Tennis Injuries
Tennis, played worldwide, is one of the most popular racket sports. A high number of
tournaments for competitive tennis players may lead to overuse injuries, such as “tennis
elbow” or wrist injuries. For noncompetitive tennis players, improper or inadequate physical
and technique training may be the cause of overuse injuries. Although overuse injuries make
up a large chunk of tennis injuries the good news is that such injuries can be prevented
with some changes to technice and training routines.
What types of injuries are most common in tennis?
Two-thirds of tennis injuries are due to overuse and the other one-third is due to traumatic
injury or acute event. Overuse injuries most often affect the shoulders, wrists and elbows.
What are common injuries and treatments?
Tennis elbow
The injury most heard about is “tennis elbow,” which is an overuse of the muscles that
extend the wrist or bend it backwards. It is also the muscle most used when the tennis ball
impacts the raquet. Proper strengthening of this muscle and other muscles around it, along
with a regualr warm-up routine, will help decrease the likelihood of experiencing tennis
elbow. Paying attention to technical components such as grip size and proper technique can
also help prevent this condition.
Shoulder injuries
Shoulder overuse injuries are usually due to poor conditioning and strength of the rotator
cuff muscles. The rotator cuff helps to position the shoulder properly in the shoulder
socket. When is it fatigued or weak, there is some increased “play” of the ball in the
socket, irritating the tissues. The tendon or the bursa can become inflamed and hurt. This
usually produces pain with overhead motions such as serving. If the pain persists, it can
interfere with sleep and other daily activities.
Flexing and extending the wrist against light resistance with an exercise band three to four
times a week may help lessen pain and decrease injuries.
Stress Fractures
Twenty percent of junior players suffer stress fractures, compared to just 7.5 percent of
professional players. Stress fractures are the result of increasing training too rapidly.
When the muscles tire, more stress is placed on the bone. If this occurs too quickly, the
bone cannot adjust rapidly enough to accommodate the stress and it breaks. These “breaks”
are usually cracks in the bone that cause pain rather than an actual break or displacement
in the bone. Stress fractures can occur in the leg (tibia or fibula) or in the foot (the
navicular or the metatarsals). These injuries are preventable with proper strength and
endurance training prior to extensive tennis playing. Appropriate footwear is aslo critical
to preventing stress fractures.
Muscle Strains
Muscle strains usually occur from quick, sudden moves. A good warm-up followed by proper
stretching can help diminish muscle strains. The warm-up should include a slow jog, jumping
jacks, or riding a bike at low intensity.
Proper stretching should be slow and delibrate. Do not bounce to stretch; hold the stretch
30 seconds or more. The best stretches are moving stretches, such as swinging your leg as
far forward and backward or swinging your arms in circles and across your body. Proper
stretching should last at least five minutes.
If you have any concerns about an injury or how to prevent future injuries speak with a
sports medicine professional or athletic trainer. The athlete should return to play only
when clearance is granted by a health care professional.
PHYSIOTHERAPY INTERVENTION :
We as Physiotherapists are skilled at diagnosing the specific injury , and then through
multiple modalities , we are able to treat the various common conditions discussed above and
accelerate injury repair.
Deep soft tissue release
Manual therapy and joint mobilisation
Electrotherapy
Shockwave therapy
Acupuncture
Exercise rehabilitation
To prevent the injury recurring , a personalised strength and flexibility programme should
be prescribed .
For the end of season and pre-season , players should seek our professional advice to do a
screening and biomechanical assessment , as this will detect any abnormalities early on and
then a structured programme can be designed for them as a preventative measure. This will
hopefully allow the players to have less injury time during the season .
Clinton Grobbelaar
( Physiotherapist )