Elbow Hurts When Serving

[Seifersquall1]

My elbow's starting to hurt when I serve. This hasn't happened to me in the past? Any reasons why this is happening?

[TheJRK]

Originally Posted by Seifersquall1

My elbow's starting to hurt when I serve. This hasn't happened to me in the past? Any reasons why this is happening?

Try not to serve so hard... and go see a doctor. I'm recovering from an injury similar to yours although it wasn't my elbow. I thought it was TE but when I went to the doctor she told me I had a slight tear in the tendons in my forearm. Since I tried to play through the pain for a few days it just made it worse and it developed into severe tendonitis. Now I'm out for at least 6 weeks.

I would only feel the pain on my first serve (which is relatively flat). I noticed I would really only feel it when I served a little harder (100+ mph). I'm not sure if it is due to the pronation or from the wrist 'snap' I have at the point of contact with the ball. I noticed I didn't really feel the pain on my second serve which is a completely different service motion.

[10s talk]

change rackets

[Seifersquall1]

Originally Posted by 10s talk

change rackets

I don't think it would make that much of a difference.

Try not to serve so hard... and go see a doctor. I'm recovering from an injury similar to yours although it wasn't my elbow. I thought it was TE but when I went to the doctor she told me I had a slight tear in the tendons in my forearm. Since I tried to play through the pain for a few days it just made it worse and it developed into severe tendonitis. Now I'm out for at least 6 weeks.

I would only feel the pain on my first serve (which is relatively flat). I noticed I would really only feel it when I served a little harder (100+ mph). I'm not sure if it is due to the pronation or from the wrist 'snap' I have at the point of contact with the ball. I noticed I didn't really feel the pain on my second serve which is a completely different service motion.

Well that sucks. I only feel pain on both first and second serves but not on any of my other strokes. Thanks for telling this. I'm gonna try to contact my doctor.

[843]

Could it be tennis elbow? My guess is you're doing a lot of spins or slices that put a lot of stress on the elbow, plus your elbow is too stiff, or you haven't warmed up enough.

[Seifersquall1]

Don't think so. I mostly hit flat shots. I actually never warm up. I should though.

[Seifersquall1]

Now the pain is in my forearm. Uh oh...

[Loco4Tennis]

i would seriouly take it easy for a couple of days before you do some real damage, many threats here about pain from serving, infact i've pulled and hurt myself many times serving, i am now experimenting with pronation, and here comes the pain again, i just know its my racquet and the swing weight it has, its just too much m=for my arm i think, so the faster i swing the more it hurts,,

Originally Posted by Seifersquall1

My elbow's starting to hurt when I serve. This hasn't happened to me in the past? Any reasons why this is happening?

Have someone check your toss and make sure its not going too far behind you and/or to your right. This can sneak up on the best of players and its a common cause of arm drama on the serve. Have someone shoot a quick picture with your cell phone and you'll be able to tell if the toss is in the right place. Also, PHT can be a tough string on the arm so you could try taking down the tension just a bit.

[TheJRK]

Originally Posted by Julieta

Have someone check your toss and make sure its not going too far behind you and/or to your right. This can sneak up on the best of players and its a common cause of arm drama on the serve. Have someone shoot a quick picture with your cell phone and you'll be able to tell if the toss is in the right place. Also, PHT can be a tough string on the arm so you could try taking down the tension just a bit.

Excellent point... this is how my injury happened. I felt it on my first serve which I tend to toss out and to my right. The problem was, on this particular serve, I tossed it too far to the right and proceeded (like a dumbass) to still try and hit it anyway. I felt the pain immediately...

[Seifersquall1]

Well, the pain is getting eased. My coach said there's nothing to worry about. He says I just need to strengthen my muscle.

[kv123]

Changing racquets can make a huge difference because i learned that from experience from going from an aerogel 200 to a Roddick pure drive plus. But before you do anything like that you must get a teaching coach or a certified tennis teacher to check out your form. Many people snap their elbows to swing at the ball which leads to elbow soreness and a definite way to injury. You should be swinging up of coarse but up around to be able to pronate using the forearm and not only the elbow. If your form is sound and the racquet suits you maybe its a prolonged injury. Ice the elbow when you get home and when you sleep rest the elbow ontop of a pillow or towel. Then stretch the elbow at least 3 times a day.

[mrali]

I also tend to get a tenderness in elbow when i serve. i have got my elbow diagnosed and everything was fine.

Regarding serve: my toss is in center and ahead of my body. my tennis coach said that i'm using a stiff racquet (blx six one tour) and should use a lighter one.

any comment?

[SystemicAnomaly]

Golfer's Elbow (GE) is more likely that TE (tennis elbow) with serves. Try a search in this forum for more info on GE. You may be squeezing the grip too tightly -- it should be fairly loose/relaxed for the most part. A grip size that is too small or too large for your hand could be a contributing factor for GE. Serve mechanics, frame shock and stiff strings (like polyester) can also be major contributors for elbow crunch.

If you are currently using polyester or Kevlar strings, look for a softer string and consider stringing at a looser tension. You want a racket that is neither too heavy, nor too light for your arm. Take a look at swingweights for rackets rather than just the static weight of the racket. TW publishes measured swingweights (SW) for the rackets that they carry. You probably want something that is lower than the SW of your current BLX 6.1 Tour but stay away from rackets that have a SW lower than 300. (Do not look at the SW figures that printed on some frames, such as Prince racquets. Those are SW figures for an unstrung frame and cannot be compared to the measured SW figures that TW and other sites publish).

Avoid most Babolat frames. Some very arm-friendly racquets:

Volkl V1 Classic
Prince O3 Hybrid Shark MP (sold for under $80 on TW?)
Prince ExO3 Tour 100 (comes in an open pattern or dense pattern)
Prince ExO3 Rebel 95 (a bit higher weight & SW than others in this list)
ProKennex -- various frames in the Kinetic (or Ionic) series
.

[Chas Tennis]

Age? There are special growth related issues for adolescents but I don't know their symptoms on understand how they are associated with tennis. Growth plate injuries affect junior baseball pitchers before their growth plates have finally solidified. When the growth plates solidify into bone it largely ends bone length growth.

See links related to elbow injuries and also any related to elbows and special growth injury issues for adolescents.
http://www.hopkinsortho.org/conditions_diseases.html

I once had an adult friend who had persistent elbow pain. We took high speed imaging of our serves. You could easily see why he had pain. His elbow was slightly over extended - past straight when he impacted the ball. And the ball impact force was in the direction to directly add to the over extension. He had developed his own serving technique and it stressed his elbow by hyper-extending it.

Get a video of your serve, preferably a high speed video, and compare your technique to proper serves.

Unless your coach is an orthopedic Dr don't accept his medical evaluation of your elbow. Injury diagnosis requires a Dr.

Discussion of elbow injuries. The table injuries next to "throwing" might apply to serving as well.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2000/0201/p691.html

See a Dr. Please don't play with pain.

[SystemicAnomaly]

^ Excellent info/feedback CT. One of those growth related issues for adolescents is Osgood-Schlatter Disease. I've had several students with knee pain due to OSD. Not seen any elbow problems related to growth issues tho'.

[mrali]

Originally Posted by Chas Tennis

Age? There are special growth related issues for adolescents but I don't know their symptoms on understand how they are associated with tennis. Growth plate injuries affect junior baseball pitchers before their growth plates have finally solidified. When the growth plates solidify into bone it largely ends bone length growth.

See links related to elbow injuries and also any related to elbows and special growth injury issues for adolescents.
http://www.hopkinsortho.org/conditions_diseases.html

I once had an adult friend who had persistent elbow pain. We took high speed imaging of our serves. You could easily see why he had pain. His elbow was slightly over extended - past straight when he impacted the ball. And the ball impact force was in the direction to directly add to the over extension. He had developed his own serving technique and it stressed his elbow by hyper-extending it.

Get a video of your serve, preferably a high speed video, and compare your technique to proper serves.

Unless your coach is an orthopedic Dr don't accept his medical evaluation of your elbow. Injury diagnosis requires a Dr.

Discussion of elbow injuries. The table injuries next to "throwing" might apply to serving as well.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2000/0201/p691.html

See a Dr. Please don't play with pain.

obviously when i said i got it diagnosed i meant it by an orthopedic Doctor! he said my elbow is fine after diagnosing. i am also lifting weights and swimming so maybe i am putting to much pressure on my body.

nice idea about comparing serves. next time i'll be on court, i'll definitely get my serve recorded from three different sides (right, left and back) and try to analyse if something is wrong.

btw my age is 29.

[Chas Tennis]

Originally Posted by mrali

obviously when i said i got it diagnosed i meant it by an orthopedic Doctor! he said my elbow is fine after diagnosing. i am also lifting weights and swimming so maybe i am putting to much pressure on my body.

What was the Dr's diagnosis/explanation for your pain? Could you locate the area of tenderness within the elbow very well?

This site has discussions of sports injuries including baseball pitching injuries that are closely related to serving.
http://asmiforum.proboards.com/

[mrali]

Well he diagnosed it to see if theres anything. He finally said probably you might have strain it and adviced me to rest the elbow and avoid doing chin ups.

I have this pain randomly, well its just tenderness on the elbow for a while and it goes away quickly!

[Chas Tennis]

It does not sound as if you have a very good idea of which part/structure of your elbow might be stressed. I'd keep looking to find candidate injuries until something seems feasible as the cause. Maybe see a sports medicine Dr?

Good luck with it.