Tennis, like all sports and exercise, helps relieve stress through a combination of chemical and other physical factors as well as psychological and social factors. Unlike other sports and forms of exercise, though, tennis has some features that makes it uniquely effective at relieving stress. These features range from the specialties of interval training to the social affect of playing doubles at a club.
Social
One way that tennis relieves stress is through its social nature. Although the social nature is considerably less prominent in competitive realms, tennis as a recreational or intramural sport involves close contact with other people. At tennis clubs, members play each other and develop relationships. Recreational doubles tennis, which involves four players, can become as much a social event as a competitive one. In any of these scenarios, taking time to laugh and talk with friends or to meet new people can be a healthy and fun distraction from external stressors.
Exercise
Exercise of just about any kind releases endorphins and other chemicals that help relieve stress. MayoClinic.com calls endorphins the brain’s “feel-good transmitters” because of the way in which they provide a feeling of happiness. The physical act of striking a tennis ball with force, too, can help you vent stress.
Psychological Break
Another benefit of tennis as a stress reliever is the psychological distraction from external stressors. During a game of intensely competitive tennis, opponents enter into a kind of mental battle in which each side has to weight the other’s previous actions, along with constantly changing other conditions like weather and fatigue, and make decisions accordingly. This mind game is so involved in a competitive match that it pushes all thoughts regarding external stressors away.
Intervals and Stress Response
A 1996 article in "Tennis" magazine -- "How Tennis Relieves Stress" -- states that there is something unique about tennis as a sport that helps relieve stress, namely its “interval-like training.” That is, tennis causes you to play at different levels of intensity, or intervals, which helps your body adapt to stress in general.
