About

Hi there,

Thanks for visiting.

The Lifelongtennis blog is about my quest to become the best singles tennis player I can be over the next two years. 2022 is the second year of that journey. Telling the story in real time, sharing the highs, the lows, thoughts and observations along the way. Why not join me on the journey?

I am a very ordinary 61 year old tennis player to the naked eye. Three years ago I suffered a slipped disc – we might get to that at some point, but not right now – and could not play tennis for 9 months. It was then I realised how much I missed being on a tennis court.

When I returned in March 2019 I was just delighted to be back on court. That summer during the league season I was statistically the worst player in my division. The delight at just being back on court was short lived. I needed something else if I was to continue playing.

I decided to set a two year goal of improvement. The slipped disc had been the worst of a series of injuries that I calculated had prevented me playing an injury free season in three of the past four years. Any improvement had to be based firstly on being fit to compete.

Why now! Hav’n’t I been trying to improve all the years I have been playing tennis? Well of course I have and there has been incremental improvement along the way. Now though there is a sense that there are less years playing singles ahead of me, than there are behind me and the slipped disc has acted as a wake up call.

There is of course doubt in my mind whether the improvement I am setting out to achieve is even possible.

Succeed or not I want to document the journey as it unfolds, not as a retrospective. Follow the blog and experience the season and off season, come behind the scenes and learn with me, what it takes to improve and how much it is even possible.