How tennis protects and supports mental, emotional and physical health for life

Mental Health

Q: With teen anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation and suicide at epidemic levels and on the rise – does the pressure of competitive tennis help or harm?

A: Tennis is a clear boon to mental wellness when we encourage the following:

• A disciplined balance of training, match play and recovery.
• Building and fortifying a growth mindset where loss is interpreted as feedback (what did I learn?) rather than failure (I’ll never get better). Adaptive meaning making reduces noisy inner chatter and spawns mental clarity. Skill for life!
• Multi-sport participation – to cross-train and just for fun – builds physical literacy (the competence and confidence to move in various settings and value physical activity across life) which is strongly linked with “psychological resilience” (the capacity to thrive despite exposure to adversity) – skills to ride out life’s peaks and valleys.

Emotional Health

Q: How does tennis support my child’s emotional well-being?

A: Emotion biochemistry is palpably influenced by tennis play in the following ways:

• Having fun on the court, when joyful play is balanced with engagement in other sports and proper recovery, infuses aerobic and anaerobic “upward spiral” exercise biochemistry (dopamine + serotonin + norepinephrine + adrenaline + endorphins) into the mind and body.
• Oxytocin (“the love hormone”) amplifies this recipe via human connection.
• Tennis biochemistry offers a prescription strength emotional reset that allows us to “zoom out”, gain perspective, and move forward.

Physical Health

Q: How does tennis compare with other sports when it comes to injuries?

A: Overuse injury is the most common, but major issues are rare and head injury is nearly non-existent. 

• Having a diversified sport menu reduces injury risk by strengthening a player’s whole body. By limiting over-reliance on a select set of muscles and engaging in complementary sports that build all-around athletic strength – mandatory for the top players today – overuse injury is vastly reduced.
• Recovery and rest are non-negotiable – equally as vital as practice or play!
• Physical literacy is the goal, and we get there via multi-sport participation. 

Brain Health

Q: Does the open skill (dynamic, unpredictable and externally-paced) sport of tennis have advantages over closed skill sports (static, predictable, and self-paced) for brain development?

A: Yes!!! There are few, if any, sports as complex and fully engaging for the whole human being as tennis. Managing our inner selves (Breathe deeply! Regulate emotions!) while simultaneously responding to incoming stimuli (Bad bounce! Adapt now!) is as thorough a mind-body workout as you’ll find. Neuroscience reveals that the healthiest, most efficient and creative brains are marked by healthy cross-talk between the neural structures focused on our inner and outer worlds. Tennis builds healthy brains.

Lifelong Health

Q: Is tennis unique relative to other sports in supporting health across life?

A: Yes! Re-read above for the story on why our lifetime sport is a gift that keeps giving.

• The Mayo Clinic’s Copenhagen Heart Study found that tennis players, on average, lived 9.7 years longer than non-exercisers, 10.1 years longer than those who regularly went to the gym and 3.5 years longer than those engaged with the next sport on the list (incidentally, also an open-skill racquet sport).
• Intrinsic motivation to play is bolstered by multi-sport participation. Less stress, fewer injuries and lower burnout rates = reduced dropout. Fun is the name of the game – no matter the level – and joy is vital for persistence.