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Andi Polisky is 82 and still playing quality tennis because she can run. Why can she run at 82? Read below, please.
By Ray Glier
Ok, so you have been handed down robust DNA. Good for you, but it is not an exemption from troublesome aging. You can't just show it at the door and expect to be swimming laps at 95 years old.
It's why I can write about extraordinary older athletes from time to time. They have taken nothing for granted. They have an aura of intentionality I envy.
So when Andi Polisky, who is still playing tennis competitively at 82, told me in the first nine minutes of an interview that she had won the gene lottery, I knew better.
Polisky is the sum of accumulated variables that have nothing to do with her mother, Rose, who lived to be 101.
Andi fortified that DNA, you bet she did. And that is the imperative. Build on DNA or reconstitute it. (There is a 3-minute video take at the end of this short story you will enjoy if you think you were dealt a raw hand in the womb.)
What do her variables combined with her robust DNA mean?
At 82, Andi can run.
Running is why tennis is fun at 82. It’s why Polisky won a gold medal in doubles in 2024 at the ITF World Tennis Masters Tour World Championships in Turkey and a Gold Ball in doubles in 2025 at the National Women’s Tennis Organization (NWTO) championships.
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Andi adopted a moderate diet of little red meat and plenty of protein-rich chicken and fish. She lives in Palm Desert, Ca., and plays tennis primarily on grass, which is more forgiving to feet than concrete or asphalt.
Here is the significant variable. Her exercise routine is Tabata.
Polisky cross trains with Tabata three days a week. It is High Intensity Interval Training and a single Tabata cycle lasts four minutes, with eight rounds of 20-second bursts with a 10-second rest interspersed. It is cardio, weight, and core. Three days a week Andi does this for an hour.
"It keeps you toned and it keeps you fit," she said.
This is the important lesson for Geezer Jocks who are 65, or younger.
Andi has been doing Tabata 15 years. She is not immune to aging. Polisky just prepared for it.
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If you can’t/won’t try Tabata think about this as you try and keep running:
The propulsion for your feet comes from strong calves.
These tips for your calves are not dark arts. They do not come with an invoice from a trainer.
Heel raises: Stand and shift your weight to your toes to lift your heels. Hold for 5 seconds to build calf strength.
Toe Raises: Shift weight to your heels and lift your toes to strengthen the shin muscles, which helps prevent tripping while running.
Sit-to-Stands: Sit in a sturdy chair, lean your chest forward over your toes, and stand up without using your hands. This directly improves the leg strength needed for running because it strengthens the calves..
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Back to Andi.
Her decision 35 years ago to scrap singles competition and only play doubles lessened wear and tear. Then there are the gentle scoldings Andi gives herself when she doesn't pick up her feet on the court.
“I’m slowing down, I can feel it,” Polisky said. “I just played today, and I noticed it. I said to myself, ‘Lazy. Move your feet’.”
You can add another variable with her career in sales, which gives her a competitor's focus.
And this is what it gets her:
Andi spies across the tennis net to her doubles opponents and looks at their feet. Not their shoes. Their feet.
Can they run?
Can they can chase down her shots? It is damn hard for 80 year old's to run, she says, and half of her opponents cannot move their feet fast enough to get to her shots.
Feet are everything in sports and whether your 60, 70, or 80, you need them. They allow you to get away with a lot of things.
I mean, Herb Washington played two seasons in Major League Baseball for the Oakland Athletics because he could run fast. Imagine that, a big league ballplayer, a non-pitcher, and he never batted in 1974 and 1975 and still earned a paycheck.
Polisky said she has all her original body parts, no new hips or knees. She solved a shoulder issue—no doubt from 70 years of swinging a racquet—with PRP treatments, which are Platelet-Rich Plasma treatments, a regenerative procedure that uses your own blood to accelerate healing and repair tissues.
Andi goes to the chiropractor every two weeks. She gets massages.
“I always thought I would be playing at 80,” Polisky said. “Never a doubt because I worked at it.”
So think about Andi, who did not just rely on a gift from Rose, her mom. Some of you might not have a Rose to lean on. In that case, this 3-minute talk is for you.
And then make sure to ask this question. How old is too old to run?
There is no such thing.
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