To our delight, a good friend of ours who'd been gone all summer came by to say hi last week. And what has our illustrious friend Sean been up to for the last few months?
Playing and teaching tennis in the Hamptons!
Chatting with Sean about his summer got us thinking about tennis and fitness...and we realized that tennis is probably one of the top sports you can play to keep both your body and mind in tip top shape as you age.
"Why tennis?" you may ask. Well, here are just a few reasons you may want to think about taking up the sport, if you haven't already!
1) General body coordination, since you have to move into position and then adjust your upper body to hit the ball successfully.
2) Dynamic balance through hundreds of starts, stops, changes of direction and hitting on the run.
3) Bone strength and density by strengthening bones of young players and helping prevent osteoporosis in older ones.
4) Flexibility due to the constant stretching and maneuvering to return the ball toward your opponent.
5) Aerobic fitness by burning fat and improving your cardiovascular fitness and maintaining higher energy levels.
6) Plan and implement strategies since you naturally learn how to anticipate an opponent’s moves and plan your countermoves.
7) Learn to solve problems since tennis is a sport based on angles, geometry and physics.
8) Manage adversity by learning to adjust to the elements (e.g. wind, sun) and still be able to compete tenaciously.
9) Generate new connections between nerves in the brain, due to the alertness and tactical thinking that tennis requires, and thus promote a lifetime of continuing development of the brain.
ALSO, according to a twenty year study of over 20,000 people, people who play tennis 3 hours a week (at moderatly vigorous intensity) cut their risk of death in half by any cause! Now if that isn't a reason to learn to play, I don't know what is!
BE WELL!
Source: Heatlh Benefits of Tennis: Why play Tennis? By Jack L. Groppel, PhD. http://www.playerdevelopment.usta.com/content/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=114688&itype=7418