Tennis Industry Names Health & Wellness Task Force

Source: Tennis Industry Association

Highly accomplished and respected international panel, chaired by Dr. Jack Groppel, will help guide the sport in connecting tennis with mainstream thinking about health, wellness and life benefits  tennis.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (March 2, 2017) — A national Tennis Health & Wellness Task Force, comprised of top doctors and sports medicine experts, has been assembled by the tennis industry to help reach and engage mainstream Americans with messaging on the health, fitness, wellness and life benefits of tennis.

The Task Force, which is supported by the tennis industry, is chaired by Dr. Jack Groppel, who is the Health & Wellness Advisor for the tennis industry and the Co-Founder of the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute. Dr. Groppel is an internationally recognized authority and pioneer in the science of human performance and has a long history in the sport of tennis, including 16 years as Chair of the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) National Sport Science Committee.

In addition to Dr. Groppel, the Tennis Health & Wellness Task Force will include:

* Dr. Laura DeFina, President and CEO of the Cooper Institute

* Dr. Brian Hainline, Chief Medical Officer for the NCAA and former longtime Chief Medical Officer for the US Open.

* Dr. Babette Pluim, Chief Medical Advisor for the Royal Netherlands Lawn Tennis Association.

* Dr. Paul Roetert, CEO of SHAPE America (Society of Health and Physical Educators) and former Managing Director of USTA Player Development.

* James Whitehead, the Executive Vice President and CEO of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

“We have an all-star lineup for the Tennis Health & Wellness Task Force,” Dr. Groppel says. “I’m pleased to be working with some incredible people both in and beyond the health and wellness industries to spread these positive messages and benefits to people of all ages.”

In helping to guide the sport in connecting tennis with mainstream thinking about health, wellness and wellbeing practices, the Tennis Health & Wellness Task Force will work with the Tennis Industry Association (TIA), USTA and other tennis industry partners. In addition, Drs. Groppel, Hainline and Roetert will take part in a Health & Wellness panel at the 2017 Tennis Owners & Managers Conference in Orlando on March 27 (visit TheTOMConference.com).

Along with his position with the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, Dr. Groppel is the Co-Chair of the Global Alliance for Health & Performance and is Professor of Kinesiology & Community Health at the University of Illinois. He’s addressed the issue of worksite wellness and performance at United Nations and U.S. Congress policy events, and has represented the worksite wellness industry at the Surgeon General’s Call to Action on Walking and Walkable Communities. He also is the Co-Chair of the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) Health, Performance & Productivity Study Committee.

Last April, Dr. Groppel was instrumental in having the tennis industry become the first sports industry to endorse the new National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP) when the plan was unveiled in Washington, D.C. He also encouraged top U.S. and international tennis officials to sign the CEO Pledge for Physical Activity (part of the National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity), for which he is the national spokesperson.

Dr. Groppel wrote the book “The Corporate Athlete” on achieving the pinnacle of corporate performance, and he’s been featured in the New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, Shape, Fast Company and Huffington Post, among other publications.

About the TIA

The Tennis Industry Association, the not-for-profit trade association for tennis, is THE unifying force in the tennis industry whose mission is to promote the growth and economic vitality of the business of tennis by working closely with its industry partners and in support of the USTA in their development of initiatives to increase tennis participation. Core TIA activities include producing more than 70 U.S. and global research reports annually on participation and consumer/trade research, managing the largest relational database, along with hosting annual TIA Tennis Forum, Leadership meetings and the TOM Conference at major tournaments and events. Visit TennisIndustry.org or call 866-686-3036.