Growing up, teenagers want to start doing new things. A common question they ask is, “Should I play tennis in high school?”

Parents underestimate the importance of sports and how they can benefit children. You might think that swinging a racquet and playing with a fuzzy ball cannot be all that useful, but you could not be more wrong.

You should definitely play tennis in high school. It helps develop essential abilities that will help get through school and adult life. Like any other sport, tennis helps develop problem-solving skills, honesty, accountability, and patience to ensure that you perform well at school and in life.

 Moreover, tennis has been linked to lower suspension rates at school, better social behavior, and adolescent health. All these benefits can only be gained by participating in sports- there is a reason why athletes are all-rounders, get the best grades, and manage to land the best scholarships.

In this article, we will help you understand why you should definitely play tennis in high school and the kind of skills that tennis helps a child’s mind and body develop.

Should I Play Tennis in High School?

Now that we know that you should definitely play tennis in high school, here is how tennis can help adolescents:

Known to Perform Better at School

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) conducted some research in 2013 to explore how tennis benefited the youth. It was found that tennis players were more involved with their homework, which led to them receiving higher grades.

According to their research, 48 percent of students were able to achieve an A on their report cards, and 81 percent were estimated to be able to attend college. These educational estimates were made across every single socioeconomic level. This means that parents struggling to keep their kids interested in school should definitely sign them up for tennis lessons.

One reason why this is true is that tennis helps increase focus and coordination. You become better at hand-to-eye movements, which, in turn, helps you focus more in school.

Well-Rounded Individuals

Tennis players are more involved with the school, and you will find them participating in extracurricular activities. This includes activities outside their schools and within their communities. As opposed to other high school children who never participated in any sports, these teenagers have a higher exposure to the real world before they graduate and become well-liked members of society at a young age.

Moreover, compared to taking part in traditional contact sports, playing tennis in high school gives way to social-psychological benefits, allowing children to be more open to arts, music, and voluntary work. This is because playing tennis in high school helps bring a sense of belonging and community as teenagers learn from one another and gain more confidence in their daily lives.

In tennis, you win some, and you lose some. Teenagers learn this from a young age, allowing them to learn to be patient with themselves. Moreover, it allows them to have good sportsmanship- a quality that takes years to learn. Accepting the losses with grace is something that helps in later years of life as well. This allows them to be humble when they achieve great things in life and gracious when things do not go the way they want. Learning to be positive despite what life throws at you is a skill that many of us have yet to learn.

Better Health

According to the Tennis Industry Association, tennis is a great way to help young adults become more active. It helps increase bone density and strength, agility, speed, leg strength, hand-to-eye coordination, and flexibility.

A study compared individuals who played contact sports and those who did not take part in any sport with tennis players. It was found that tennis players were less likely to be overweight than those who played other kinds of sports. Moreover, tennis players were not into smoking cigarettes, using marijuana, or binge drinking.

Tennis players were less likely to take up harmful activities because they wanted to be successful in tennis. This sport helped sharpen their thinking, allowing them to make better decisions, for example, they knew that quitting drugs and alcohol would help them become physically fit and ensure their success.

Better Problem-Solving Skills

Tennis is not about passing the ball or learning how to play. Instead, it is more about solving skills and learning to think fast. Contrary to what people think, it is not about passing the ball. Instead, you have to use your mind and play to the best of your abilities.

Games like soccer and football allow coaching to happen mid-game. However, in tennis, players have to think on the spot and ensure they do not lose. Unless you are playing doubles, there are no teammates, which means that you are on your own.

Of course, your coach can help you out in your breaks and during changeovers. However, this is vastly different from other sports like basketball and football, where coaches can guide you throughout the game. This means that in tennis, players need to be strategic and find efficient solutions quickly if they want to be successful.

These problem-solving skills help teenagers at school and even in the real world. Moreover, it helps them get better grades because they learn to think on their feet. Tennis also helps them avoid conflict, and they become known as conflict-solvers since they learn how to control their emotions and deal with the trouble at hand from a young age.

Learning Self-Discipline

When it comes to the life of a tennis player, learning self-discipline is the key to success. In other sports, you play with a team who covers for you and continues to push you to perform better. However, in tennis, you are all by yourself as you compete with your skills every single day.

This means that when you lose, you have no one to hold responsible but yourself. There is no team to take the blame or no player who played badly. Since tennis players realize they are responsible for their wins and defeats, they learn discipline from a young age.

Moreover, tennis players need to learn to control their emotions when things do not go the way they want on the court. Tennis requires hours and hours of practice and patience, which is why players need to learn to stick to their goals in the long run without losing hope in the process.

When teenagers are at school, they need to discipline themselves so that they can continue to play the sport they love while excelling at school. This means learning to like difficult classes and staying patient at school even when things don’t go their way. Tennis helps build resilience, a skill that will help them for their entire life, even once they graduate high school.