Changing your playing style - Tennis Elbow
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Category: Coaching & Tips
Forum Name: Coaching & Tips
Forum Description: Learn more about TT from the experts. Feel free to share your knowledge & experience.
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Printed Date: 11/29/2023 at 4:57pm
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Topic: Changing your playing style - Tennis Elbow
Posted By: Simon_plays
Subject: Changing your playing style - Tennis Elbow
Date Posted: 07/06/2023 at 4:07am
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Hi everyone, Tennis elbow has hit me fairly badly and I was wondering if anyone has an idea or experience of a playing style that is better suited to playing with this condition? Maybe it's a good time to try learning to block with anti and have some SP on the FH for smashing?
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Replies:
Posted By: firetack
Date Posted: 07/06/2023 at 8:25am
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The rest and recovery style is required,then think about ways to stop reoccurrence ------------- Black Balsa 3.0 fh/tenergy 05 1.9 388d ox |
Posted By: turbozed
Date Posted: 07/06/2023 at 9:17am
Are you tensing your arm too much? I didn't think tennis elbow was a common injury in TT. I'd invest in a theraband (or a copycat version). It's helped me treat tennis and golfer elbow issues caused by weightlifting.
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Simon_plays wrote:Posted By: Simon_plays
Date Posted: 07/06/2023 at 10:07am
Yes, I've been to see a physio and have some exercises to do. But in the meantime I was hoping there might be some way for me learn a new style and adapt my game a bit.
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Posted By: TT newbie
Date Posted: 07/06/2023 at 2:12pm
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I´ve had tennis elbow once, probably because I was training a lot (5 sessions a week). And unfortunately there is nothing to do but rest. Yes, I stopped playing TT for a few months to recover.
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Posted By: oldttguy
Date Posted: 07/06/2023 at 11:32pm
| I ended up switching hands when I got severe tennis elbow. so that I didn't aggravate my dominant hand. Progress was quite fast and it was helpful to learn from scratch by doing drills with a practice partner. I was able to meaningfully improve my backhand technique & consistency on the non-dominant hand, and it's actually much better than my dominant hand's backhand now. |
Posted By: blahness
Date Posted: 07/09/2023 at 5:08am
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I think it has links to overuse of arm and wrist especially in the BH. I would look towards reducing wrist usage and use more of other mechanisms especially the lats (upper back), weight transfer from the lower body and forearm supination with some help from the fingers. ------------- ------- Viscaria FH: Hurricane 8-80 BH: D05 Back to normal shape bats :( |
Posted By: NextLevel
Date Posted: 07/10/2023 at 6:01am
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A lot of tennis elbow (or what people think is tennis elbow) comes from muscles tightening and pinching on nerves and tendons. So if you strengthen various muscles in the fingers and around the upper and lower arms, and get them to relax so they don't tighten when used, a lot of the pain and issues with tennis elbow go away. It is rarely a technical issue, and while it is often described as an overuse issue, I see it more as a muscle imbalance issue. If you get your grip to work without squeezing the palm and the fingers get strong enough to grip and hold the bat, it is very unlikely you will get tennis elbow but it takes a lot of strength buildup to get to the point where the fingers can carry the bat by themselves and not the palm. The Theraband is a really good device for doing exercises that strengthen and relax some of the grip and internal rotation mechanisms which induce the tightness that make this worse. You just have to respect your body and realize you can't just make it work at a high level without developing the muscles and tendons to work at a high level. It takes time to develop the strength to hold the bat in the fingers in a relaxed fashion but if you can get there, the rewards are worth it. ------------- https://youtu.be/jhO4K_yFhh8?t=115" rel="nofollow - I like putting heavy topspin on the ball... Stiga Cybershape Carbon FH: GT BH: GT Lumberjack TT, not for lovers of beautiful strokes. No time to train... |
Posted By: NextLevel
Date Posted: 07/10/2023 at 8:39am
Yes, you should not be getting power primarily from the smaller joints/muscles. A coach I once worked with had a decent record relieving tennis elbow by massaging muscles in the lower and upper arms. He was the one that taught me the muscle imbalance approach. Never fully ratified it but I have not had tennis elbow since I did the massages and strengthened the muscles so it is what I recommend even more than technique changes ------------- https://youtu.be/jhO4K_yFhh8?t=115" rel="nofollow - I like putting heavy topspin on the ball... Stiga Cybershape Carbon FH: GT BH: GT Lumberjack TT, not for lovers of beautiful strokes. No time to train... |
Posted By: wilkinru
Date Posted: 07/10/2023 at 5:57pm
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I was asked at a club last week: "Don't your arms and shoulder get really sore doing those shots over and over?" My response: "Nope, not one bit but my legs are always in pain!". It probably is technique but mostly just how hard one grips the paddle and uses the arm to generate power (too much in both cases). It's tough to make the arms relaxed yet the rest of the body work so hard. May not even notice it without slow motion video review. Finding a relaxed grip would be my step 1. ------------- TB ZLF inverted inverted |