When to start tennis
Too Late to Start Playing Tennis? - Ask Ian #28
hi this is Ian Westerman I'm the head
pro at essential tennis comm where it's
my mission to bring passionate
instruction to passionate tennis players
just like you welcome to episode number
28 of ask Ian today I'm going to be
answering a question from Michael and
Canada who wrote to me and said it's a
two way to get serious about tennis at
21 years old I've improved greatly over
the summer I want to be able to compete
in some sort of tournaments someday okay
the short answer to your question
Michael is no it is not too late now I
there is an asterisk and that is simply
it depends on what you mean by serious
you ask if it's too late to become a
serious player well here's the thing and
I have to go here because I get
questions constantly from players of all
different ages from all different parts
of the world where their question is
basically Ian can i still be a
professional player and you know Michael
I don't I don't know you I think this is
the first time that we communicated back
and forth so I don't know if that's what
you had in mind or not if it is what you
had in mind if it is what you had in
mind if you're thinking like you know
high-level competition low level you
know professional tournaments or
whatever then yes it's probably it
probably is too late at age 21 unless
you have a really big experience being a
very high level athlete in some other
sport you know that's the only way it
could be if you were a professional
athlete and some other sport maybe you
could have some success going up to
really really low level professional
competition but even then it's next to
impossible starting at that age now if
if what you mean by what was the word
serious can you let's see was it is it
too late to get serious about tennis if
you mean playing tournaments tournaments
as in you know USTA tournaments
maybe state regional or even national
tournaments for maybe age division you
know talking about
just change this I don't even know if
they still have 30 use thirty fives 40s
I think everything is kind of grouped in
and the open level below that anyway no
absolutely not it's not too late in fact
you're starting in a place where so many
people that have tuned in today are
completely envious of you starting at
age 21 not sure if you're aware of this
or not but there there is serious
competition all the way up through the
90s as far as age bracket you know age
level of competition there there are
people playing tournaments in their 90's
still that means that you could play
serious tennis for the next 70 years so
no it's not too late you could have
started thirty years from now and still
had decades left of amazing experiences
around the game and the thing that comes
to mind for me
PJ Simmons who is the the creator of US
tennis Congress which is a weekend camp
completely centered around you're
passionate driven amateur tennis player
and these are people who are in their
you know 30s 40s 50s 60s and 70s I mean
the this the age of student probably
spans four decades I mean literally and
these are players who are unbelievably
excited to be on the court with high
level instructors and they're you know
there's not a lot of big event you know
type opportunities like that but
tournaments yeah there's there's a huge
amount of opportunity for tournaments
and competition and people right at your
age right at your level that love to
compete no matter where you are no
matter how old you are or what your
skill level is that's one of the most
amazing things about tennis and you
should be excited about that and excited
for the opportunities that you have in
front of you if you do take it seriously
you do work hard and you do have a
passion for improvement
you have huge potential and just an
awesome you know road in front of you
trying to become as good as you can so
if you had aspirations to being a
profession
player I you know probably just crushed
your dreams I'm sorry but the fact of
the matter is I mean people who are
playing professional tennis are 1% of 1%
of 1% of 1% I mean quite I mean that
that may actually be literally true and
so if you don't get on that you know if
you don't get on that path when you're
very very young and you don't have very
very high-level attention for you know
years and years as a young child is just
unbelievably difficult but on the other
hand if you just have aspirations of you
know just like the rest of us me
included I never I never had the
opportunity to play pro tennis it's just
was never in the cards for me whether it
was more when I started playing or
whether it was more you know financial
or you know whatever it just it was
never in the cards for me but I I can I
could go back focus on my game and and
have an unbelievably good time competing
at any point the rest of my life and
that's one of the best parts about about
tennis so Michael hopefully that was
helpful to you and if you've tuned in
today hopefully you've enjoyed my answer
as well if so please click like on
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also lastly if you have any questions or
comments leave those down below maybe
I'll use your question in a future
episode of ask Ian thank you so much for
watching today I appreciate it take care
and good luck with your tennis
