How to Equate a Tennis Match to Miles

The distance you run during a tennis match can vary greatly depending on your skill level and whether you're playing singles or doubles. The only way to keep exact count is by wearing a specialized wristwatch that tracks distance, not merely steps. There are two ways you can estimate the distance you travel, as long as you know how much time you spent playing and how fast you typically run a mile.

Instructions

  1. By Time

    • 1

      Start a timer or write down the starting time of your match.

    • 2

      Keep track of any breaks or stop the timer and restart it after each break.

    • 3

      After you finish the match, calculate the total time you actually played.

    • 4

      Figure out how many miles you would run per minute by dividing one by the length of time it takes you to run a mile. For example, if you run a mile in nine minutes, you would divide one by nine to get .11 miles per minute.

    • 5

      Multiple the miles you run per minute by the number of minutes you played tennis. If you played for 90 minutes, multiply .11 by 90 to get 9.9. This is roughly how many miles you ran during the match.

    By Calories

    • 6

      Follow steps 1 through 3 above.

    • 7

      Figure out how many calories you burn in an hour of tennis by using a calorie calculator (see Resources). This number is based on your weight, height, sex and how long you played. For example, a 35-year-old woman who weighs 130 pounds and is 5-foot-4 burns approximately 339 calories in an hour of tennis.

    • 8

      Divide the result by 60 to get the number of calories you burned per minute. For example, the woman above burned 5.65 calories per minute (339 divided by 60).

    • 9

      Multiply your result by the amount of time you played in minutes. For example, if you burned 5.65 calories per minute and played for 90 minutes, you would have burned 508 calories.

    • 10

      Using the calorie calculator, figure out how many calories you would burn in an hour of running. For example, the 35-year old woman who weighs 130 pounds and is 5-foot-4 burns 565 calories if she runs a nine-minute mile.

    • 11

      Figure out how many calories you burn in a minute of running by dividing the calories from step 5 by 60. For example, using the above example, you burn 9.42 calories per minute (565 divided by 60).

    • 12

      Divide the total from step 4 by the calories per minute from step 6. In this example, you would divide 508 by 9.42 to get 53. This mean it would take 53 minutes of running to equal 90 minutes of tennis.

    • 13

      Figure out how many miles you run in one minute by dividing the speed at which you run a mile by 60. For example, if you run a nine-minute mile, divide nine by 60 to get 0.15.

    • 14

      Multiply the result (0.15) by the number of minutes determined at the end of step 7 (53) to get the equivalent number of miles you ran playing tennis. In the example, the miles ran would be 0.15 times 53 = 7.95.