20 Tennis Pros & Cons: Tips, Tricks & Warnings

When it comes to a sport like tennis, there are many great benefits and a decent amount of cons. The goal is to find advantages and reasons greater than the disadvantages so you can really enjoy tennis without the fear of them not outweighing the cons.

Anyways, in this article, I will walk you through all the great things that you will gain from playing tennis, and I’ll also warn you of the potential hazards that it may bring.

If you are as excited as I am, let’s proceed and start from the great things!

Advantages of tennis

There are 10 main benefits of tennis that I like to box into different categories. I’ll start with the most obvious, fitness!

1. Tennis improves and keeps you in shape

Tennis is a great way to stay in shape or even improve your physical condition. It requires muscle strength, explosive speed, aerobic capacity, and flexibility. All of these are stimulated during a tennis match, and if you are in great shape, you will maintain these skills, or if you need to improve your fitness level, it surely will when you continue playing tennis.

In addition to the health benefits above study made by betterhealth.au confirms that tennis is also beneficial for many other things such as:

Lowering resting heart rate and blood pressure
Improving metabolic function
Lowering body fat (Tennis burns 510 calories/ hour on average)
Increasing bone density
Fastening reaction times
Refining muscle tone, strength, and flexibility

That being said, there are an enormous amount of health benefits to tennis that alone make tennis worthwhile.

2. Multiple mental health benefits

Mental health is as important as physical health, and luckily tennis is filled with things that benefit your mind. As you probably already know, tennis is among all healthy physical activity that makes your body move and makes you feel really great, especially after the session.

According to dozens of studies, one made by Healthline says that working out releases endorphins that are hormones appearing in the central nervous system, causing the feeling of pleasure, delight, and relief of pain.

Also, the ITF (International Tennis Federation) has stated that tennis has various other mental health benefits such as

Decreased daily and chronic stress
Improved confidence and body image
Increased mental alertness
Reduced depression and anxiety

As a person that does tennis, table tennis, and works out at the gym in addition to other racket sports, I can confirm all of this with 100% confidence because that is exactly what I’m experiencing in my own life.

Scientific studies aside, tennis requires a great deal of focus which takes your mind away from things that might trouble you in your personal life. Tennis is on its way to a quick escape from your troubles, and it will get your mind up and feeling better overall.

3. Stimulates hand-eye coordination

Did you know that according to espn.com, tennis is the world’s second hardest sport in terms of hand-eye coordination, just behind table tennis? In short, hand-eye coordination means the ability of your hands and sight to work together, so you can do things that require speed and accuracy in addition to daily chores and tasks.

It’s safe to say that hand-eye coordination is significant, and tennis stimulates it like no other. Well, except table tennis.

Another incredible benefit of tennis and hand-eye coordination is that when a child trains it from a young age, it develops their visual acuity. There have been a ton of studies considering the subject, one made by childdevelopment.com.au. Hand-eye coordination means that tasks such as reading, writing, understanding information, and other things don’t require much conscious effort and allow them to do them easily without even thinking.

All in all, there are various benefits that hand-eye coordination helps with, such as:

Child development
Productivity
Reaction time
Agility
Athleticism
Typing
Reading
Everyday chores & life skills
Information processing

4. You get to socialize and network

Grabbing your spouse, friend, or family member and heading out to the court is a great way to socialize and interact with other people. This will get you feeling really good, and you can deepen your relationships with the people you love by doing something nice together.

Also, tennis opens up a great opportunity to meet new people, acquire new friends, and network with people that might have something in common with you. There are various tennis clubs where people are more than happy to play with you and get a good competition out of it!

Socializing and networking with other people have some study-backed benefits that will improve your life. For example, it will help you reduce the feeling of loneliness, sharpen your memory, increase your well-being, and even make you live longer!

So I suggest that you head to the tennis court as soon as possible, you might live longer!

5. Tennis doesn’t have an age limit

Another amazing perk of tennis is that it really doesn’t have an age limit! That’s right, you can start tennis as soon as you can grab a racket and strike (often at the age of 5-7), and you can continue playing tennis to your last days if you still can walk and strike that ball.

As a comparison, try to play ice hockey or American football when you are 70. Not so easy as tennis, if even possible.

If you want to give your child the best chances of acquiring amazing tennis skills, the best age to start training is 5-7. At this age, they have developed the required skills for tennis and are so young that they will learn extremely quickly.

On the other side of lifespan, tennis has great benefits for the elderly as well! It improves and maintains body strength and activates muscles, joints, lungs, and blood flow which keeps you feeling younger and more capable. Also, it lowers body fat which is proven to reduce the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart attacks.

6. You can train with or without someone

Tennis is great because there are certain ways that you can train alone, so you don’t need to rely on a partner or a coach every single time you want to strike that ball. Here are some ideas on how to train tennis alone:

Use a tennis ball machine (Learn more)
Take advantage of a practice wall
Hit serves alone
Improve your fitness level (strength & aerobic)
Train your footwork

My personal favorites are the tennis ball machine and the practice wall because I really get that sweat up and can hit the ball constantly, like in real tennis. Also, I highly encourage you to go to the gym and lift weights, and train your aerobic capacities. It’s fun, and it will greatly benefit you on the tennis court.

Read also: Why Aren’t Tennis Players Muscular? (5 Reasons)

7. If you’re good you can make a good living

It’s no secret that world-class tennis players make so much money they can swim in it like Scrooge McDuck. Tennis is often connected to luxury and rich tennis players living in Monaco. This is the reality for many pro tennis players, and if you are good and can win up the competition more times you lose, you are heading towards that destiny.

However, this isn’t the and won’t be the reality for most people, but still, the average salary of a tennis professional in the US is $64033, according to ziprecruiter.co.uk. This is a decent amount of money for something that you love to do.

However, those numbers are somewhat deceiving because the best pro tennis players earn so much money that they significantly increase the average. In fact, according to MyTennisHq, 76% of all tennis players made less than $20.000 a year, whereas 13% of the players made more than $100.000.

Don’t let that discourage you, and if it is your dream to make a living through tennis, morph that into a goal and work towards it. Many people have made it, so you can too!

8. If you are creative tennis isn’t expensive

As tennis is often connected to athletes that swim in money, it is also connected to be really expensive. Don’t get me wrong; it can be if you take private lessons 3 times per week and buy new equipment all the time. However, it is easy to make it cheap!

Here are my top 5 recommended ways to save money in tennis:

Buy an older model racket: When a brand releases its newest racket model, they often cost + $200 depending on the racket’s features. However, if you buy a racket model from previous years that are as good as any, you will save + 50% on the cost of a racket.
Purchase tennis balls in bulk: Let’s take an example. If you were to buy 1 can of Penn Championships Tennis Balls, the cost per ball would be nearly twice as much if you were to buy them in bulk that comes with 15 cans. Also, these balls are of the highest quality, so you can get the price even lower if you get balls of slightly lower quality.
Use cheaper strings or buy them in reels: A set of natural gut strings often cost around $40, whereas a set of synthetic gut strings costs $5-$10. That’s a great saving right there, and if you want to go even further, you can buy strings in reels meaning they come in a long wire. This will drive the costs down even more.
Outdoor courts will save you money: Tennis court fees will be expensive if you go to a private indoor court on a Sunday afternoon. However, if you go to an outdoor court that is free most of the time, you will save the biggest saving here. You can find nearby outdoor courts by using tennismaps.com.
Buy a stringing machine: Finally, investing money in a stringing machine will save you money in the long run. Let’s do some math. An average string job cost is around $20, and as a rule of thumb, you should string your racket as many times a year as you play per week. So if you play 4x per week, your annual stringing cost is $80. The string job costs can be higher, and you may need to change strings more often if you take tennis seriously. Thus, if you invest in a stringing machine such as the Gamma X-2, your investment would be covered in less than 3 years. Also, you can charge a small sum from a string job from your friends or acquaintances which would make the investment replaced more like in 1 year.

Learn more: Is It Worth It To Buy A Tennis Stringing Machine? (How-To Guide)

9. Tennis is a worldwide sport

Another great perk of tennis is that it is played nearly everywhere in the world. Thus, if you go on a vacation and suddenly feel the urge to strike that ball, you most certainly can!

Some countries are above the rest when it comes to tennis popularity so if you want to go traveling and see different tennis courts around the world, these are the countries you should travel to:

Australia
France
New Zealand
Switzerland
United Kingdom
Belgium
Singapore
United States
Philippines
Italy

10. Tennis is a lot of fun

Last but definitely not least is that tennis is a lot of fun! I believe that in life you should grope as much joy as possible so you will be satisfied with the life you have lived. That’s why if you like and love tennis, you should play it as much you feel fit because having fun will make you feel happy and your life quality will increase overall.

Believe it or not, there are many health benefits to having fun, such as:

Boosted energy levels
Better nights sleep
Improved concentration
Reduced stress hormones
Increased serotonin levels (Affects happiness, mood, feelings, and well being)

These benefits should be enough to encourage you to have fun, whether that is found in tennis or elsewhere!

Disadvantages of tennis

As great as the advantages above are, you will find some disadvantages as well from tennis. However, they shouldn’t discourage you from playing tennis because the pros heavily outweigh the cons in my opinion!

1. Tennis courts aren’t found everywhere

Even when you can find tennis courts nearby, it isn’t always easy. Depending on where you live, it can be challenging to find or have time to go to the court if it is always reserved, far away, or too expensive because of the lack of competition in the area.

Also, if you have a tennis court nearby but no other courts in the same area, it can be hard to find court time because many other people want to play. This is especially noticeable in outdoor courts that are often free and have no need for a reservation.

2. There is a risk of injury

When it comes to sports, the risk of injury is always present. Whether you sprain your ankle, get a ball struck on your nose from the wrong angle, or hurt your arm from striking in the wrong form, the risk is there.

Many injuries can happen during a tennis match or because of playing tennis. However, these injuries are by far the most common:

Tennis elbow
Torn rotator cuff
Tennis knee
Achilles tendon rupture
Ankle sprain
A stress fracture in the back

Most of these injuries can be avoided by making sure your form is correct in everything you do in tennis, wearing a proper pair of tennis shoes with secure lateral support, stretching, and muscle training.

3. Tennis often isn’t cheap

As previously discussed, you can get off quite cheap in tennis if you have the energy and make a small extra effort to do so. However, if you want to enjoy tennis without thinking much further and use the best equipment, yes, it will be somewhat expensive.

The two most expensive parts of tennis are the court fees and tennis lessons.

If you want to improve at the maximum speed and be sure that you are training correctly, tennis lessons might be for you. However, lessons often cost around $50 per hour! A little less if you are taking group lessons and even more if you are taking private lessons.

When it comes to the court fees, you can expect to pay somewhere between $10-$40 per hour. This varies drastically depending on whether you play on a cheap public court or an expensive indoor court in an expensive area. However, the average is often below $20 per hour, but still, that’s quite a bit of money. Luckily you can split the cost with your tennis partner!

Learn more: Why Is Tennis So Expensive? (4 Reasons)

4. You can’t play tennis alone

You can indeed train tennis alone as we learned above; however, you can’t play tennis alone. Sometimes, this can be really annoying and frustrating when you really want to hit the court, but you can’t find a partner.

For most people, tennis is a hobby, and there are many responsibilities to be dealt with in life, especially among middle-aged people. This is why it can sometimes be hard to find a partner to play with.

If this is your case, know that most tennis players are willing to play with you even if they don’t know you, so go to the nearest tennis club and find an opponent you can play with!

5. Playing tennis is time-consuming

It is nice to invest time in playing tennis, but sometimes it can bring difficulties. Let me explain.

It’s great to spend time with your hobby that you love; however, it can get so that you can have a hard time finding time from your weekly schedule. This, of course, depends on your current life situation.

The time from your home to the court, locker room time, playing time, journey home, showering, among other things in between, can take a big chunk of your day, and if you are already busy, it’s hard, so expect it sometimes. time-consuming

6. Tennis isn’t a team sport

This can be a con or a pro for different people. I decided to put it in the con section because there are more disadvantages than perks.

In team sports, you will learn valuable teamwork skills that can’t really be learned elsewhere than with other people. Of course, you can have other parts of your life to learn teamwork, but that really isn’t part of it in tennis.

Also, when you lose in tennis, there is no one else to blame other than yourself, even when it isn’t all about winning by a long shot. But still, if you lose, it can make you feel bad.

However, when you win, it makes you feel really great, but it lacks the team spirit and the feeling of unity and brotherhood when you celebrate the victory with your equals.

7. There is a big learning curve

Tennis certainly isn’t the easiest sport to learn. In fact, according to espn.com, tennis is the world’s 8th hardest sport of all the 8000 sports in the world. That makes tennis to be part of the hardest 1% of sports!

That being said, it can be frustrating and overwhelming to learn everything as a beginner but trust me when I say that you should keep going and you will learn quickly. At least the basics which make you more than capable of playing tennis.

It’s a totally different story when you really want to up your game and even compete. Here the learning curve will be huge, and you will need a tennis trainer, a lot of patience, and time.

8. Tennis has a snobby reputation

Tennis has a snobby reputation, and believe it or not, it isn’t without reason. Tennis in England was really for the rich before around the 1980s, and tennis clubs were filled with snobby people, and that’s where the reputation starts from.

However, even tho the reputation still is living even nowadays, especially among people that don’t play tennis, tennis clubs and players aren’t snobby nowadays and haven’t been for a while. At least not the majority of players.

Read also: Why Do Tennis Players Live In Monte Carlo?

9. Lessons are required for each advanced skills

If you want to get your tennis skillset advanced or even pro levels, then you will need tennis lessons or someone that has a far greater skill set than you currently have.

This will cost considerable amounts of money, especially in the long run, given that private lessons often cost more than $50 per hour. That being said, the legend says if you want to become a master, you need 10 000 training hours. That’s half a million dollars. Jokes aside, it’ll cost a lot of money.

Learn more: Are Tennis Lessons Worth It? (In-Depth Guide)

10. Weather can bring difficulties

Finally, weather conditions can make your tennis sessions hard or even unplayable. For example, if it is burning hot and I’m not talking about warm sunshine but really hot, it can be dangerous being directly under the sunlight working hard on the court. If you decide to play on a burning hot day, make sure you drink enough water and preferably wear a hat!

When it comes to rain, you really can’t play tennis because when a tennis ball gets wet, you can’t really use it. After all, it won’t bounce, and it will become really heavy. Luckily, however, the tennis ball won’t get ruined forever if it gets wet, but it’s done for that particular tennis session.

To recap, below is a table of all the pros and cons of tennis.

Tennis Pros	Tennis Cons
Tennis keeps you in shape	Courts aren’t everywhere
Mental health benefits	Risk of injury
Hand-eye coordination	Tennis isn’t cheap
Socialization and networking	You can’t play alone
Tennis is for all ages	Time-consuming
You can train alone	Not a team sport
You can earn a living off tennis	A big learning curve
Can be cheap	Snobby reputation
Tennis is played globally	Hard to gain advanced skills
Playing tennis is fun	Weather can bring difficulties

Pros and Cons of tennis.