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In fact, I did the math and given normal playing levels, an hour on the courts adds more than an hour to your life. You may have a sore shoulder but you'll be alive.
I dont know what they condsider to be a tennis player but if you play for 60 years, 18 to 78, 10 hours per week (which is a lot of tennis), you'll play for a total of 31,200 hours, or 3.5 years. The study says you'll live 6.5 years longer than a jogger and 8 years longer than a gym rat. Scale that back and tennis is a life extender.
Not only physically, it is very much a mental game and especially if you play doubles it is very social.
The article doesn't mention controlling for income/wealth. It's seems extremely likely that tennis is more common among wealthier people, and that this is at least partially related to longevity.
Maybe that's less the case in a country like Denmark where the poor also get good healthcare, but it still seems like a key factor (quality of food, stress levels, time to relax...?).
The hours involved would also be a factor, as the article discusses. Some of this is the length of time people are playing tennis vs. using the elliptical for example.
That said, maybe factors like the range of motion, quick movements, full-body usage, social aspect, etc., really are useful.
As for why it's not more popular...lack of courts relative to basketball? American interest in teams and local fandoms more than individual sports? A perception of elitism? (Golf is an interesting counterpoint, but that can be played by retirees without much athleticism.)
The article doesn't mention controlling for income/wealth. It's seems extremely likely that tennis is more common among wealthier people, and that this is at least partially related to longevity.
Maybe that's less the case in a country like Denmark where the poor also get good healthcare, but it still seems like a key factor (quality of food, stress levels, time to relax...?).
The hours involved would also be a factor, as the article discusses. Some of this is the length of time people are playing tennis vs. using the elliptical for example.
That said, maybe factors like the range of motion, quick movements, full-body usage, social aspect, etc., really are useful.
As for why it's not more popular...lack of courts relative to basketball? American interest in teams and local fandoms more than individual sports? A perception of elitism? (Golf is an interesting counterpoint, but that can be played by retirees without much athleticism.)
It's easy to play bad basketball and still have a lot of fun. Not so much with tennis. It takes a while to get functional enough to go out and do anything but chases balls hit over the fence of the court, into the net, onto the others players court. One of the reasons Pickleball is popular is because the learning curve is less steep.
Tennis is also exhausting. To play, you have to learn how to still exert energy while you are exhausted. Rests are minimal for this reason, you are expected to keep playing past the point where your body would like to take a break and catch your breathe.
I think all the other correlations are true and matter. I will say there is another preselection involved too. To enjoy playing tennis means you are the type of person into self-mastery, hard work, and exercising to the point of being exhausted and still keep going..........is it spring yet?
It's easy to play bad basketball and still have a lot of fun. Not so much with tennis. It takes a while to get functional enough to go out and do anything but chases balls hit over the fence of the court, into the net, onto the others players court. One of the reasons Pickleball is popular is because the learning curve is less steep.
Tennis is also exhausting. To play, you have to learn how to still exert energy while you are exhausted. Rests are minimal for this reason, you are expected to keep playing past the point where your body would like to take a break and catch your breathe.
I think all the other correlations are true and matter. I will say there is another preselection involved too. To enjoy playing tennis means you are the type of person into self-mastery, hard work, and exercising to the point of being exhausted and still keep going..........is it spring yet?
Good points made about learning tennis.
I agree tennis takes some time to get good at, and become competitive, even just at club level.
You’ll most likely need lessons early on as a junior, although I have seen some good players who didn’t pick up a racket until they were adults.
And it costs money for sure to play , it’s not like going to a local park for free and kicking around a football or a soccer ball around, or playing basketball.
Golf is a costly sport too, and time consuming to both play and develop enough skills to play well at, but it seems to enjoy a lot of involvement.
I’m just talking about playing these sports at a club or regional competition level.
To make a living out of such sports you’ll need to be on the main tour, and be in the top 100-200 in the world.
I really wonder if some players who play well in the beginning of a match end up feeling overconfident and as a result, they lower their level of playing and don't try as hard. Because it really makes you wonder how matches can turn around! Like that final match between Nadal and Medvedev! How did that happen? Medvedev had it! He won the first two sets! So maybe he was like, "oh yeah, I'm the man!" and then lowered his effort, while Nadal put in more effort. And as a result, Nadal made a big comeback and won!
Nadal won the AO in 2009, but lost AO Finals in 2012 (and it was 6 hours, and he was up a break in the 5th set), 2014 (and got back spasms), 2017 (and was up a break in 5th set) and 2019.
So there is a good chance Nadal would be extremely nervous in the 2022 AO Final, because he maybe felt a pending doom.
He was probably putting in full effort physically, but mentally he was restricted by nerves.
Nadal did not play aggressively in the first set vs. Medvedev, so looked like nerves, and in the 2nd Set Nadal played more aggressively but was very error-prone.
So the turnaround was at least partially Nadal's self-belief getting stronger, so Nadal attacked more (which Medvedev usually allows you to do, because Medvedev is best-known for retrieving and playing long points) and stopped making errors.
In fact Nadal was down a break and 0-40 in the 3rd Set, so he may have felt the match was almost over and that allowed him to play more aggressively and with a free mind.
any sport that requires patience strategy and brains that ios hard to figure out it is not popular in usa. only sport popular here are he has 3 chances to hit the ball, he is got three down to move the chains, he is got a 24 seconds to score or ball goes back to other team. simple rules for even kindergarden kids to understand. while tennis it is like to american is like what is he doing should he hit the ball hard not slice it and have games of nerves back and forth with safe shoots untill somebody makes mistake. it is basically that
I think you are underselling the complexity of modern football played at the highest levels. Gone are the days you can just be bigger than your opponent, knock them over and have frequent success.
Tennis seems SIMPLER than F/B/B, not more complex. All of the team sports have huge amounts of strategy and nuance. I suspect the guy who said that doesn't know these sports.
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