Save Money and Get Your Body Moving with Tennis
I and my former boss and good friend Joe Pierce have taken to playing tennis at a local park on the weekends. So why tennis?
First, playing tennis at a local park is essentially zero-cost, other than the occasional can of tennis balls and the initial need to find a tennis racquet. In general, I am trying to find ways to simplify my lifestyle and save money. Thankfully my hometown of Vacaville, CA has several places available to play tennis for free.
Second, tennis is good for getting the body moving. My friend Joe and I each have computer-based desk jobs, which are good for the wallet but bad for the body. Tennis on the weekends is a good way to counteract the effects of our sedentary work lifestyles.
Third, tennis is a sport in which you can genuinely shoot the breeze while playing. Tennis lends itself to casual chit-chat, catching up, brainstorming, telling jokes, and so on. For two jabber-mouths like us, tennis is a good chance to get a healthy dose of real social interaction after staring at a screen all week.
Fourth, a little friendly competition always helps people rise to the occasion to produce their best work. For this reason, we force ourselves to play a full set or two of tennis, rather than merely lobbing tennis balls back and forth aimlessly. It was true that competition made us perform better back in our RadioShack sales days, it's true in tennis, and it's true in any number of other spheres of life. Competition is good for the spirit.
So if find that you are spending too much money on frivolous things over the weekend or in the evenings after work, try picking up a new sport that you can play for free at your local park, such as tennis or basketball. Those of you in colder climates may struggle to find a place to play tennis, since tennis outdoors is essentially a nonstarter for several months out of the year. But the principle is the same: find a zero-cost activity that gets you some quality time with a friend and that gets your body moving a bit.
