How come pros don't get tennis elbow?

[jack crack]

The level of play and training pros need to endure is extreme. They endure all sorts of injuries, especially to knees, ankles and shoulders.

It's strange to me that one of the most common problems for rec players - tennis elbow - seems rare among pros. Anyone know why this is?

[fantom]

If your technique is correct, you typically don't develop tennis elbow.

[Itagaki]

They also likely have exercises in their training tailored to preventing it, and I wouldn't be surprised if they had regular massages on their shoulders and arms

[Satch]

Originally Posted by fantom

If your technique is correct, you typically don't develop tennis elbow.

also a heavier frame can save you from getting it because of less vibration (if you technique is right in the first place).

[Ramon]

Originally Posted by jack crack

The level of play and training pros need to endure is extreme. They endure all sorts of injuries, especially to knees, ankles and shoulders.

It's strange to me that one of the most common problems for rec players - tennis elbow - seems rare among pros. Anyone know why this is?

I have a very simple answer for that. If your body doesn't have the constitution to endure heavy hitting on your arm, the pounding of hard courts, and the constant punishment of sudden starts, stops, and changes in direction, you're not going to be a pro!

[npadreman]

Originally Posted by Ramon

I have a very simple answer for that. If your body doesn't have the constitution to endure heavy hitting on your arm, the pounding of hard courts, and the constant punishment of sudden starts, stops, and changes in direction, you're not going to be a pro!

BINGO - well said

[heartattack]

recreational player should do proper warm up and stretching before playing would be one to prevent TE. Use softer string first before going to full poly. my opinion! whats yours?

[Avles]

Originally Posted by Ramon

I have a very simple answer for that. If your body doesn't have the constitution to endure heavy hitting on your arm, the pounding of hard courts, and the constant punishment of sudden starts, stops, and changes in direction, you're not going to be a pro!

Pros get injured all the time. Look at Nadal's knees, Sharapova's shoulder, Del Potro's wrist.

The OP was asking why tennis elbow doesn't figure prominently among pro injuries, as it does among injuries to rec players. Your post doesn't answer that question.

[Avles]

Along with good technique and natural selection, maybe the relative rarity of 1HBH among pros plays a role? I've read that the 1HBH is associated with tennis elbow.

[Robbnc]

Originally Posted by jack crack

The level of play and training pros need to endure is extreme. They endure all sorts of injuries, especially to knees, ankles and shoulders.

It's strange to me that one of the most common problems for rec players - tennis elbow - seems rare among pros. Anyone know why this is?

Pro tennis players DO get tennis elbow. They may be less likely to get it for most of the reasons already mentioned. But just off the top of my head I remember not too long ago Richard Gasquet had it (I'm sure that was bad form on the backhand, funny).

Pete Sampras had it, again bad form.

Richard Krajicek pretty much retired because of it.

Billy Jean King had it.

Marat Safin had it and cured it with a whole blood injection into the elbow before PRP became well known.

Oh and don't let me forget Rod Laver, poor guy just never learned to hit a tennis ball right !

I am being sarcastic because I believe form is the least likely factor in tennis elbow. NONE of the folks listed above had bad form. In Laver's case I recall it was just because of a racquet change. How many club players have you watched play for years with no problem and then suddenly get TE ? I have seen this a hundred times. Do you really think they just forgot how to hit a tennis ball ?

[Limpinhitter]

Originally Posted by jack crack

The level of play and training pros need to endure is extreme. They endure all sorts of injuries, especially to knees, ankles and shoulders.

It's strange to me that one of the most common problems for rec players - tennis elbow - seems rare among pros. Anyone know why this is?

Here's the correct answer: They keep a loose grip throughout the entire swing, including contact. Rec players tend to play with a death grip on the racquet by comparison to the pros. When your grip is loose, the shock of impact ends at your hand and is not transferred to the arm.

BTW, I learned this the hard way.

[ollinger]

As Robbnc notes, pros do get TE; Tony Roche had a particularly notorious case, leading him as far as a filipino faith healer to try to treat it, and that was using wood racquets and gut. Also, I suspect many players who had hoped to be pros are winnowed out by TE well before they reach the pro level.

[Ramon]

Originally Posted by Avles

Pros get injured all the time. Look at Nadal's knees, Sharapova's shoulder, Del Potro's wrist.

The OP was asking why tennis elbow doesn't figure prominently among pro injuries, as it does among injuries to rec players. Your post doesn't answer that question.

We all know pros get hurt, but not to the extent that most of us get hurt from playing tennis. If my body had to endure the kind of pounding that the pros go through, I would be finished in a matter of weeks. Therefore, even if I had the hand-eye coordination, speed, strength, endurance, and mental toughness of the pros, I would still not be a pro because my body would give up before I could go very far. The pros are different from a lot of people because they can endure that pounding for an extended period of time.

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

Originally Posted by Limpinhitter

Here's the correct answer: They keep a loose grip throughout the entire swing, including contact. Rec players tend to play with a death grip on the racquet by comparison to the pros. When your grip is loose, the shock of impact ends at your hand and is not transferred to the arm.

BTW, I learned this the hard way.

Who plays with a death grip?!

I agree with this, you have to play with a loose grip.

Also, I think a lot of people choke their grips too. As in, their grip is higher on the handle. I think the higher you hold your grip, the more shock gets to your arm. Like Mardy Fish's grip.



I think the proper grip is loose and towards the butt cap of the handle. My pinkie is at the end and part of my palm is not even on the handle.

Surely, genetics, technique, and fitness factor into tennis elbows too. But I think a choking death grip definitely increases the chances of one getting tennis elbow.

[ollinger]

Let's not forget that pros generally use heavier racquets with higher swingweights. One can hold such a racquet more loosely, and the racquet will still have some plow and directional stability. Try that with your 11 ounce racquet, with its 312 swingweight, and the racquet will be deflected as much as the ball.

[Chas Tennis]

D. Knudson, author of Biomechanics of Tennis Technique, says that pros most often have their wrist extended for the one hand backhand. He claims that wrist position goes a long way toward avoiding TE. I have looked at some pro videos and viewed single frame on my DVR, etc.,(you press the pause button again to advance a single frame) and tend to agree with his observation that most pros use an extended wrist for the 1HBH.

He claims that many amateurs hold their wrists in flexion and that increases the chance of TE injury.

I don't know if this is the reason but in extension the muscle that attaches at the elbow is contracted while if the wrists are flexed that muscle may be stretched - near the end of its range of motion. Hitting a ball with the wrist extensor muscles near the end of their range of motion might cause too much stress and tear the attaching tendon at the elbow. Tendons stretched under tension are also discussed in the above book (has anyone read it?). However, just because things seem, at first, to make sense doesn't make them true but...?....

Search: wrist extension, wrist extensors, wrist flexors, wrist flexion,

[adventure]

I recall falling backwards off a ladder in my early teens. I literally didn't feel a thing. Had zero ill effects and immediately got up and resumed messing around doing whatever it was I was doing. I was body slammed on my torso a few years before that (on grass); again, basically zero pain and no lingering after effects. What was the source of my amazing recuperative powers? YOUTH.

The top pros are all in their teens and early twenties for the most part, and a majority begin their careers around 15 or 16, or at least used to. Add to that superior physical genetics, top notch on the spot health care, and masseuses.

Lesson: don't compare your average to below average middle aged body to that of a top flight athlete who is 18 or 20 year old with health care resources you couldn't even dream of.

[Bud]

They do. I've seen numerous pros with TE straps on their arms.

[maggmaster]

Didn't Nishikori have surgery for tennis elbow?

[Satch]

Originally Posted by ollinger

Let's not forget that pros generally use heavier racquets with higher swingweights. One can hold such a racquet more loosely, and the racquet will still have some plow and directional stability. Try that with your 11 ounce racquet, with its 312 swingweight, and the racquet will be deflected as much as the ball.

imagine returning Karlovic's serve with 11oz racquet, you would feel like you got an electric shock..