Tennis: The Great Mental Escape
Terry Lawrence
As my life has progressed, tennis has become even more important to me in terms of being a great mental escape after a long hard day at work and other stresses of everyday life. The tennis court is a place where (for just a couple of hours) everything pales to insignificance. It has certainly been pivotal to maintaining good mental health.
My name is Terry Lawrence and I first joined Local Tennis Leagues in Portsmouth after the conclusion of the first lockdown last year. Due to not being able to play competitive doubles I primarily wanted to retain some form of competitive tennis. It’s great fun and a good way to make new friends and find hitting partners.
I first took up tennis at the age of 15 and have truly been hooked ever since. Back in my younger days I enjoyed participating in LTA ratings tournaments and actually didn’t do too badly. I also represented Portsmouth University in the tennis team after beginning my degree course.
As my life has progressed, tennis has become even more important to me in terms of being a great mental escape after a long hard day at work and other stresses of everyday life. The tennis court is a place where (for just a couple of hours) everything pales to insignificance. It has certainly been pivotal to maintaining good mental health.
Nowadays (despite joining the singles league) I primarily focus more on competitive doubles and represent Canoe Lake (Court X) in the local Portsmouth and District and Hampshire leagues. There’s certainly less court to cover, but I find doubles a lot of fun. If I’m not playing tennis, I’m always trying to watch it where possible and I do have ambitions of visiting the other three grand slam tournaments at some point (Australian, French and US Open) to watch some of the pros play.
To anyone thinking of joining their Local Tennis League, I’d say go for it! It’s friendly, sociable, fun and you’ll get a lot of enjoyment out of it. And if you win matches, that is just an added bonus :)
Finally a word of thanks to the wonderful teams who organise and run the tennis leagues. You are doing a marvellous job!
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