Yes! Have had this problem for about 5 years! I'm a right hander and got terrible left hip ache during and after playing. I still do when I forget or lapse back into old habits! I first thought it was due to my serve following through and round to face the net with my left foot planted partially due to previously injured joints which don't make it easier for me to get off the ground. Then after research realised that forehand, particularly open stance, could be contributing also.
I do try to mostly use neutral stance anyway because it facilitates disguise and wrong-footing so if you execute well your opponents can't read which way you are hitting.
In the OP's case, as a lefty, the left hip is the rear hip for the Fh. The OP problem does sound a bit unusual since it is normally the left hip that experiences greater overuse with the OS Fh.
Nope it still gets sore sometimes, but it hasn't gotten worse seemingly. I think I might have some posture issue causing it.
Possible scoliosis of the spine? Apparently, I have a scoliosis that manifested some years back. But I only found out this year that I have a scoliosis.
Would a doctor/physio/osteopath have seen this though? My back has always been quite strong, I've rarely ever had back pain before
I was not experiencing back pain very often at all. My scoliosis manifested in other ways. Hip pain, hip flexor tightness, pelvic tilt and other occasional issues. I had been seeing doctors, physical therapists, and chiropractors for the past few years. But it was only within the past year that anybody mentioned scoliosis.
How did they come to the conclusion it was scoliosis?
Scoliosis is pretty easily identifiable on spine XR. Physical exam too if it's severe enough. TBH if you provide a video of you hitting, it would be much more helpful than trying to figure out what questions to ask and whatnot.
It was pretty obvious from looking at the X-ray. However, when I first saw the X-ray, I assumed it was the pelvic tilt that was causing the spinal deviation. But my docs informed me it was the other way around.
You could see a physio/PT for some stretches & exercises. Don't know if a severe tilt can be completely corrected but, with a lot of work, I believe that it can be improved.
So without having extremely good 3D video + high frame rates, some things I see. Keep in mind this is more from a biomechanics perspective and not a technique perspective, though I believe your tennis will improve as a result of improving your biomechanics.
Today, my PT informed me that, at my age, it is much more difficult to affect a change with scoliosis. At your age, it might be a bit easier but will probably require quite a bit of effort.
thanks for the analysis!So without having extremely good 3D video + high frame rates, some things I see. Keep in mind this is more from a biomechanics perspective and not a technique perspective, though I believe your tennis will improve as a result of improving your biomechanics.
1) Overall, you hit very stiff. Just watching your posture, you have a very stiff and rounded back. I suspect given your statements of "having a very strong back" is that you have quite a bit of muscle mass that might be limiting your range of motion.
It seems like when you serve, you are dropping your body to allow your arm to reach vertical. I actually suspect THIS is your source of pain. I don't know how your hip was feeling at the time of this video, but it looks like your hip collapses fairly quickly when you load it up on your serve. You aren't getting a lot of push off from your right leg.
2) I don't necessarily see anything in the lower part of your body when you hit open/neutral stance groundstrokes. Again, you just look pretty stiff overall. I want to say I do feel like I see some right sided scoliosis, but it might just be because that's what I want to see. It's not assessed very well if people are moving and w/ clothes on. You can bend over and touch your toes and ask a friend to look at how your spine tracks. I do worry more about your shoulder as I think your stiffness is making you really arm the ball.
I would be curious to see what your range of motion is like.
It's hard to tell what came first. Landing on the right leg isn't wrong, if anything I believe that is correct form unless things have changed since I was taught how to serve. What I am getting at with your hip is two-fold: 1) you don't really get any vertical from driving through the legs up into the air, but this isn't necessarily wrong as not everyone is at that stage to be able to do that, and 2) when you are hunched over, I wouldn't be surprised if you are impinging your hip joint during the serve. It looks like your leg is quite abducted when you land, but that might just be camera angle deception. If you look up slow motion serves on Youtube, you see that pros are really landing with their hip in mostly flexion as this allows for better shock absorption during landing.
