Tennis Elbow Tips

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Tennis elbow tips help you alot in avoiding this suffering. Tennis elbow is an inflammation of the tendons that attach your forearm muscles to your lateral epicondyle, the bony knob on the outside of your arm an inch or two from the bigger knob that you generally think of as your elbow. In tennis elbow, an acute strain, or, more commonly, repeated, smaller strains cause microscopic tears in the tendons where they attach to the bone. The main symptom is pain, which occurs on contact with the ball, especially on one-handed backhands, and often when performing ordinary motions like opening a jar or lifting a heavy bag. Almost half of recreational tennis players suffer from tennis elbow at some point in their lives. Another name for tennis elbow is lateral epicondylitis.

While tennis elbow is the most common elbow injury in tennis players, tennis can cause or exacerbate many other elbow injuries. Of these, the next most common injury--and the one most often confused with tennis elbow--is golfer's elbow, or medial epicondylitis, an inflammation of the tendons that attach to the medial epicondyle, the bony knob on the inside of your elbow. It usually hurts when hitting forehands and serves, twisting the wrist, and of course, playing golf.

To help prevent tennis elbow, you should start with arm-friendly equipment. Except for a few delicate touch shots, most of tennis involves fairly violent collisions between racquet and ball, and the amount of shock and twisting force transferred to your arm varies significantly with the physical properties of your racquet, strings, and balls. Racquet weight, balance, and stiffness, grip size and traction, string tension and gauge, and ball weight and fluffiness can all make a real difference to the health of your arm. Another tennis elbow tip.

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Mike Cola from Fitness Contrarian explains his treatment for Tennis Elbow.

•Quick tips do get rid of tennis elbow

•Intergraded and isolated exercise approach to cure and prevent tennis elbow

•Full demonstration of the tennis elbow treatment program

Tennis elbow may be tennis's worst problem, afflicting roughly half of all recreational players at some point in their lives. In Tennis Elbow, we discussed the nature of the injury and surveyed how it can be prevented and treated. Here, we will look closely at choices in tennis equipment that can improve your likelihood of avoiding this painful condition.

On all but the gentlest tennis shots, the impact between racquet and ball produces shock and, unless you meet the ball exactly on your racquet's centerline, torsion (twisting force). How much these forces are transferred to your arm depends largely on the physical properties of the racquet, strings, and ball.

Racquet weight and balance: Racquet weight and balance make the biggest difference in how much potentially harmful force from the racquet-ball impact is transferred to your arm. Your arm likely is safest with a relatively heavy racquet (at least 10.5 ounces strung, preferably at least 11) that's not balanced overly head-light (within 5 points of even). More weight absorbs more shock, and more weight in the racquet head provides more resistance to torsion. Torsion is particularly stressful to your forearm muscles and the tendons that get damaged in tennis elbow. In addition to helping prevent tennis elbow, resistance to torsion enhances control, as your racquet is less prone to turning to an unintended angle as it launches the ball.

Racquet stiffness: A more flexible frame absorbs slightly more of the shock of the ball's impact, but it also vibrates with greater amplitude after impact. For many players, frame vibration is quite uncomfortable, but it hasn't been proven to cause tennis elbow or other injuries. Shock, however, is known to cause injury. Given only these considerations, a flexible frame would seem to be more certain to reduce the risk of injury, but a flexible frame also reduces control and power, and requiring the player to string tighter (for more control) or swing harder (for more power) would likely increase the risk of injury more than frame flexibility can decrease it.

String tension, gauge, and resiliency: Looser, thinner, and/or more resilient strings are definitely easier on your arm, as they stretch more and thus spread the force of the ball's impact over a longer period of time, which reduces the peak shock. The main disadvantages of looser strings are less control and slightly less spin. Thinner strings may slightly increase spin, but they and more resilient strings tend to break sooner. The most durable strings, made of Kevlar and similar materials, are also the stiffest, and they're much tougher on your arm.

For changes you can make in your grip size, overgrip, and type of ball to help prevent tennis elbow.

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Here, I'll consider the smaller pieces--grips, overgrips, and balls--that may make a big difference in helping you avoid tennis elbow.

Grip size: While a grip that's too large or small will tend to force you to grab the handle too tightly and thereby increase strain on your forearm, a grip that's too small is likely to be worse, because it's more likely to try to turn in your hand. A grip that's less than 1/8" too small is easily remedied, though, because it can be fattened adequately by adding an overwrap, whereas an overly large grip would have to be shaved down at a pro shop. Adding multiple overwraps to make up for more than a 1/8" deficit isn't advisable, because it rounds off the bevel edges too much.

Overgrip to prevent slipping: Even with the right grip size, you're likely to end up gripping your racquet too tightly if the handle becomes slippery. A good overgrip can keep your grip dry and prevent slipping, which is safer both for your arm and for your racquet, as racquets are frequently broken by slipping out of the player's hand and slamming into the court or fence.

Standard balls: A lighter tennis ball would be better for your arm, but all new, standard tennis balls have essentially the same weight, 56.0-59.4 grams. A ball that has lost most of its fuzz will feel noticeably lighter to many players, but it will also change the game by, for example, responding less to spin. The opposite effect occurs when the fuzz on newer balls fluffs up excessively and becomes heavier by holding more moisture and particles of dirt or clay. Longer fuzz will also change the game by increasing the ball's response to spin and decreasing its speed. The best way to avoid overfluffed fuzz is to avoid hard-court balls on clay and on some very slow hard courts.

Alternative balls: If your arm can't take the shock of a standard tennis ball, you might want to try playing with a Soft Tennis ball, which weighs only 30-31 grams, or an ITF Stage 2 ball, which weighs only 47.0-51.5 grams. Soft Tennis is very popular in Asia, where, in addition to greater arm safety, players enjoy the longer rallies that result from a slower ball. The ITF Stage 2 ball is meant for introductory training, especially of juniors, but advanced players often find it fun too.

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Here, I will discuss how to modify your strokes to help prevent tennis elbow or keep playing while giving your elbow a rest.

Tennis Elbow Tips: Using your legs: Although your arm is the single most important part of your body in hitting the ball, the more the rest of your body contributes, the better you're likely to hit and the less strain your arm will feel. Particularly important is getting the big muscles of your legs to push forward on all driving strokes and upward on all topspin strokes.

Tennis Elbow Tips: Meeting the ball in front: If you meet the ball well in front of yourself, you're much more likely to have your weight going forward as you hit, and the contribution from your body weight and leg thrust will reduce the demand on your arm. You will also be much less likely to lead with your elbow on your one-handed backhand.

Tennis Elbow Tips: Avoiding leading with your elbow: Most tennis players know you shouldn't "lead with your elbow" on one-handed backhands, but many aren't entirely sure what that means. To get a clear picture of it, hold an imaginary racquet, bend your arm sharply at the elbow, point your elbow at an imaginary net, and then straighten your arm so that your fist points at the net. You've just simulated an extreme version of leading with the elbow. While few players would lead with the elbow that obviously, many hit one-handed backhands with enough of that forward chopping motion to damage their elbows. To avoid leading with your elbow, make sure to generate your one-handed backhand swing with your shoulder and upper arm, not your elbow and forearm, and get a strong forward push from your legs to take some of the workload off your arm altogether.

Tennis Elbow Tips: Seeing the ball well and keeping your head still: Meeting the ball on your racquet's centerline greatly reduces the strain on your elbow, because it prevents torsion. Along the centerline, there's also a point of least shock, called the center of percussion. No one can meet the ball perfectly every time, but you might be able to greatly improve your contact with the ball by trying to see the ball get hit and by keeping your eyes on the point of contact for half a second after impact. In addition to enhancing your hand-eye coordination, this will keep your head still, which will help keep you from pulling away from the point of contact.

Tennis Elbow Tips: Reducing topspin if you're not meeting the ball near the centerline: If keeping your head still doesn't get the ball onto your racquet's centerline often enough to satisfy your arm, try hitting less topspin. A flatter swing makes hitting your centerline easier, as you're swinging more into the ball's path instead of cutting across it. Without the benefit of topspin, you won't be able to hit as hard at a given height, but slowing your swing down and hitting less hard will also benefit your arm.

Tennis Elbow Tips: Slowing your swing: Even if you can hit your centerline pretty consistently with a topspin stroke, a slower swing will benefit your arm. The forces that hurt your arm are proportional to the force of the collision between ball and racquet, which is in turn proportional to the opposing velocities of the racquet and ball. You have control over the velocity of your racquet. You can't completely control the velocity of the incoming ball--unless you choose opponents who don't hit as hard--but you can keep a hard hitter from using his full power by a variety of tactics, such as sending him balls that are above or below his wheelhouse.

Tennis Elbow Tips: Using the physically (vs. mentally) optimal grip: Make sure to use the grip that's most comfortable for each of your strokes. A Continental grip, for example, is painfully unsuitable to hitting forehand topspin groundstrokes, as is a full Western grip for hitting backspins (slices). At the net, a Continental grip makes much more sense, because it allows you to hit forehand and backhand volleys without switching grips, but on the forehand volley, it can be quite uncomfortable for some players. If you can get used to Continental volleys, you'll be able to react faster at the net without thinking about your grip, but for some players, switching between the Eastern forehand and Eastern backhand grips is so much more comfortable physically, it's worth the added mental challenge of having to switch.

Tennis Elbow Tips: Playing lefty: If you love being out on the tennis court more than your right arm does, give your right arm a rest by playing lefty. At first, you'll probably find some strokes, especially serves, quite awkward, but you might eventually become competent enough to give a decent match to a friend you would play righty, but beat fairly easily. Your friend will probably enjoy finally taking a set off you, and because you won't be able to put shots away as you would righty, you'll end up running like crazy and getting a lot more exercise. Playing lefty is also a great solution if you want to rally with someone who would be completely frustrated trying to handle your righty pace and spin. Trying to hit softer balls righty to accommodate a weaker player can strain your right arm while you're getting used to it, because you have to learn to restrain high-powered kinetic chains that have become natural from being used thousands of times. The feeling of those kinetic chains doesn't automatically transfer to your lefty swings, so you'll naturally hit an easier ball, and you and a weaker opponent will have more fun.

Here, I will discuss how to avoid or change off-court activities that are likely to contribute to or cause tennis elbow.

Tennis Elbow Tips: Factory-type work: The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety cites tennis elbow as a common occupational injury, resulting most commonly from the repetitive motions that many jobs entail. Particularly harmful are motions performed with the arms extended that involve gripping tightly while bending the arm at the elbow or that involve rotating the forearm while bending the wrist. More violent motions, such as throwing with a jerky motion or hitting objects with the hand are also likely, not surprisingly, to stress the elbow. They recommend reorganizing workplaces to reduce repetitive motions and make them more comfortable, such as by using machines to perform more of them, giving each worker a wider variety of tasks, and modifying tools and equipment to require less force to use. Workers can also relieve their elbows by using smoother motions, avoiding bending their wrists, changing positions periodically, and resting more often.

Tennis Elbow Tips: Construction and mechanical work: Tasks that involve a lot of twisting motions, gripping a power tool that shakes or vibrates powerfully, or sudden impacts such as hammering are likely to increase your risk of tennis elbow.

Tennis Elbow Tips: Typing: Typing can be tough on your elbow, especially if you don't have the keyboard at the right height. When you type, your forearms should be nearly horizontal. A natural keyboard, which allows you to keep your wrists in a neutral position as you type, can help quite a lot. You might also reduce your typing by using dictation software that converts your spoken words into type. You'll have to go through the text and make corrections, but your number of keystrokes will be greatly reduced.

Tennis Elbow Tips: Mousing: Many people use a computer mouse for hours every day. Try mousing with your left hand.

Tennis Elbow Tips: Sleeping: Be aware of how you're sleeping. Many people put their arms in strained positions for hours during sleep, especially when they turn onto their sides. Some use one hand to help keep their legs separated slightly while lying on their sides, in which case a leg pillow might help.

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