Too much?

[njjohan]

Well, recently I've been working on my serve a lot, probably hitting around 100 a day, 5 days a week. My percentage has improved, but if I swing as hard as I can, my shoulder hurts. Obviously, warming up would be useful, but does anyone have any advice or exercises to help combat shoulder pain?

[krchawaii]

take breaks...
ice your shoulder after you're done..
maybe lift weights to build your shoulder muscles as well..

[seb85]

You shouldn't be swinging "as hard as you can" anyway. Developing a powerful serve is about having a tensionless swing and impeccable timing.

My advice is to seek technical help in the technique section.

Second to that, as the previous poster said, do some weights to build resistance in the shoulder- personally i use the "thrower's 10" set of excercises- look it up on google.

Really, you shouldn't be pounding out 100 serves every day of the week- you are just asking to get injured. Do it every other day at the very most and keep practice keeping as relaxed as possible. The power will come on its own- the more you push, the further the reliable, powerful serve you are after will drift away from you.

Seb

[njjohan]

I've noticed that swinging without tension helps, but at the same time its shoulder rotation that hurts. I guess my OP was slightly misleading, its not as though I swing away like some sort of mad axeman, but I am consciously swinging quite hard. The thing I don't get is that my swingspeed on 1st and 2nd serves is more or less the same, yet the main isn't really there on 2nd serves. I guess strengthening should be main focus, but I will look at trying to relax more on the 1st serve.

[ojingoh]

Originally Posted by njjohan

Well, recently I've been working on my serve a lot, probably hitting around 100 a day, 5 days a week. My percentage has improved, but if I swing as hard as I can, my shoulder hurts. Obviously, warming up would be useful, but does anyone have any advice or exercises to help combat shoulder pain?

Bursitis or something worse starting to happen. Serves can be incredibly stressful on the ball socket and ligaments in the arm. You can stress the joint through overrotation and get bursitis which is chronic and what I have (and ice) or more dangerously tear your labrum -- you're looking at 4 months minimum of sling then PT to get back to where you are now.

Good warmups are pretty easy for the shoulder joint, fortunately. Get yourself some rubber tubing and bring it with you to the tennis court. Read up on range of motion excercises for the shoulder joint -- such as here or here.

Best of luck to you!

[WildVolley]

Listen to the pain. I've stressed my shoulder from serving and I'm rehabbing it at the moment. If you feel pain, stop and ice down.

Give your shoulder a rest, check your form, and definitely start doing exercises, such as rotator cuff exercises emphasizing external rotation, to make certain you're keeping the shoulder area strong.

I think smaller blocks of serving practice might be better for your shoulder in the long run.

[njjohan]

OK Well summer vacation starts tomorrow, and I have a tournament coming up on Friday. I guess I'll just rely on my *pain free* kicker, and after that I'll be away a lot, so I can rest it for around 2 months. The pain does seem to ease off once the shoulder warms up, but I'll try and post a video soon, as well as do some exercises, rest, etc.

[xnarek]

STOP SERVING HARD. If you're shoulder hurts when you do any other motions as forehand, backhand, etc, then play tennis less or hit the ball so slow so it doesn't hurt. (Sometimes you get so used to it that it seems that you're shoulder doesn't hurt when it actually is in pain)<<You can realize that after everyday tennis practice if you're shoulder starts to hurt.

The best thing to do would be to do what everyone posting above me said, and if you aren't a hardcore player just rest it until it heals or you'll end up like me. I always thought i can take the pain, but it gets worse. Soon you will/most-likely-will start losing you're style if you play with the pain.

[njjohan]

OK well like I said, I won't have much time to play after this week. By the way, I'm currently using an older Pure Drive +, so would a flexier racquet be easier on my shoulder?

[seb85]

Like I said earlier, your form probably has a lot to do with it. You need to get your serve mechanics absolutely spot on. If you are having a problem it is probably due to faulty mechanics. Almost all club players that I see have far too little shoulder over shoulder rotation. THis movement is one of the most important for serving- for one thing it dramatically lengthens the swing path of the racket without needing any superhuman shoulder flexability.

I speak from experience- I started playing tennis when I was four: You can play with faulty mechanics for years without pain, esp if you are very young. But pain is your body's way of saying don't do that to me any more. Listen to it! Changing your serve is a PITA but trust me- once you have the proper mechanics down it will never have been so powerful, accurate or efforless.

6 Months ago I had a serve that, on a good day, was good enough. It also gave me pain. Now I have a reliable serve that is a real weapon.

Changing your racket might help a bit too. MOre important might be the strings you are using- switch to a soft multi or, even better, natural gut for a while.

Good Luck

Seb

[njjohan]

Thanks. I'm currently using a pretty dead, cheap syngut (wilson ultimate or something) and a pretty beat-up racket, so i'll probably change both. also, on the rare occasion that i do "let the racket do the work," i notice that it is a cleaner hit, with at least as much power, so I'll try and work on making that more habitual.

[150mph_]

i think for most part you should just work on the form and keep the thunder 1st serves for competetive play...

it is the form that matters... and obviously consistency

[njjohan]

That makes sense - even if I wasn't having pain, my arm would get tired, even over a three-set match, so I guess I'll focus on "sustainable serving" in practice.