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USPTA and ACSM Announce Historic Partnership

HOUSTON – The United States Professional Tennis Association and the American College of Sports Medicine announced an exciting partnership as it relates to each association’s initiatives of Tennis — for the health of it!SM and Exercise is MedicineTM, respectively. The announcement was made on Friday, May 9, during the free Tennis Across AmericaTM clinic with the theme of Tennis — for the health of it! held at Zina Garrison’s All Court Tennis Academy at MacGregor Park in Houston.
Jack Groppel, Ph.D., vice president of the USPTA Board of Directors, and Adrian Hutber, Ph. D., vice president of ACSM’s Exercise is Medicine™ program, were in attendance to announce this landmark alliance between the USPTA and ACSM, one of the first of its kind tying together major initiatives from the field of medicine with the arena of sport.

Tennis — for the health of it! strives to make the general public aware of the tremendous health, fitness and psychological benefits of tennis and encourage people to get out and play the sport as a part of their regular fitness regimen. The USPTA also strives to encourage and enable people across the nation and world to live a healthy lifestyle through the sport of tennis.

In addition, the USPTA and its members are the delivery force through which the public can receive these benefits through lessons and other tennis activities.
“Since there exists tremendous scientific support demonstrating that tennis is one of the best activities in which one could participate, and that USPTA has the infrastructure to deliver the game of tennis to all ages and ability levels, this partnership makes for a great match,” said Groppel. “USPTA-certified professionals will deliver healthy activity on the tennis court, supporting Exercise is Medicine and physicians in their communities to create healthier communities.”

Exercise is Medicine™ has the following guiding principles: Exercise and physical activity are important to health and the prevention and treatment of many chronic diseases, more should be done to address physical activity and exercise in healthcare settings, and ACSM and American Medical Association are making efforts to bring a greater focus on physical activity and exercise in healthcare settings.

“If the power of exercise to improve and maintain health is fully integrated into the U.S. healthcare system, it has the ability to dramatically improve the public’s health and quality of life in a way that perhaps no single medication can. ACSM is thrilled to be partnering with the USPTA in this common goal. The scientifically proven benefits of a correctly implemented tennis-based exercise program combined with the USPTA’s strong network of highly qualified teaching professionals makes this partnership a very natural fit for both organizations, and one that we are confident has huge potential to make a significant contribution to the health of the American public,” said Hutber.

This is a great synergistic relationship between the USPTA and ACSM and the USPTA is the vehicle to deliver exercise programs through tennis that the ACSM is so eager to push for health benefits. Exercise is important to stay healthy and playing tennis provides a great way to do that. Clearly, tennis is a natural fit for Exercise is Medicine™.

Through its network of teaching professionals, exemplified by its nationwide grassroots structure, USPTA is excited to be a vehicle for programs and activities presented by ACSM.

For more information on Tennis — for the health of it! visit uspta.com. For more information on Exercise is Medicine™ visit exerciseismedicine.org.

Posted on May 19, 2008
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