I've been playing since spring 2004.
Thank you for the response.
Several different factors can contribute to the development of tennis elbow (TE), and it usually comes in some combination. Let me give you some of these factors.
1. OVERUSE
Some medical websites report that the majority of TE sufferers are not even tennis players. Anyone who stresses his/her arm repetitively in a certain pattern (e.g., musicians, mountain bikers, construction workers, etc) is at risk. The body has a capacity to heal itself, but if the rate of compounded micro-injuries from overuse exceeds the rate of recovery (which obviously depends on your genetics, age, conditioning, etc), then you end up with a problem. Tip: Body needs rest in order to recover properly.
2. SHOCK
Whether it be someone who repeatedly uses a hammer, power drill, grip handle bars of a motorcycle, or a tennis racquet, another factor that contributes significantly to TE is the amount of shock your arm must absorb. So do all you can to reduce the shock. There are 2 ways of dealing with shock.
2A. Equipment
You need to start investing in equipment that can absorb more shock so that there will be less left for your arm to absorb. You definitely want to pay attention to the following 3 factors: (i) mass, (ii) stiffness, and (iii) miscellaneous shock absorbing technologies.
(i) Mass: For your racquet, the higher the mass, the higher the shock absorption. Obviously you don't want to swing a racquet that is too heavy for you to handle, as this can also cause injuries. So you need to start experimenting and go only as heavy as you can comfortably handle it for the duration you play. As a rule of thumb, you would want to go more headlight in balance as you raise the mass of the frame, as it would allow you a greater maneuverability.
(ii) Stiffness: This applies to both the racquet and the string. First, let's talk about your
string. Polys are usually much stiffer than synthetic guts, so it would transmit more shock down the frame. Whatever amount of shock your racquet does not absorb has to be absorbed by your hand, which goes down to your wrist, elbow, etc. So invest in a string that is low in stiffness. If you can afford it, by all means go with natural gut.
Related to stiffness is
tension, the higher the tension, stiffer the string. Therefore, you want to go as low as you can afford to play. One great thing about natural gut is that even at a high tension, it is still soft and will absorb most of the shock for you.
Another thing to look out for with regard to the stiffness of your string is its
elasticity. Polys lose what little elasticity it has incredibly fast, so we all talk about how the poly goes dead within a few hours. So although the poly loses a staggering amount of tension by the time it is dead, it does not give us the benefit of low tension, meaning there is so little energy returned to the ball, you have to work that much harder. Whatever the science behind this phenomenon, you just need to get your racquet restrung more often. And here is another area where natural gut shines. Natural gut retains its elasticity and plays great and soft until it snaps.
Now, of course the
frame. The stiffer the frame, the less shock it can absorb, which means your arm has to take the blunt of it. So don't go with racquets with stiffness/flex rating of 70 or above. While there is no magic number, the rule of thumb is the lower the better for the arm. So find a frame that you can play with that gives you enough flex to be nice to your arm.
(iii) There are certain technologies that can absorb more shock from the frame so as to protect your arm.
The easiest way would be to add a more shock-absorbent
grip. A simple way to do this would be to add an additional layer of overgrip. If this makes the grip too large for you, you can go down a size on the handle and then add more overgrips to build it back up to your regular handle size. There is even an engineering school dissertation that shows the shock absorbing benefit of overgrips.
Another thing you can do is replace the original grip with a more shock absorbing material such as Sorbothane and, believe it or not, Kevlar. These materials are considerably heavier (which no doubt contributes to their shock-absorbing abilities) but well worth the investment.
Another technology worth mentioning is moving particles. The racquetresearch.com, for example, says that perhaps the best way to deal with shock and vibration is to put a small sandbag or bag of shots inside the racquet handle. This, of course, will add weight to your frame as well. If you do not want to go into backyard engineering, there is the Kinetic Technology developed by ProKennex, which is similar to having a "sandbag" inside the head of the frame. Most people who have used ProKennex's Kinetic or Ionic series would testify to the arm-friendliness of those frames.
There are other technologies that try to combat shock, but I have not tried them, so I can't comment on them, but you can look into frame technologies, such as Wilson's Triad and Dunlop's ISIS, handle technologies, such as Volkl's, etc. Some posters here also fill the hollow of the handle with foam, silicone, etc. All right, moving on....
2B. Technique
Technique is also very important when it comes to dealing with shock. You want the kind of technique that would involve more of your body parts and mass into each shot, so as to prevent the unfortunate situation where one part of your body must absorb most of the shock. So let's talk about a "faulty" one-handed backhand. If you try to arm your one-handed backhand or lead with your elbow, your elbow joint will have to take the blunt of the shock, whereas if you keep it straight and keep the proper mechanic, the shock will be distributed more evenly among different parts of your body, which would result in less damage and faster healing. If you go with a 2 hander, I suppose it would be even more effective in that area.
Technique is also important in that you want to be hitting the sweet spot most of the time. If not, there will be a whole lot more shock traveling down your arm. So you want to make sure you are not shaking your head, jumping erratically or doing things that would cause you to miss the sweet spot.
You also don't want to be squeezing the handle too tightly. Think about it. If you were to completely let go of your racquet the moment you were about to hit the ball, you will have zero shock transmitted to your arm. Likewise, the looser the grip, less surface area of contact between the handle and your hand, so less shock. The more tightly you grip the handle, the more shock you will have to absorb and of course, the more tiring your arm will get from all that squeezing. So try to relax that grip.
I stated above that TE is usually a result of some combination of these factors. For example, a player with moderately faulty strokes could possibly avoid TE for a long time by either using a relatively arm-friendly equipment setup or getting enough rest in between hitting sessions. But the same person could develop TE if he switches to a less arm-friendly setup or somehow age catches up to him and denies him of the same recovery rate.
But even if you have the mechanically perfect stroke, you can get TE simply by overuse. Whenever the combined damage inflicted is greater than your body's ability to heal itself, you will end up with an injury. Sometimes, an acute injury from a fall or some sports injury, when followed by repetitive stress from tennis can also lead to something like TE.
Now to the question of why the pros can use polys and not have TE.
(1) Pros have great techniques: They hit the sweet spot a lot more than we do and use the entire body rather than arming the ball.
(2) Pros have superior conditioning: They don't just play tennis. Their coaches make sure they do preventive exercises to correct muscle imbalance. Many top players also have accompanying physios to constantly treat them. Not only that, they have been playing from their early childhood, so their muscles, tendons, and everything have had the proper time and training to get used to the daily grinds of tennis.
(3) Pros tend to use more shock-absorbing equipment: Their racquets have more mass, and their strings are always fresh (Some of us use the same string for months. Pros replace them every few games).
(4) Pros tend to be young, therefore their bodies heal themselves much quicker. But take heart, tennis pros are considered old and can't compete anymore toward their late 20's.
(5) Lastly but perhaps most importantly, pros are not immune to TE. Players like John McEnroe, Pat Cash, Arnaud Clement, Robby Ginepri, Guillermo Coria, Juan Martin del Potro, Jill Craybas, etc, have all suffered arm injuries and have been spotted with arm bands or tapes around the forearm, although they don't usually come out and specify what kind of arm injury. Then you look at how many players have suffered wrist injuries and shoulder injuries, from Agassi to Sharapova.
It is absolutely baffling to me how some posters here think that only the TE is technique-related while wrist injuries and shoulder injuries are not, especially when so many TE sufferers have never even played tennis.
At any rate, this is just my personal take on it. If it be of any benefit to you, great! But do go see a sports-medicine doctor. I wish you the best.
