Can Tennis, Padel, and Pickleball Reduce Your Stress?

If you’re stressed out, exercise can help you release that built-up tension. It gets your heart pumping and blood flowing and gives you a distraction from whatever’s stressing you. But the key is to exercise in a way you enjoy. Many people enjoy tennis, padel, and pickleball because they’re great social activities and also great for an enjoyable workout.

But if you’re hesitant because you think you’re “out of shape” or have low athletic skills, give these three sports a try – you might like them more than you think. Give yourself a chance to release your stress and focus your energy on something fun!

Health benefits of tennis, padel, and pickleball 

These sports are more than just ways to pass time. If you start playing regularly, you’ll experience noticeable health benefits.

Reduced risk of diseases - Playing these sports will help you have a lower risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other diseases. Your immune system will become stronger, protecting you against all kinds of things!

Stronger bones and muscles - With a regular exercise habit, you’ll develop more powerful and toned muscles as well as strengthened bones. You’ll become a physically stronger person with more endurance.

Hand-eye coordination - These fast-moving sports all involve hitting an object in motion and trying to aim it for specific areas while controlling the speed of the object. This is why you’ll have sharper hand-eye coordination — and that’s a skill that comes in handy in a variety of situations in life.

Agility, balance, reflexes, and range of motion - Wish you had sharper reflexes? Play these three sports. You’ll have to move quickly from side to side, forward, backward, diagonally… Constantly changing directions and being aware of where your body is in space will improve your agility, balance, reflexes, and range of motion.

More restful sleep - Insomniacs, there’s good news for you. You’ll be able to get more sleep at night if you fit in some exercise during the day. Sleep lowers stress and makes your whole body healthier.

Improved mood - You’ll feel happier and more energetic, reducing your stress and helping you heal from any deeper mental health issues you may have.

Better communication and coordination skills - You’ll become better at communicating effectively and working together with other people, especially if you play doubles. But even playing singles can boost your social skills.

Tennis

As a kid, I played tennis and found it to be a very effective way to get out my stress. Maybe you have memories of playing tennis in gym class or at a tennis court in your community. It’s a fast-moving, challenging sport – but that’s what makes it so fun.

The basic things you need for tennis are, of course, a ball and racket. As for balls, if you’re mostly playing tennis for fun and you’re not seriously trying to improve your skills, there’s no need to worry about which balls to get. If you’re more serious, you can learn about the best tennis ball brands so you can find balls that are made of long-lasting material and have good bounce. 

When it comes to rackets, again, you don’t need to spend much time focusing on different types of rackets if you’re just playing casually. But one thing for beginners to consider is the size of the head of the racket. A racket with a smaller head allows you to have more control over where the ball goes, but it’s harder to hit the ball. A bigger racket head makes it easier to hit the ball, which is great for beginners. There are three size categories: Midsize, Mid-Plus Size, and Oversized.

You can play singles tennis, which involves you on one side of the net and your opponent on the other, or team up with a friend and play doubles, with two people on the other side of the net playing against you and your friend. It all depends on your preference.

The way scoring works in tennis is a little strange. Your score will jump from 15 to 30 to 40, and “love” is not a good thing! This article explains how tennis scoring works. But basically your goal is to hit the ball in a way that makes your opponent swing and miss – but you can’t hit it out of bounds. This can be tricky, but that’s what makes tennis so enjoyable that you’ll want to come back for more.

Padel

Padel is kind of like tennis, but with a twist. Instead of using a racket, you use a paddle that has a shorter handle than a tennis racket holes in the head. Plus, this game makes use of walls which you can incorporate into your gameplay strategy. You can hit the ball after it bounces off walls, and you can also deliberately aim your ball to bounce off walls on your opponents’ side. If this sounds fun, that’s because it is.

Padel is usually played in doubles, though it is possible to play singles padel. Either way, to serve the ball, you must bounce it on the ground, then hit it at waist level and aim for it to bounce in to the opponent’s service box, which is diagonal to where you are. Then, there are various kinds of techniques you can use to increase your chances of scoring points (the scoring system is similar to tennis). You may not have to use as powerful strokes as you would in tennis, but padel is still a challenging sport. And once you try it, there’s a good chance you’ll like it.

Pickleball

Pickleball is a sport that’s quickly becoming more and more popular. I discovered it recently and have found it to be a fun activity to do with my husband and whenever we visit our relatives in Tampa Bay. Evan and I even joined a pickleball league for the summer! So if you’ve never played pickleball before, I totally recommend it.

Pickleball is kind of like padel in some ways. But one big difference between the two is the ball. Pickleball is played with a lightweight ball that has holes in it, like a wiffle ball. Another difference between the two sports is that pickleball paddles don’t have holes in them. The scoring system is also different – padel is scored almost like tennis while pickleball is scored in a different way: First player/team to get 11 points wins (but they must win by at least 2 points).

Like padel, you must serve the ball underhand and at waist level. There are certain rules to keep in mind when it comes to pickleball, such as the non-volley zone rule and the double bounce rule. Still, pickleball is relatively easy to get into as a beginner, which is why it’s so popular.

Grab your racket or paddle!

We’ve talked about three different sports here, so you may be wondering which is the best. The answer is… all of them! You don’t have to choose just one. All three of these sports can reduce your stress and increase your social skills too.

The most important thing to remember is that it doesn’t matter if you’re not the most skilled player. What matters is that you’re getting your body moving and having a good time. So no matter what your score is, getting more exercise is always a win!