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As a lifelong fanatic of racquet sports, I’ve always loved playing tennis, racquetball, and more lately, pickleball. What I didn’t know was exactly how good it has been for me in terms of my overall health. So that makes it a win-win!

I recall reading several years ago about the health benefits of those who participate in these sports, and one of my racquetball buddies sent me a text on Christmas Day with an article he came across on studies highlighting the positive effects of racquet sports on longevity. 

One study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, tracked more than 80,000 adults over nine years and compared the impact of the various sports: “The findings revealed that those who regularly played racquet sports reduced their risk of death by 47 percent compared to those who were inactive and nearly 20 percent more than swimming, which came in second with a 28 percent reduction. The risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, such as stroke and heart attack, was reduced by 56 percent for racquet sports players, compared to a 41 percent reduction for swimmers and 36 percent of those engaged in fitness activities.

Wow! I guess I’ve always thought swimming was the best overall sport for fitness, especially when factoring in the lack of impact on the body. Consider that I blew out my knee playing tennis and had arthroscopic surgery in 2020, and just last week, I got drilled by a missile of a shot to my face playing racquetball. That kind of stuff doesn’t happen in swimming.

Actually, I could hear the whizzing of the ball right before it struck me in the corner of my left eye (Thank God I was wearing goggles to avoid a possible significant injury) as my glasses went flying after gashing my nose. I stood there dazed trying to figure just what had happened before going to the restroom and saw the blood dripping off my nose as one of my partners searched for a bandage.

Sounds bad, but it could have been a lot worse.

A physical therapist in a Harvard Health Blog said that racquet sports are the ideal exercise for many adults, adding that “besides offering a good cardiovascular workout, they help with both upper- and lower-body strength at one time. They can be played at any age and do not involve a lot of equipment.”

Then there was this tidbit he brought up that I hadn’t considered: “Racquet sports offer something other fitness sports do not — lateral movements. Most of our lives are spent moving forward, and that includes our exercise. Racquet sports force you to move both back and forth and side to side. This helps improve balance and weight shifting, which can lower your risk of falls.”

Plus, what’s not to like about these sports? I was really more of a “team sports” guy in the days of my youth, playing both baseball and basketball while learning tennis on a casual basis. I increased my play on the courts as a young adult and started to participate in leagues and tournaments when I could.

Then in my 40s, I was introduced to racquetball and was instantly hooked. Working long hours back then, I figured out it was worth sacrificing sleep to get in that early morning workout, so I would arrive at the gym three times or so a week at 6 a.m. and play hard for an hour.

The beauty of racquetball is you can get a similar workout in an hour that it takes two hours to achieve in tennis because of the constant movement with high intensity and running in a smaller space with less time between points in racquetball.

The goal now is to play a combination of the two racquet sports three to four times a week.

Then there’s pickleball, the latest craze for many which I was introduced to in the last couple of years. It’s fun to play (hey, it has a racquet) and is a hybrid sport that blends tennis, ping pong and a version of Wiffle ball. 

Not being a part of any particular group, pickleball presents a different challenge because I feel like I’m sitting as much as playing because of the larger number of participants than racquetball and tennis.

I figure that will change as I get even older. Hey, racquet sports are for life.