RESOLUTION FOR 2007 -- NO ELBOW PAIN
By Vince Chiarelli, PTR, MRT and Owner of String Along With Vince in Largo
Happy New Year! Make a resolution to enjoy more tennis and avoid injury. One of the most common injuries I get emails about is tennis elbow, a form of tendonitis. The two main sources of elbow pain are equipment factors and stroke techniques.
You can also develop this painful condition from non-tennis activities like cutting hedges or putting up curtain rods without power tools, so keep that in mind. Here are some equipment tips to keep you in the pain-free zone: 1) use the heaviest racquet you can swing for better shock absorption; 2) use the largest grip you can comfortably hold to avoid pinching nerves and tendons; 3) play with natural gut or soft synthetic multifilament strings for maximum arm comfort; 4) string at medium or low tension for less jarring on ball contact; 5) avoid extremely head-heavy racquets to improve racquet preparation. How does your equipment stack up to these characteristics?
Now about those stroke techniques: think about your posture when you connect with the ball. If often your weight is on your back foot and your contact point with the ball is at your side or a bit behind your body, then arm trauma is just a miss-hit away. With the emphasis on “modern” tennis stances and grips (extreme western and semi-western for example), it is easy to get injured from improper follow-through. Make sure you are NOT rolling over on your forehand follow-through. If your racquet is flattened out like a skillet when you finish the stroke, then you ARE rolling over your forearm. Your coach should be able to catch you at that point and correct your motion. Forearm rollover is one of the major causes of tennis elbow. Using an elbow band may help stabilize that forearm muscle, but you need to work on correct follow-through.
If you already have tennis elbow, STOP playing for at least one month. If you feel no pain from regular movements after that time, start back gradually. Always start your warm-ups from the service line--hit gently back and forth until your body comes up to temperature, then move to the baseline and finish warm-up rallies. Try some serves. Continue the exercises (request copy via email) and icing to avoid future damage. If you are pain free after the month-long rest, great. Otherwise, give yourself another month off, then repeat the come-back process. Some people get faster relief from cortisone shots, but often the tendonitis will go away on its own, given time.
Copyright 2006
By Vince Chiarelli, MRT, PTR, Owner of String Along With Vince in Largo, FL
Category:
Editor's note pertaining to all articles presented.
All articles are presented as they were written and published. Some information contained in these articles may have changed over the years. Please be cognizant of this as you read. Additionally, since these articles go back as far as 1994, some of the technology may have changed, and new methods and advancements may have come about. Please contact us if you have any questions.
