“There is a fear of emotion in tennis.”

Andy Murray, Athlete

Advantages & Disadvantages of Tennis

Tennis is a quite popular sport and millions of people enjoy playing tennis on a regular basis.

However, apart from the many advantages that come along with playing tennis, there are also some issues related to it.

In this article, the pros and cons of tennis are shown.

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Advantages of Playing Tennis

1. Tennis can help you to improve your fitness level
2. You can find new friends
3. Competition is encouraged
4. You can earn good money if you are among the best
5. Health improvements
6. You can unplug
7. Stress reduction measure
8. Improvements in reflexes
9. Playing tennis may boost your confidence

Tennis can help you to improve your fitness level

One key advantage of tennis is that it can help you to significantly improve your overall fitness level.

Since tennis involves plenty of physical activity and can be quite exhausting, you will see a boost in your fitness after just a few times of playing.

If you continue to play tennis on a regular basis, chances are that you will be able to get much fitter.

Our fitness plays a crucial role in our overall success in life and therefore, if you are able to improve your fitness level, you will not only become a much better tennis player but your chances to succeed in various parts of your daily life will also increase as well.

You can find new friends

Playing tennis also allows you to meet many new people and to make really good friends over time.

Since you can’t play it alone, you need tennis buddies with whom you can play with and even if you are an introvert, this will give you the opportunity to talk to many different people and to eventually make new friends.

It may also help you to get out of your comfort zone and to improve your social skills, which will also benefit you in various other parts of your life.

Competition is encouraged

Tennis will also teach you a certain level of competitiveness.

Since you are playing one on one, you will have to defeat your opponent in order to win the match.

While in recreational tennis, this will be on a rather playful level, developing a certain level of competitiveness is crucial in order to succeed in various other parts of life.

For instance, if you want to get a promotion in your company, you have to have a certain level of assertiveness in order to get it.

If you approach women, you need a certain kind of drive in order to make them interested in you.

Thus, since life is one big competition, tennis can learn you how to deal with this fact in a healthy manner so that you can get the most out of your life.

You can earn good money if you are among the best

Playing tennis may also give you the opportunity to earn really good money if you are exceptionally good.

Therefore, you might be able to turn your hobby into a real profession over time.

However, note that you need to be world-class in order to earn good money and that only quite few people will ever come to that level.

Hence, you should have backup plans in case your tennis career will fail due to various possible reasons.

Health improvements

Since your fitness level will improve over time, also your health level will likely improve.

Physical exercise and fitness are crucial for our body and our brain to stay healthy.

However, in our current state of the world, many people work in office jobs and do not exercise enough, which may translate into serious health issues in the long run.

Thus, especially if you work in an office job, playing tennis may be a great way to work out and may also be a valid alternative to the gym.

You can unplug

Another benefit of playing tennis is that you will have the opportunity to unplug from your daily life and to focus on yourself.

While playing tennis, you will not be able to look at your smartphone or to answer phone calls.

This gives you the opportunity to think about your personal goals in life without any distractions that may disturb you.

Stress reduction measure

In nowadays society, many people also suffer from high stress levels.

Many of us work in demanding jobs for long hours and also have a family which they have to manage somehow.

All those tasks can be quite overwhelming and many people may not be able to deal with all of this in a healthy manner.

Therefore, tennis can be a great way to lower our stress level since physical activities are generally a good tool to do so.

Improvements in reflexes

Since tennis is a rather fast sport, you always have to stay focused and watch how your opponent moves in order to anticipate where the ball will end up in your field.

Since you have to maintain this high focus level, your reflexes also tend to improve significantly by playing tennis.

This may not only be helpful for tennis, but may also improve your overall mental capacities since you will be able to make important decisions in a fast but yet profound way.

Playing tennis may boost your confidence

Tennis may also help you to increase your overall confidence.

If you are a person who suffers from quite low confidence levels, you may consider joining a sports club.

For instance, by playing tennis, you will be able to improve quite rapidly over time, which may give you a good feeling and may boost your confidence.

Confidence is not only crucial in sports, it is also a main driver for success in all parts of our daily life and therefore, it is crucial that you become more confident.

Disadvantages of Tennis

1. Potential for serious injuries
2. Tennis equipment can be costly
3. Not a team sport
4. Tennis cannot be played alone
5. Lack of tennis courts
6. Tennis takes some time to learn
7. Motivation might be a problem
8. Tennis may be time-consuming
9. Need for a trainer to get to the next level
10. Pressure can be high
11. May conflict with your corporate career
12. Talent is a big factor
13. You may simply not like playing tennis

Potential for serious injuries

Apart from the many advantages that can come along with playing tennis, there are also some downsides to tennis.

For instance, playing tennis can lead to serious injuries like torn ruptures that may take a quite long time to treat and to fix.

They can also be quite painful and you may want to avoid those injuries in your life.

Tennis equipment can be costly

Another problem with tennis is that the equipment that is needed for playing tennis can be rather expensive.

Especially if you buy advanced tennis rackets, you can easily spend many hundreds of dollars on it.

Therefore, tennis is not a cheap hobby and you might need some money for playing tennis on a constant basis.

Not a team sport

Tennis is also not a team sport. While you learn some level of competition in tennis, you may not learn to play in a team.

However, teamwork can be quite important in various parts of our daily life, including our careers when we have to work in teams with other colleagues in order to get things done.

Hence, tennis may prevent you to learn this kind of teamwork and other sports might be more helpful in this regard.

Tennis cannot be played alone

Another downside of tennis is that you can not play it alone. You will always need a tennis partner to play tennis.

Thus, if your circle of friends is rather confined, for example in case you recently moved to another city, it might be hard for you to find someone who wants to play tennis with you.

However, you can still join a tennis club in order to mitigate this issue.

Lack of tennis courts

In many regions across the world, it is also often quite hard to find tennis courts where you can play.

Even if you have tennis courts near your home, it may often be quite expensive to use them.

Therefore, in terms of availability of courts, other sports like basketball or soccer would be easier to practice in most regions of our planet.

Tennis takes some time to learn

Compared to other sports, tennis is also not easy to learn.

While you will make significant progress in soccer after just a few times of playing it, tennis usually takes much longer to learn and you might get quite frustrated at the beginning.

Motivation might be a problem

Many people also suffer from a lack of motivation when it comes to learning tennis or other sports. Quite often, people are really motivated at the beginning and are quite eager to learn.

Yet, after a few tennis sessions, people often lose their motivation and quit their tennis career even before they actually really started.

Hence, you may buy all the necessary and costly equipment just to realize that tennis is not for you after a while.

Tennis may be time-consuming

Playing tennis can also be quite time-consuming.

Especially if you really want to progress and play it on a high level, tennis may prevent you to spend time with your friends or to succeed in other parts of your daily life.

Therefore, it is on you to decide how far you want to go with tennis or if other things are more important to you.

Need for a trainer to get to the next level

If you really want to succeed in tennis, you will also need a professional trainer sooner or later.

However, those trainers usually do not work for free and you may have to spend significant amounts of money to get to a level where you will actually be able to earn some money.

Pressure can be high

If you want to play tennis on a professional level, you might also suffer from serious mental issues.

Many people who aspire to a professional tennis career sacrifice a lot in their lives in order to reach this goal.

Hence, they invest such a lot of time and money in it and the pressure that can result from this behavior can be enormous.

May conflict with your corporate career

In case you really want to get good at tennis, it will also significantly interfere with a career in the corporate world.

If you want to succeed in a corporate job, you will have to put in long hours.

However, if you play tennis on a professional level at the same time, there will simply not be enough time to do both.

Sooner or later, you will have to decide whether you want to aspire to a corporate or a sports career.

Talent is a big factor

Never forget that even if you put in long hours in order to improve in tennis, talent is a significant factor and if other people who have more talent put in the same hours, they will likely be better than you.

Therefore, solely relying on your tennis career to make a living out of it might not be a good idea.

You may simply not like playing tennis

Some people also don’t like playing tennis.

If you tried it several times and still feel that tennis is not a sport for you, you may rather try different sports that you like more.

Always remember that we are all different in our preferences and therefore, it is no shame to try many different things in order to find the hobbies that really fit you.

Top 10 Tennis Pros & Cons – Summary List

Tennis Pros	Tennis Cons
Tennis can improve your fitness	It is not a team sport
Health improvements	Tennis equipment can be expensive
May help against mental issues	Lack of tennis courts
Can improve your confidence	You may lose your motivation
You may learn competitiveness	Tennis is not easy to learn
You may find new friends	You might need a coach
Tennis can help you unplug	You can’t play it alone
Stress reduction	Injuries
Can improve your reflexes	Significant pressure on a professional level
Can turn into a serious profession	May interfere with a corporate career

Should You Play Tennis?

As we have seen before, there are many pros and cons to tennis.

In the end, you have to decide for yourself whether tennis is the right sport for you or not.

If you are not sure, you may at least want to try it.

Maybe you have a friend who is willing to lend you some tennis equipment so that you don’t have to spend too much money on a sport you might actually not like.

You can also get your own tennis equipment here if you really want to get serious about it.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis

https://www.britannica.com/sports/tennis

About the author

My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people of all ages about our environmental problems and how everyone can make a contribution to mitigate these issues.

As I went to university and got my Master’s degree in Economics, I did plenty of research in the field of Development Economics.

After finishing university, I traveled around the world. From this time on, I wanted to make a contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations in every part of our beautiful planet.

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