PLATFORM TENNIS, PLAYED PROPERLY,
CAN BENEFIT YOUR HEALTH

By Charles E. Vasoll

What is the most important aspect of our sport of platform tennis? The answer is "patience". All of the best players will attest to this. In our game, you don’t win many points. More often your opponent loses them to you. "Unforced errors" is the term usually applied to this situation. To make that happen, you have to wait, that is "be patient", until your opponent becomes impatient and tries to hit the ball for an improbable winner, and fails. It is your point.

Some time ago in "Personal Health", a column written by Jane E. Brody in the New York Times, she referred to an eye-opening book, Type A Behavior and Your Heart that she read as an assignment in 1974. She found that she "shared quite a few obnoxious – and perhaps life-threatening traits of typical Type A behavior and vowed to make some changes."

She learned, for example, to allow more time, not less, to get to places; not to leave important tasks to the last minute; and to resist doing one more thing before leaving the house, thus making herself anxious, and often late, even before starting out.

But, she said, there was one trait that she never learned: patience. (Obviously, she did not play platform tennis.) She referred to another book, "The Power of Patience" by M. J. Ryan, published by Broadway Books. She indicated that it has "opened my eyes to the benefits of learning to be more patient, to me and those around me."

Patience, Ms. Ryan explains, "is a lot about what you don’t do". It’s about holding back when you want to let loose, putting up with something you’d rather not and waiting for something to happen rather then forcing it along." Now does that sound like how we should properly be playing our game? Don’t "smash" the ball, hit it softly. Say "nice shot" to your opponent when you know your partner should have made the play. Driving the ball on a crucial point when a lob was really the better shot.

"Becoming more patient can help you be more effective, less overwhelmed, less worried and angry, kinder, calmer, more tolerant, more loving and more loveable", Ms. Brody observed. She further noted that "impatience is not good for us mentally or physically. Impatience causes stress, which weakens the immune system, irritates the stomach, raises blood pressure, strains the heart and strains relationships".

Now I think you can see where I am going with this. If platform tennis can teach us patience, it can benefit our health. It is not only the physical exercise that our sport demands, but the well being that patience can bring to the whole body. The one caveat, however, is that you must play the game "properly". Learn to take some deep breaths and repeat the score several times when you sense that you are about to lose your patience. "Impatience is neither a character flaw nor an inherent personality trait, Ms. Ryan assures us. It is a habit. Habits are learned and they can be unlearned and replaced.

Next time you take to the court, get the thought of "patience" in your mind and translate it to your paddle and your play. You may come out a winner, but even if not, you will still have received some health benefits that can last a lifetime.

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