How Racquet Sports Could Help You Live Forever

In 2010, while finishing my doctoral dissertation, I examined the efforts of the scientific community to radically extend the human lifespan beyond the current record holder, Jeanne Calment, a French woman who lived over 122 years. She died in 1997. I found it interesting, but not much more than coincidental, that she, like me, was a regular tennis player.

At the time, while working as a tennis professional at a local club, I believed that tennis was a great exercise. Still, it wasn’t until 2016 that I saw a study that specifically linked playing tennis to longer life. In fact, the study stated that regular tennis players live almost 10 years longer than people who aren’t involved in regular exercise.

Badminton, soccer, swimming, cycling, and jogging are also shown to have positive effects on lifespan, but tennis is king among them. So, what is it about tennis that has such a profound effect on longevity? What about these other racquet sports, like pickleball, padel and table tennis? Could future advances in medicine and technology cure aging and push our lifespan beyond Jeanne Calment’s record?

If longevity was simply a matter of getting in high-quality cardio workouts, it would stand to reason that the consistent action of sports like cycling, swimming, or jogging would produce better results than tennis, which is more of an interval workout. Doubles tennis tends to be even less intense and consistent than singles play but is played far more frequently later in life. So why does tennis outshine these other sports? There appear to be several reasons.

First, tennis is an excellent cardio workout and players are more likely to play for an extended period. Courts at tennis clubs are typically booked for 90-120 minutes. Most people don’t swim, cycle, or jog steadily for that length of time and there is much less of a competitive sporting dynamic than in tennis.

Also, research has shown that steady cardio workouts may not be as beneficial to overall heart health as interval workouts like tennis, which require short bursts of high-intensity sprints followed by rest periods.

Secondly, tennis players are part of a social community. They form strong networks of people who play with one another, organize events and hold each other accountable for attendance. They are often meeting new people in large social mixers. In this sense, tennis clubs function very much like religions.

Having spent most of my college and graduate school studying religion, I’ve often been fascinated by some of the parallels, which include the adoration of tennis “gods”, initiation into clubs, progressions into higher levels of the community, common beliefs about rules of play and etiquette and ceremony of events.

Tennis communities, like religions, can make people feel part of something larger, provide them with purpose, and create a deep social experience that makes them feel valued. And that is all in addition to the obvious benefits of the workouts on the court.

More recent studies from table tennis suggest that the fast-paced hand-eye coordination and decision-making help our brains stay sharp. Table tennis, even more than full-court tennis, needs repeated, rapid, split-second timing and tactics.

Researchers have shown the positive effects this has because a brain kept active with quick-twitch reflexes will stay more youthful and will be better adapted to prevent injuries than a brain that does not routinely test its reflexes.

Although pickleball hasn’t been popular in America long enough to study its long-term benefits on health and longevity, one can imagine it occupies a great spot between tennis and table tennis. Pickleball requires many fast-twitch reflexes, perhaps more than tennis, and better cardio than table tennis.

Moreover, the sport is easier to learn and can still be played by those with less mobility. Therefore, pickleball may be the perfect sport for longevity, but it will still take years for researchers to have solid data for comparison to the other racquet sports.

In recent years, there has been an explosion of popularity in racquet sports across the world. Pickleball may be the fastest-growing sport in America, but the title for the fastest-growing sport in the world is held by Padel, a version of tennis played inside a glass cage on a court one-third the size of a traditional tennis court.

It is played with nearly identical rules as regular tennis, except after the ball hits the ground, it may rebound off the side or back walls and still be played. Like the other racquet sports, Padel offers great cardio, quick reflexes and social communities. Still, it may have other advantages over some of the racquet sports.

It adds an extra dimension of possible shot-making and defending by incorporating the rebounds off the walls, like racquetball. The extra dimensions encourage creativity, strategy and more extended point play.

There is a growing list of racquet sports, including paddle tennis (played at the beaches of Southern California), platform tennis (generally played on the East Coast and Midwest on a heated surface during the winter months), squash, racquetball, and more. Playing a variety of these sports, and sports in general, helps keep exercise exciting and engaging on both physical and mental levels.

Racquet clubs, especially those offering a variety of sports, including swimming and fitness centers, are the closest thing we have to fountains of youth. Having spent so many years in the racquet industry, I hear managers frequently discussing the average age of their members. Many of these memberships skew toward the older side of things because of several factors, including the fact that people may have more money and more free time to spend at clubs later in life.

Ironically, racquet managers often aim to bring down the average membership age by attracting more young families, which will sustain the club’s future. But a high average age may be a feather in their cap, demonstrating the vitality and longevity of its membership and programming.

Racquet sports may help you live a longer life, but how much longer depends on when you were born. Most of my dissertation on science and religious studies focused on how we are living at the most advantageous time in human history.

Average life expectancy in most parts of the world has more than doubled in just the last 200 years. But one wonders if we can really live beyond 122 years. Is 150 possible? What we really want is to extend our healthiest years deep into our lives, not just survive through a long decline.

With the rapidly accelerating technological growth of the modern era, there are good reasons to believe that the youngest among us will benefit from radically longer lifespans than previous generations.

It is important to note that playing racquet sports alone does not guarantee anyone a longer lifespan. Genetics, diet, injuries, disease, and overall lifestyle play enormous roles in determining our length of life. Likewise, we cannot be sure how soon medical breakthroughs will radically extend the healthiest years of our lives.

However, there is good reason to believe that regularly participating in racquet communities will benefit your long-term health. The longer you’re out there, the more likely you will live through amazing advancements.

But the longevity benefits of racquet sports aren’t likely to be the only reasons people play these sports. I was playing tennis long before I read the studies on its effect on longevity. I play simply because I enjoy playing. That is enough to keep me out on the courts for years to come.??

Collin Braun, Ph.D. , USPTA, PTR, PPR, PadelMBA is director of court sports at Tiburon Peninsula Club , a USPTA Elite Professional, PPR Pickleball Coach and PadelMBA Head Coach. He graduated from Claremont Graduate University with a PhD in Science & Religion.