How Tennis is Like Boxing (Without Getting Hit in the Face)

Hey, this is Ben Greenfield. I thought you'd like this little clip of my latest podcast. I play tennis and I play ping pong. Now, some of the smartest, fastest athletes in the world, if you ever look at table tennis videos on YouTube, are table tennis players. But in addition to that, I consider tennis to be very much like boxing because I've boxed as well, and I get the same kind of cognitive load when I play tennis, especially at a fast pace, as I do when I spar or I box. And the idea is that you're essentially boxing over a net without getting hit in the face. That's. That's what I claim tennis to be.

I can see that for the ping pong because it's sit in close proximity and you have to react so much quicker. But tennis, I mean, sure, if the ball's going like really fast, which it often does with higher caliber players, you've still got some distance to. To judge what you're going to do next. So, yeah, I guess the combination of the two would really be.

It depends. Now, remember I was a collegiate tennis player, so I played a. I played at a pretty high level. Like the level where when the person is serving to you, you. You're watching the person. Like in baseball pitching, professional baseball pitching, you're not even watching the ball, you're watching the person because the ball's gonna get there too fast for you to track it. So I'm talking about playing at a pretty high level. But when I play fast, competitive tennis, same thing. Like your brain is working overtime. Plus, rather than getting hit in the face and bleeding out the nose, you get to wear all white and eat strawberries and cream afterwards at the club. If you enjoyed this clip, you should check out the whole episode and a host of other topics over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com have an amazing day.