Book helps show age is no barrier to playing tennis
A PHYSIOTHERAPIST has turned her love of sport into a new career by having her first book published.
Suzanne Clark, 52, has been a physiotherapist for more than 30 years and is a keen member of Farnborough Lawn Tennis Club.
Since joining the club, she noticed many of the older members became injured as a result of playing.
Mrs Clark said: “There were a lot of players over 50 and they didn’t do much of a warm-up before they played.
“So as a physiotherapist I thought about what exercises they could do to help.
“One lady in particular asked what exercises she should be doing because she was in her 60s and wanted to keep playing as long as she could, but she thought she would have to give up at 70.
“That made me realise there is a misconception that after a certain age you couldn’t do anything anymore.”
Mrs Clark began researching how the older club members could prevent injuries while playing tennis, but there was so much information she decided to write a book on the topic.
She said: “I don’t class myself as an author but because the best way for me to get the information across was to write a book that’s what I did, and it’s had such a positive response.
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot out there for the over 50s that isn't highly technical so I wanted to write it in a way that anyone could read it and understand it.”
Many of Farnborough Lawn Tennis Club’s members acted as guinea pigs for Mrs Clark to test out exercises while she was in the process of writing her book, and act as proof readers to ensure the medical terms were understandable.
Mrs Clark said that exercise can often be considered as boring so she wanted to include exercises that could be incorporated into daily routines.
She said: “I wanted the readers to think of them as things you can do every day without thinking of them as exercises – simple things like taking the stairs two at a time and not holding on to the arms of your chair as you get up.”
Mrs Clark has since been requested by her elderly neighbour to write another book specifically relating to exercises that can assist with playing golf.
Play Tennis Forever is available from Amazon and costs £12.99.