Straight to the Court After Lockdown

Chris loves many things about tennis and his passion is obvious because he was one of the first LTL players back on court in England after the latest lockdown.

After quite a long break from tennis, I started getting back into it again in the summer of 2019. Anyone who knows me will tell you I don’t like to do things by halves, and it wasn’t long after I restarted playing tennis that I was hooked and Highbury Fields had become my home away from home! 

I joined the Highbury Fields tennis league in July last year and really enjoyed the level of competition and it also gave me the opportunity to meet some great people who I now hit with regularly outside of the league as well. Joining the league certainly got my competitive juices going and I have been obsessively trying to improve my game ever since (and playing against better players in the league has certainly helped with this too)! This involved working a lot on improving my technique which is often lacking, and I also have put a lot of effort into improving my mental game, which is a crucial, but often overlooked, part of the game. Tennis is an incredibly mental game and that is one of the reasons it is such a great and complete sport, and why I love it so much. 

On top of the obvious physical health benefits and enjoyment from playing the sport, playing tennis has also been very good for my mental health. For me, playing a league match is a great way to totally decompress, immerse myself in something else for a couple of hours and clear my mind, which is so important in difficult times like these. I was disappointed to hear tennis would be closed during the lockdown as I think the mental health benefits are understated and it is a great way for people to both exercise and destress. As is obvious from the fact I was the first one to play since lockdown, I was desperate to get back on the court and very much looking forward to playing more league matches in the near future.

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