When is it too cold to play outside?

[kenshireen]

55F or higher.
But there are other considerations..
If it is a sunny day I willplay in the high 40's. The sun does warm you up..
Wind..if the wind is blowin 10-15 steady and it is a cloudy overcast day...I will raise my limit to 60.

Concerns are twofold:
I'm 63 and do not want to pull or tear anything in my leg.. I already tore a distal bicept tendon playing and ALTA match in snow flurries.
Secondly, my hands/fingers get cold and I don't get a clean feel for the bevels on my racket.

When people call me in the winter, the first thing I do is check weather.com

Ken

[J011yroger]

Originally Posted by kenshireen

When people call me in the winter, the first thing I do is check weather.com

Ken

People know better than to call me in the winter without indoor reservations.

My cold sissy reputation precedes me.

J

[samster]

My friend and I had made plans to play today. My friend wanted to play outdoors because it was "nice" outside. It was in high in the mid 50s. I told him "no, thanks." We ended up playing inside as planned but he seemed a little upset in the beginning. But I rather be able to feel my hands while trying to hit a ball than try to save a few bucks.

[Falloutjr]

Ha! I was outside practicing serves by myself in 30 degree weather for 3 hours and I didn't feel a thing. Being from Ohio, I'm either numb to the coldness having played in it so many times, or numb in general from the freezing weather, but I manned up, and so should you! It's never too cold to play tennis ball

[Falloutjr]

I don't mean the OP, I mean samster

[tennytive]

We played yesterday in balmy 55 degrees with a stiff south wind.

Played some of my best tennis of the season, so "cold" was not a factor.

I think it was because I re-gripped my rackets in the morning. Better touch and feel the whole match, even with the wind.

[AlexTennisAllDayLong]

I hate playing in cold, balls are like rocks, they don't bounce at all.
I remember we had tennis practice in South Dakota in spring and it would be snowing half the time lol...its wicked. Hot weather is the best even though i dont enjoy overheating

[mlktennis]

i'm a polar bear. as long as there is no snow, I can and will play. The cold weather clothes like 'under armor' wick sweat away and is awesome at keeping you dry and warm.

[nytennisaddict]

Originally Posted by 10ACE

Why not give paddle tennis a try, real fun sport in 30-50 degree weather. As for tennis, 60's is still good by me, when it gets bellow 60 into the 50's the cold air can mess with my lungs, like ice daggers.

woohoo, i second paddle in ny, evening temps are getting into the 40's so i'm getting into paddle mode.

40 is about my limit for tennis, below that:
1) i'll lose feel in my fingers (even with racquet ball type gloves)
2) warming up takes forever
3) even warmed up, temps in the 30's requires enough layers of clothing (even tech gear), that it constricts my natural stroke
4) it's hard enough to find folks at my level to play tennis, forget about finding other folks to play in the 40's or lower
5) i think the feel of the ball off the strings is very different than when playing in 50+ temps

[nytennisaddict]

Originally Posted by 10ACE

Why not give paddle tennis a try, real fun sport in 30-50 degree weather. As for tennis, 60's is still good by me, when it gets bellow 60 into the 50's the cold air can mess with my lungs, like ice daggers.

in paddle, i'll often play <30, doesn't the cold air mess with you at that temp as well in paddle?

[Andres]

Originally Posted by Sup2Dresq

Anything below 65 degrees and I wont play. Everyone who hits with me knows that rule. 64.. nope...

I need to move to somewhere tropical or with plenty of palm trees!

I'm the exact opposite. I don't like playing above 77. I truly can't stand the heat.

On the other side, I adore mid 30s temperatures. My ideal temperature for a good tennis match is roughly 41ºF

My father was a viking, my mother was a polar bear. I got good genes

Nah, in all seriousness, I don't like the heat at all. I can play up to 86º, but I do NOT enjoy it. 73-77 is like my upper threshold. Anything above that, and I prefer not to play.
But between 30-50? Any day of the week. Mar del Plata doesn't have that many sub-30º days, so I couldn't say

[jimanuel12]

Originally Posted by tennytive

Are there any polar bear tennis clubs?

I started playing with a bunch of guys here in the Chicago area who say they show up until the snow starts to fly. We only play once a week, so I hate to miss out, especially since it's so close to shutting it down for the winter.

This is doubles, so it's not like we're killing ourselves out there, but I'm already playing with nagging injuries as it is, and wonder if I could make things worse by not being smart about the weather. Then again, maybe it's no big deal.

I do remember playing in November once many years back, but that was a relatively warm day. But swimming in the lake afterwards was no bargain. Significant shrinkage…

anything below 55 degrees is to darn cold for me!!!!
i need to be a snow bird.

[Mick]

the good thing about playing tennis in extreme cold weather is you probably don't have to wait for the court -- that is unless there are other tennis fanatics like you guys

[Ronaldo]

Never too cold but I will quit once the snow begins...........accumulates

[samster]

Originally Posted by Falloutjr

Ha! I was outside practicing serves by myself in 30 degree weather for 3 hours and I didn't feel a thing. Being from Ohio, I'm either numb to the coldness having played in it so many times, or numb in general from the freezing weather, but I manned up, and so should you! It's never too cold to play tennis ball

Originally Posted by Falloutjr

I don't mean the OP, I mean samster

samster is getting old!

[10ACE]

Originally Posted by nytennisaddict

in paddle, i'll often play <30, doesn't the cold air mess with you at that temp as well in paddle?

Well I would rather play in the 40's. 30's is not my ideal, but I will do. Paddle is like ping pong for me outdoors, haha great sport.

[kenshireen]

You guys are overlooking one very important point... When the temp drops down to the 40's -30's...the balls do not bounce well..

[Ronaldo]

Originally Posted by kenshireen

You guys are overlooking one very important point... When the temp drops down to the 40's -30's...the balls do not bounce well..

Ken, got this bucket of Tretorns that bounce in the dead of winter. Only ice or snow stops the show.

[ebrainsoft]

When it rains in here in Northern, California I practice on a squash court using my tennis racquet and tennis balls.

[charliefedererer]

Originally Posted by Ronaldo

Ken, got this bucket of Tretorns that bounce in the dead of winter. Only ice or snow stops the show.

Are those the Tretorn Micro-X? I had noticed that pressurless balls in general work better in the cold, and am looking forward to trying out my new Micro-X balls in the cold. (I can't complain that its been unseasonably warm the last few weeks though.)