Tennis, Everyone?

Studies Show Lifetime Sport a Winner for Body, Mind

Can tennis help you live a longer, healthier, and happier life?

Apparently so, according to research circulating around the medical and tennis communities.

Several studies are trumpeting the sport's health and fitness benefits as well as the social, emotional, and psychological advantages it offers participants. Here are a few of the positive tidbits researchers have found.

Tennis is good for the ticker. Dr. Ralph Paffenbarger led a 20-year longevity study of more than 10,000 Harvard alumni. He and his team found that middle-aged men who participated in moderately vigorous sports activities (such as tennis) for three hours each week cut their risk of death from coronary heart disease by 41 percent. (Source: New England Journal of Medicine)

Tennis develops positive personality characteristics. Tennis players had the highest scores in sociability, spontaneity, creativity, competitiveness, adventurousness, mental focus, and assertiveness when compared to golfers, runners, weightlifters, inline skaters, and downhill skiers. (Source: Jim Gavin, Ph.D., Concordia University, author of The Exercise Habit)

Tennis is good for the mind. Dr. Joan Finn and Southern California State University researchers compared the psychological states of 200 senior tennis players to a control group. They found that the tennis players scored higher in vigor, optimism, and self-esteem, and lower in anger, depression, confusion, anxiety, and tension.

Tennis helps you keep your figure. Competitive tennis burns more calories than moderate aerobics, moderate inline skating, weightlifting, walking, baseball, golfing, and other activities, reported LGE Performance Systems in Orlando, Fla. And a recent issue of Health magazine stated that a 150-pound person burns more calories per hour playing tennis (420) than volleyball, swimming, canoeing, hiking, softball, or golfing.

"I play tennis, therefore I think" Because tennis requires alertness and tactical thinking, it may generate new connections between nerves in the brain, thus promoting a lifetime of continuing development, reported scientists at the University of Illinois. (Source: LGE Performance Systems)

Tennis keeps your body moving and heart pumping. Tennis is an aerobic and anaerobic activity. The heart rate stays elevated when players are moving on the court, and intense bursts of energy followed by rest help muscles use oxygen efficiently. Players improve their cardiovascular fitness, leg strength, balance, speed, agility, and eye-hand coordination.

For more information, visit the United States Professional Tennis Association at www.uspta.org.