sports in general offer a wide range of benefits, and the benefits of playing tennis in particular are significant, including improvements to your cardiovascular health, musculoskeletal health and your mental health. All in all, playing tennis is a fun way to get active and keep healthy. And best of all, tennis is a very easily accessible sport, suitable for people of all ages, genders and abilities. Just about anyone can play and all you need to get started is a racquet and a tennis ball.
Top 10 Health Benefits of Playing Tennis
Whether you start playing tennis at a young age or pick it up later in life, the sport offers a large variety physical and psychological benefits. Some are particularly relevant to people who play tennis at a competitive level, though most apply to all people who play tennis. Here are some of the most important health benefits of tennis:
1. Provides Social Interaction
Social interaction alone can massively improve your overall health and has been linked with improvements to mental and physical health, as well as the setting of healthy habits and a reduced risk of mortality. And as we know, tennis is a very social sport. Whether you are playing singles or doubles, you’ll likely be playing with at least one other person, which of course means you’ll get plenty opportunities to socialise with others. In fact, a study published by the Tennis Foundation in 2017 found that 63% of people who play tennis report feeling less isolated. Plus, people who play tennis often say the sport is a great way to meet new people and helps them feel like a part of the community.
2. Helps Relieve Stress
Playing tennis is also a great way to get away from your “normal” life for an hour or two. Running around on a tennis court, getting some fresh air and burning off some energy can be a great way to relieve stress.
The Tennis Foundation certainly agrees, as a survey they conducted found that 47% of people who play tennis report feeling less stressed.
3. Helps with Weight Loss
It will come as no surprise that running around and hitting a tennis ball also helps with weight loss.
According to the International Tennis Federation, you’ll burn 300-600 calories for every hour of moderate intensity tennis, while playing high intensity tennis can burn 450-900 calories per hour.
Of course, burning calories alone won’t help you lose weight, though studies have found that any form of aerobic activity alone can significantly help with your weight loss efforts.
4. Improves Cardiovascular Health
Tennis is also great for your heart and cardiovascular system. Jumping around on a tennis court raises your heart rate, which in turn helps increase the flow of blood and oxygen throughout your body, all of which contributes to a stronger cardiovascular system. In fact, a study published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2017 found that participation in racquet sports is associated with a 56% reduction in the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
5. Improves Musculoskeletal Health
Playing tennis is also great for your muscles and your bones. Moving around on a tennis court and swinging a tennis racquet encourages muscle growth and bone growth throughout your body. The benefits are much more significant when playing tennis from a younger age, but players who start later in life can also benefit massively from the sport. All the movements and actions involved in playing tennis help to develop your muscular strength and endurance, and research has shown that playing tennis can help develop stronger bones and it can help prevent bone diseases like Osteoporosis later in life.
6. Improves Mental Health
We’ve already mentioned that playing tennis can help relieve stress and prevent loneliness, but it also helps improve your overall mental health and state of mind. A study published by the Tennis Foundation in 2017 found that 91% of people who play tennis say the sport has improved their self confidence. According to the same Tennis Foundation report, 68% of people surveyed feel happier since starting to play tennis, and 89% would attribute their feeling of increased happiness to playing tennis.
7. Improves the Immune System
There is an abundance of evidence to suggest that physical exercise can have a positive impact on your immune system. The same goes for tennis, which is both a physically and mentally demanding sport.
In addition, playing tennis outdoors can increase your exposure to sunlight and boost your your vitamin D intake, which has been associated with a generally stronger immune system. Plus, it’s also a great way to get some much needed fresh air and pump some oxygen into your lungs.
8. Improves Agility, Balance & Coordination
Tennis involves constant running from side to side, making sudden stops and finding the right balance to hit the different types of tennis shots. So it will come as no surprise that playing tennis regularly over a long period of time will improve your agility and your balance.
Playing tennis also requires the ability to constantly track a tennis ball and the timing and coordination to swing a tennis racquet at the right moment to hit the ball. Doing that over and over again helps you develop faster reaction times and significantly improves your timing skills and hand-eye coordination.
9. Increases Brain Power & Concentration
Ask any tennis coach and they’ll tell you that tennis is a mind game. That’s because so much of the game relies on using strategy and tactical thinking to beat your opponent, particularly at the high performance end of the game. Learning to read the player across the net from you and predict what they are going to do next can massively improve your creative problem solving skills.
Tennis is also an individual sport, when playing singles that is. During competitive tennis matches, players require the ability to stay concentrated and keep their emotions in check for the duration of the match. So it’s safe to say that tennis can also improve your ability to concentrate.
10. Helps Set Healthy Habits
While not unique to tennis, exercise and regular participation in sports can help set lifelong good habits, as well as avoid bad ones. Particularly when played at a young age or at an elite level, tennis players often adopt healthier lifestyles, including healthier eating, better hydration and more regular sleeping patterns. In addition, people who play tennis also tend to avoid unhealthy habits, such as smoking, which of course is one of the leading causes of cancer. In fact, the USTA surveyed over 10,000 USTA League players and found that only 1.4% of those players were smokers. They also found that 97.7% of people surveyed use tennis as a way to manage their health.
All of these health benefits suggest that people who play tennis, whether at a recreational level or a performance level, are at a much lower risk of suffering from heart diseases, bone diseases and mental health issues, and tend to be overall healthier and happier. If that isn’t enough to get you playing tennis, then we don’t know what is!
So, if you’re ready to pick up a tennis racquet and jump on court, head over to the LTA website to find the nearest court near you!
