Its that time of year again, tennis has come to town at Wimbledon. Have your umbrellas, sun cream, Pimms and strawberries all at the ready!
Plus at the bottom I’ll share a free workout for any budding tennis players AND the perfect healthy treat to whip up for all the armchair fans reading this. Something for everyone!
I’ve always loved tennis and I played from the age of six until I was about eighteen for Blackheath, so you could say I know my way around a court. I used to play rather seriously, but when I hit eighteen I seemed to take more of an interest in the other teenage pastimes…
Recently though I’ve started to get back into following the sport and started to play again, mostly up at the courts at the Rangers House in Greenwich or down in Kidbrooke, and when I move into my new house in a month or so I’ll be joining the local club. Watch out Hartley!
I’m not the only tennis fan out there and so naturally as the media focuses on Wimbledon, the interest in tennis across the nation spikes…. at least for these two weeks anyway.
During that time I’ll get caught up even more in the tennis craze and often it means I’ll find myself in front of the box eagerly watching the big names like Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and even Andy Murray (usually I’m supporting his opponents though ????).
The lesser known players are also a great watch. At the end of the day, they’re still good enough to play at Wimbledon. I mean you have to be somewhat of a decent player to get paid £35,000 even if you lose in the first round. The best I got as a kid was some free balls and a set of wristbands!
However, I find you’ll often see people begin to channel their inner Bjorn Borg and see themselves as a tennis expert for the two weeks.
They’ll don the headbands, dig out the dusty rackets from under the stairs, hunt down a tube of naff old balls, and finally once they’ve had a banana, they’ll head up to the local tennis courts to play.
Now I’m all for everyone being as physically active as possible. I’m constantly on at people to get outside and get moving. I can tell you that from experience tennis gets the blood pumping.
However my issue with this is that you can never get a court to play on in the two weeks of Wimbledon. The nation goes tennis mad and for people like me, who have a decent year round interest, when it comes to those two weeks it gets impossible to play.
Other things go with it too, like strawberries and a pitcher of Pimms, now I’ll enjoy a glass during Wimbledon, where somehow it’s always Pimms o’clock! Then the same thing happens, Wimbledon is over and the Pimms jug goes away for the rest of the year…the poor Pimms!
It’s the same in the fitness industry, each year you’ll find seasonal peaks in people’s commitments and motivations. There’ll be the usual busier periods in January and February, with the New Years resolution crowd, which is great, as long as you keep to it! Then you’ll have the typical beach body phase for summer, and by Christmas, fitness tends to be on the back burners again.
If you try some tennis over the summer and enjoy it why not keep it up? Even if you don’t have anyone to hit with as most clubs/courts will have members and people you can play with. It can be a great way to get to know new people and expand your social circle as well as learn something new. It doesn’t even matter if you’re pants and feel like you might as well be playing with a wooden spoon, remember just like training, you can always improve.
The same goes for fitness – try it, make a positive choice, meet new people, gain friends with like minded goals. Work hard and succeed! That’s what we are here to help with and keep you from being a yo-yo exercise bunny.
If you find you’re constantly looking for the next start line with out ever reaching your current finish line, get in touch today, give it a go and you can become someone who gets rid of the stop start or “I’ll start on Monday” habit.
We will help you actually achieve those goals!
Game, set, match.
Perry
GT Trainer and Tennis buff
