Tennis Elbow (technical name is lateral epicondylitis) is the term given to an inflamed tendon attached to the bony outer part of the elbow. The tendon tissues may be inflamed or partially torn in more extreme conditions. It is estimated that about 50% of recreational tennis players will get tennis elbow at some point in their tennis career. There is a similar condition called Golfer’s Elbow (medial epicondylitis) which affects the inside part of the elbow.

Tennis elbow is a repetitive stress type injury and is not just limited to tennis players. It is common to many manual repetitive tasks involving repeated shocks to the wrist and upper arm. In tennis, there are several factors which increase the likelihood of having tennis elbow which include:

1) Age (a greater tendency for people older than about 35)

2) Frequency of play (greater than 3 times/week)

3) Lack of flexibility or strength in arm and wrist

4) Poor technique on ground strokes

5) Frequent off-center hitting (not hitting the ball in the ‘sweet spot’ of the racket)

6) Holding the racket too tightly

The impact of the racket with the ball causes vibrations to travel up through the racket into the arm and elbow. In addition, with every shot there are repeated contractions of the forearm muscle. This can cause inflammation and sometimes degeneration of the tissue on the outside of the elbow.

Symptoms:

1) Sharp pain on outside of elbow

2) Pain radiates down arm (not in all cases)

3) Pain while extending wrist or lifting objects.

4) Outside of elbow painful to the touch

5) Loss of grip strength

Initial treatment:

1) Rest from tennis for about 1 week

2) Apply ice to the affected area for 15-20 minutes, 3-4 times daily

3) To relieve pain and inflammation take an appropriate medication over the counter medication.

4) Use an elbow brace to redirect pressure away from the inflamed elbow

5) Consult a doctor if pain persists.

Exercises to improve strength and flexibility:

1) Hold out your injured arm straight with your palm facing down

2) Hold the back of this hand with your other uninjured hand and press the fingers down gently so they point down towards the ground

3) You should feel a light stretch in your forearm.  Stop if you feel any pain.

4) Hold out your injured arm straight, but this time with your palm facing upwards.

5) Now press down your hand using your uninjured hand.

6) You should feel a light stretch in your forearm.  Stop if you feel any pain

7) Use your fingers to massage the muscles in your forearm and any tender areas

Use a massage stick on your forearm muscles and any tender areas.

9) There are some excellent wrist and forearm exercises given in “Complete Conditioning for Tennis” by E.Paul Roetert and Todd S. Ellenbecker.

To avoid getting tennis elbow one of the best tennis tips is to work with a tennis professional to make sure you are hitting the ball properly. You could also play using a racket with a more flexible shaft and with a lower tension in the strings. This should dampen any vibrations that travel through the racket to your arm. Also, try relaxing your grip and release your grip between points by supporting the weight of your racket with your other hand under the racket-head.

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In its simplest form, aerobic and anaerobic refer to the presence or absence of oxygen, respectively.

Aerobic Exercise

During aerobic exercise, glycogen (which is stored in our body mainly in our muscles and liver) is converted first by our bodies into glucose. If the glycogen stores in our body run low (through extensive long-term exercise, like running a marathon, for example) then our bodies begin to use fat as a fuel. But for a typical tennis game, the predominant energy source will be glycogen and not fat.

During aerobic exercise, oxygen is taken in through the lungs and carried to the tissues in our body through the blood stream. Glucose is then broken down with the aid of oxygen into a chemical called ATP (adenosine triphosphate). Aerobic exercise is a highly efficient producer of ATP and is the main energy system needed for sports where long term endurance is required (long distance running or moderate tennis activity, for example).

Anaerobic Exercise

During high intensity workouts (such as very fast sprinting or intense weight lifting) the main energy term used by the body is called anaerobic glycolysis, which also produces ATP, but without using oxygen.  A by-product of anaerobic glycolysis is lactic acid, which begins to accumulate in the muscles after continued high intensity workouts.   This build up of lactic acid is the reason for the burning sensation felt in the muscles and will eventually force the person to stop the activity until the lactic acid can be removed from the body.  Anaerobic glycolysis is only effective as an energy source for about 2-3 minutes after which the person must cease activity or slow down to allow the aerobic energy system to “kick-in”.

If you are still unclear about the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise, try this. Do push-ups as fast as you can and keep the level of activity as high as possible. Alternatively, sprint as fast as you can along a track or road. After a very short time, you will find you “hit a wall” and you have to stop or slow down because you are physically very fatigue.  You may also have a burning sensation in your muscles (lactic acid build up). This is anaerobic exercise. Now try a moderate jog around the block or moderate work-out where your heart rate and breathing rate increases, but you can still maintain the activity level over a relatively extended period of time (30min or longer). This is aerobic exercise.

How Does This Relate to Tennis?

Depending on your level as a player, your game will probably include both anaerobic (fast sprinting for side to side or front to back where your heart rate increases rapidly and you are out of breath) and aerobic (moderate activity level) activity. Therefore, to improve your overall fitness level and success rate in tennis matches (especially in tournaments and competitive tennis games), you need to incorporate a work-our routine that incorporates both aerobic and anaerobic fitness conditioning.  That’s why one of my favorite tennis tips (and the subject of my very first blog) is for you to increase your fitness to play tennis rather than playing tennis to keep fit. Besides increasing your success rate as a player, you will also dramatically decrease your chances of injury.

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In part 1, I covered the essential preparation leading up to the day of the tournament and covered issues such as work-outs, tennis practice sessions and optimum nutrition. In this tennis tips article, I will cover the actual day of the tournament.
 

So you ate a carbohydrate rich meal about 2-3 hours ago and you are feeling fit and ready to go. Here is a check-list of items to include in your tennis bag.

• - Spare racket – ideally one that is matched (same weight, balance, strings, string tension, grip size) to your primary racket
• - Spare tennis shirt. It’s nice to be able to change into a dry shirt when you have split sets or between games.
• - Spares socks – same reason as above
• - Spare hat
• - 2 towels. It’s good to have two because the first can get very wet especially on a very hot day.
• - Some lotion to treat cramp.
• - Sun block. Don’t forget this or you could really suffer during a long, hot tournament.
• - Cold pack – just in case of sprain or muscle injury
• - Plastic bags – good to hold ice (from your water container) in case of sprains/injuries
• - Band aids
• - Ankle supports, knee supports. Just in case something unexpected happens.
• - A few bananas and energy bars. To top up between sets or matches.
• - Spare balls for warm-up sessions.
• - Large canister of water with ice. The ice can be used to help with injuries, if necessary
• - Several bottles of your favorite sports drink. This is necessary to top up on electrolytes lost through sweating that you can’t get from water alone.
• - CD or mp3 player with your favorite music to keep you relaxed during breaks between matches.

Try to arrive at the even early enough to give yourself time to calm yourself and focus on the match. Remember that your opponent’s ranking has no relevance at all to the match you will play today (see previous article). Just focus on your own game. Usually, for tournaments, the official warm-up time is 10 minutes but if you arrive early enough, you might be able to find a hitting partner who will help you warm up your strokes. Don’t go crazy! The idea is just to warm up and get your footwork and timing in order.
In the actual warm-up before your match, use the ten minutes wisely not only to warm up, but to study your opponent’s strength and weaknesses. During the warm-up, try to at least know the following about your partner:

• Are they right or left handed?- Yes we’ve all been guilty of this one. We are 3 or 4 games into the match before we suddenly realize that we are playing a left-hander !
• How do they handle deep forehands or backhands, especially one that bounce high?
• Which side is stronger?
• Are they good at volleying?
• Do they move well from side to side and front to back?
• How do they handle spin, both top spin and back spin? Many hard hitting players hate low back-spin shots which keep low over the net, so try a few during the warm-ups.
• How do they handle overheads?
• How well do they serve?

Knowing these strengths and weaknesses from the warm-up session will give you a real advantage going into the match itself. Hopefully, these simple tennis tips will help you next time you prepare for a tournament.

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It’s always a shock the first time you play a left-handed player. Your favorite shots that normally go deep to your opponent’s back-hand suddenly coming flying past you for winners. What’s more, that shot to your opponent’s back-hand at the net which has been your big earner is suddenly dispatched with no problem at all. Then suddenly you realize that you are playing a leftie! Those shots are being returned so well because you are playing to their forehand, which is usually (but not always) the strongest sides for most tennis players. Now, in the middle of the match, you are forced to change all your favorite shots as you try and “reverse” everything to play to their back-hand. For example, rather than playing your back-hand cross-court to play to your opponent’s back-hand as you would do for a right-hander, now you have to play down the line to go to the “leftie’s” back-hand. That’s not a shot you want to try in a competitive game when you are not used to it. Unless you play it deep and close to the side-line, it will be quite an easy back-hand return for your opponent.

So what should you do? Well, playing a left-hander in a competitive match is not the best way to learn new strategies. Here are a few tennis tips to help you. The best approach is to practice beforehand with a left-hander so that you can try out all your different shots to see what works and what doesn’t. The next time you play a ‘leftie’, get their phone number and arrange to play some practice matches with them. Always try to have at least one left-handed player in your arsenal of people that you practice with on a regular basis. You can now try your back-hand shots deep down the side-line and your cross-court forehands to pressure their back-hands just as you would normally do for a “rightie”. If you can do it, a very effective technique is to try a very heavy sliced serve out wide to the leftie’s backhand.

Just a word of caution here. Since a lot of left-handers are used to playing right-handers, they may be very familiar with right-handers trying to pressurize their back-hand and may have developed a formidable back-hand to deal with this. So watch out. Sometimes just reversing all your usual “right-hander” shots may not be an effective strategy. If this is the case, try the forehand, bringing them to the net or deep shots until you have discovered a chink in their armor. Mixing up your shots is a very effective strategy against any tennis player to discover their strengths and weaknesses.

Try this out these tennis tips the next time you play a leftie.

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Have you ever been in a situation where you playing an opponent who just keeps getting the ball back, no matter what you do? Usually, that player stands on the baseline and seems to just return everything you hit to them. It’s just like playing against a wall or board, hence the name “backboarder”. This type of player normally does not put any pace on the ball, but the ball still keeps in play forcing you to play yet another shot. Your frustration increases and you try and hit it harder and harder, but it still comes back. Eventually you overhit and the ball goes out or you dump it in the net.

If this has happened to you then you need to change your strategy. Try these simple tennis tips. Always think about what your opponent likes and what they dislike? What are their strengths and weaknesses? With a backboard player, they are obviously good at the baseline and they are consistent with their ground strokes even though they don’t put much pace on the ball. So, if you keep hitting the ball harder and deeper, you are just playing to their strengths.

Normally, with a backboard player, you will find that they are very uncomfortable at the net. So rather than just blasting the ball back, try playing a short ball and bringing them forward towards the net. Once they are at the net, you can now try a passing shot or a lob. The backboard player will usually be very uncomfortable playing volleys at the net and so passing shots and dippers (shots that stay low over the net and drop quickly at your opponent’s feet) will usually work well. The lob should also be equally effective because now your opponent is forced to run backwards, which they are not accustomed to doing. If the manage to return the lob, you have the opportunity of an easy overhead or a short angled volley from the net.

So next time you play a backboarder, remember to mix-up your shorts. Try a few deep shots and then a short one and bring them into the net. If you mix-up your shots, you will always have your opponent guessing and they will not be able to establish a consistent rhythm, which is something else that the ‘backboarder’ thrives on.

I hope that these simple tennis tips will help you the next time you play a backboarder.

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We’re probably all guilty of doing this at some point in our past. We look up details about our opponent and see that they are ranked lower than ourselves. They may have lost to many players who we have beaten in the past and not done very well in any tournaments. We then go on court thinking that this will be an easy game and then the next thing we know is that we start making stupid mistakes. Easy shots go long or we dump them into the net. Our anger and frustration grows and we keep saying to ourselves “I should be beating this person easily”. The next thing we know is that we have just lost the match to a person we “should” never have lost to.

Alternatively, our opponent may have a much higher ranking than us and we go on court thinking that we will lose and we start playing very tentatively and defensive. The end result is the same. If this situation sounds familiar, try out these simple tennis tips.

It is important to realize is that your opponent’s ranking has no relevance at all to the game you are about to play. What is important is that you must always play your game and approach it in the same way, regardless of who your opponent is. Always remain positive and concentrate on your strengths. Every game is unique;  your mental state, your opponents mental state, the type of courts, the weather, how fit your are, how tired you are etc. so try and focus on your game and don’t let your opponent’s ranking change your approach. All that matters in the end is who plays better on a given day.

Consider this. If every high ranking player always beat a lower ranked player, then in every major tournament the top eight seeds should always reach the quarter finals. In fact this very rarely happens because it is actually very common for lower ranked players to play better than a higher ranked player “on a given day”. The better ranked players usually win in the long run, but not every single time. Here is an interesting article I found which discusses this in more detail.

So here is a simple tennis tip : Stay focused on your game and don’t concern yourself with your opponent’s ranking.

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Try and arrive at the courts early enough to give yourself at least 30 mins for a warm-up. Some of the latest research which you can read about in “Complete Conditioning for Tennis” by E. Paul Roetert and Todd S. Ellenbecher (see original blog post) emphasizes the need to do dynamic stretching before a game rather than static stretches. Static stretching should only be done during the cool-down period after your match. Here is a dynamic stretching routine that I have found to be very useful.

1) Start by doing a slow jog on the spot. Keep your body loose and relaxed.2) Gradually increase the intensity of the jog until you can feel your body temperature rise slightly and your muscles start to relax.

3) Now start at the baseline, facing the net at the far right hand corner. Jog gently, along the doubles side-line towards the net

4) Start side-stepping gently to the left, parallel to the net until you reach the opposite side-line.

5) Jog backwards along the side-line back to the baseline and then side-step back to your starting point.

 

Next, repeat 1-5, but this time bring your knees high towards your chest as you jog forwards and backwards. The side-stepping portion of the exercise remains the same.

Finally, repeat 1-5, but now substitute “butt-kicks” (kick heels backwards and try and reach your butt each time) instead of the knee-raises.

After this, your heart rate should have increased slightly and you may be sweating slightly depending upon how fit you are. If necessary, repeat the warm-up routine above. In the second part of these tennis tips articles on Recommended Warm-Up Routines, I’ll cover the basic tennis shots you should practice before you start your game.

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