Shoulder pain after serving

[Tennisfreak12401]

I am experiencing some pretty bad shoulder pain with serving to the point on a change over the other night while I was sitting down my arm felt weak and started shaking when I went to pick up my racket any tips on form and advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Tennisfreak12401]

 

[kabrac]

Does your bicep ever go or feel numb/dead? You don't look like you are arming the serve so idk. Are you sure thats the only shot you feel it on?

 

[Tennisfreak12401]

Does your bicep ever go or feel numb/dead? You don't look like you are arming the serve so idk. Are you sure thats the only shot you feel it on?

Yes only on the serve. I’ve had tennis elbow before and it doesn’t feel like that at all even on forehands it’s fine. I have recently been using a kick serve more often than usual but my form is the same on my kick so I’m not sure what else it could be. I noticed the radicals have a higher stiffness rating but not sure if that would hurt my shoulder this way

 

[WildVolley]

The video is partly helpful, but if you could have someone film from behind when you serve it might provide better information.

One common error is lifting the arm too high in the socket when serving. This increases the chance of impingement when hitting the ball. One way to avoid this is to lean the torso over more when serving. (edit because video was blocked). Watch slo-mo video of professionals to see the proper shoulder lean. Seems to me your shoulders are a little square to the court at contact, but it is difficult to be certain.

 

[Tennisfreak12401]

The video is partly helpful, but if you could have someone film from behind when you serve it might provide better information.

One common error is lifting the arm too high in the socket when serving. This increases the chance of impingement when hitting the ball. One way to avoid this is to lean the torso over more when serving. (edit because video was blocked). Watch slo-mo video of professionals to see the proper shoulder lean. Seems to me your shoulders are a little square to the court at contact, but it is difficult to be certain.

So you’re saying to pretty much when going up after the ball to roll my upper body to the left more instead of being so straight so from right to left?

 

[WildVolley]

So you’re saying to pretty much when going up after the ball to roll my upper body to the left more instead of being so straight so from right to left?

Yes, that's the basic idea. With the torso tilted to the left during the upward swing, the hitting arm doesn't have to reach much above the shoulder line to make contact with the ball. If you stand up straight at contact, the hitting arm has to reach high in the socket risking impingement.

In my case, I had mild impingement and stressing of my rotator cuff muscles. I found that hanging from a bar and doing rotator cuff exercises with a band, and things like pull-ups and deadlifts cured my shoulder pain from serving.

 

[nyta2]

try making contact when the racquet is pointing toward your ear, vs. when it is pointing up to the sky

 

[mattbrockman]

Could be a bunch of different things. Including torn labrum which is common. I've got a torn labrum right now and it only bothers me on serves (or high forehands at shoulder height).

Throwers 10 exercises (look them up on here or google) are helpful in strengthening the rotator cuff and shoulder in general to deal with a variety of issues. Try that if you have not already. If it's been going on for a while it is probably time to see an orthopedic doctor and have them determine if there is something more seriously structurally wrong (like a torn labrum).

 

[Marius_Hancu]

Which strings, tension? Racq stiffness?
Recommend to use nat gut at moderate tensions.
Is it dense, 18-20?

I was using a dense 18x20 Prestige Classic 600 (that was Head too, so Heads can be hard on your body) then, got shoulder pain with multifilament strings. Never on my PS 85s then. Switched to gut VS 17 gauge, was cured, and stayed with it on that racquet.