Lesson #4. How many hours a week should we play tennis?

         Tennis is a harsh sport for the body and is not always easy to figure out the amount of time you should be practicing. If you don't play enough, your chances of getting better decrease, and if you practice too much, you overtrain and consequently risk an injury. So, how do we know how much time a week we can spend on the court?

 First of all, it depends on different factors: you level in tennis, the number of years played, and your general physical condition. As tennis is an individual sport, the amount of time one can spend on the court will be different for each person and depend on their resistance as well (physical and mental).

But overall, here is an idea of what you could do:

• If you are a beginner (0 to 2 years of tennis), 2 hours a week seems a good number to help you get better. If you are in good shape, 3 hours will be recommended.
• If you have an intermediate level (at least 3 years of tennis), 3 or 4 hours a week should be enough to make your game progress. You can eventually go up to 6 hours depending on your type of game (physical game or not).
• Finally, if you are a competitive player with an advanced level, the number of times you play really depends on what your body can take. Usually, 6 hours a week is a good number for any advanced player. But if you have high goals and wishes to perform at a high level, you should plan to practice every day of the week. 

As a competitive tennis player, I use to practice 5 hours a day, 5 days a week which is 25 hours a week. It is a lot but I got there progressively and started to play young. I do not have the same goals anymore so I only 8 hours a week. 

Surpass yourself but watch out for injuries!