Boring.

That’s how everyone who doesn’t play tennis describes the sport.

Every sport has its own, unique peak during its game, yet somehow, certain sports are supposedly more fascinating to watch than others.

Sports can all be simplified into some undermining definition, but it shouldn’t disregard how much talent they all require. In the game of tennis, others see it as a simple back and forth between two people until someone messes up.

There are an infinite amount of hits in tennis. In the game of tennis, there are groundstrokes, serves, volleys, slices, overheads, lobs and many others also exist and serve a purpose as offensive or defensive shots.

All of these shots are hit with thought, precision and technique where there is a specific moment in time when a player needs to hit the ball in order to result in a satisfactory shot. Without any of these aspects, this one singular shot will never turn out the way the player wishes for it. 

Tennis players need to be quick on their feet and flexible in the mind in order to successfully return every shot, have precise placement on the court and be able to maintain a constant strength and speed to run to the ball and return it to the other side of the court while also considering their personal stamina. In some cases, in order to win a game, a player must win by two points, meaning that an entire tennis match that consists of two sets, can range from 20 minutes to 11 hours and five minutes  and that is only the physical portion of tennis.

There’s also the mental game of tennis. This is an asset that everyone who plays tennis must have. The game of tennis heavily relies on having a strong mental game no matter the circumstance.

Staying calm when down in the match is crucial to every single tennis player, whether it be in a practice match, high school tennis, or a professional game.

If you think you’re going to lose, you most definitely will. If you want to give up and think about how tired and sore you are, you will melt under the sun and crack under the pressure.

However, if you coach yourself and specifically think about areas where you could improve, you’ll be aware and actually be able to focus on them in order to better your game. If you will yourself to win and come back even stronger, you are allowing yourself to see the game in a different way, and your mindset will change, giving you an opportunity to be stronger both mentally and physically.

It is difficult to give an exact number, but many argue that tennis is 80% mental and 20% physical. Though it may seem like the complete opposite because of how much tennis players have to run, that is simply all that is happening on the outside. 

There is so much more going on in the brain: where to place the ball, where the ball will bounce, how hard to hit the ball, should I slice it, lob it, smash it, drop shot it or should I use topspin? All of these questions are constantly running through the mind, while tennis players themselves are also running around on the court.

So, please, enlighten me. Please, tell me how tennis is so boring and how it is just two people hitting a ball back and forth over a net. Please, tell me how tennis is nothing but that definition.

Students don’t have the right to describe a sport that they have never cared to learn about or have ever cared to play. We all have a passion for the sports we play, so respect those sports. If tennis were truly a “boring” sport, it wouldn’t be a worldwide sport that has over thousands of professional players winning matches for enormous sums of money with over hundreds of millions of viewers.

 Students should stop defining a sport that they know nothing about with such dismissive adjectives. I understand that I don’t have the right to define another sport – one that I have never played or learned anything about – negatively because I don’t know anything about it. I am aware of the hardships and difficulties of football, even though the game doesn’t appeal to my liking. So before students say something about a sport that they have never played or have never learned about, remember to carefully consider each and every aspect of the game because all of those particular aspects require so much talent.

Difficult but worth it.

That’s how I define tennis.