tennis elbow and slice serves?
- Thread starter HLM2
- Start date
Amone
Hall of Fame
Yes. It always does. Some racquets tend to engender it, but even with those racquets, proper technique should still deal with tennis elbow. Now, if you have a problem with your elbows, then you might want to get a racquet that will be softer on it, but if it just starts hurting, it's usually bad technique. I had the same problem on my backhand for a while.
Tennismastery
Professional
Actually, you are experiencing 'server's elbow' or better known as 'golfer's elbow'. (Acute pain on the inside part of the elbow at the epicondile or bony part that sticks out.) Tennis elbow is generally associated with pain on the outside part of the elbow which is seldome aggravated by serving.
Slice serves can aggravate this pain more than topspin or kick serves, however all serves can initiate or inflame the pain.
It is not necessarily associated with improper form. It is usually more associated with improper or inadequate warm up prior to hitting a spin serve.
Spin serves tend to cause or aggravate servers elbow more than flat. The swing path along with pronation typically puts more strain on the tendon there than a flat serve.
Solution: take anti-inflamitory meds, warm up significantly before attempting any spin serve, make your first twenty serves be a longer stroke with less emphasis on fast spin and resist the urget to crank up some big bombs.
You may even need to lay off serves altogether for a period of time...and certainly stay off the driving range!
HLM2
Rookie
might have hit it, since i dont really warm up...I will definetly try that next time.
BTW whats the difference between slice and kick serves? I try to do kick serves most of the tip, the topspin ones that kick at you, but alot of times i get alot more slice then spin. A crucial tecnique difference? Ball toss?
BTW whats the difference between slice and kick serves? I try to do kick serves most of the tip, the topspin ones that kick at you, but alot of times i get alot more slice then spin. A crucial tecnique difference? Ball toss?
Amone
Hall of Fame
Really? That's what I actually supposedly had on my hackhand; it was from overstiffening.
Tennismastery
Professional
Backhands typically cause true 'tennis elbow'...not usually server' elbow. On the backhand, the stress is usually on the lateral epicondile, not the media. Usually, when a player tries to 'catch up' on their backhand if late, they try to snap the racquet around which, upon late contact, places a lot of stress on the tendon connecting the forearm extensor muscles to the lateral epicondile. (That bony protuberence on the outside of the elbow.)
When players get this, they usually need to use a stronger eastern backhand grip and learn to hit the ball much earlier...or, a faster solution to eliminate the pain is to learn a two-handed backhand...of course that can take a lot of time and getting used to. (However, if the tennis elbow is severe, a two-handed backhand can help a player continue to play tennis with out tennis elbow!)
Overstiffening of the elbow can certainly cause tennis elbow too. With no give within the elbow joint, the stress of miss-hits and late hits focuses at the very joints that those muscles you are using to stiffen the arm insert at.
HLM2
Rookie
THanks for the insight, I think I know what your talking about for the backhand. I hit a two handed one and I think im prone to do what you said, the catching up just trying to snap the racquet around instead of hitting through. Could this be the real reason? I do hit two handed ones though...
Tennismastery
Professional
It is rare that two-handed backhand players develop tennis elbow from the backhand groundstroke. (It could be your backhand slice or volley?)
You might evaluate if your non-dominant hand (left hand if your right handed) is not doing enough. In fact, some two-handers let go of there off hand which means that hand is not doing anything!
But, if you are too rigid on the right arm, you still could develop tennis elbow by trying too hard to use this arm to get the racquet around.
Would have to see your backhand in action.
Tennismastery
Professional
There are several threads here discussing the kick serve. The main difference is the kick serve you have the racquet brushing up the inside portion of the ball as the swing path is up and to the right with pronation not so pronounced that you end up flattening the ball.
The main problem for many is they bring the hitting elbow forward too early and this makes hitting a kick serve nearly impossible...and this could be the reason you get serving elbow. By bringing in the elbow too early, the racquet path can't create an axis of spin that is correct and the attempt to do so might be creating the stress and pain you are feeling.
Check out the many threads on the kick serve, or better yet, read the articles I have on TennisOne.com to get a real in-depth understanding of the different serves.
BabolatFan
Semi-Pro
hard to tell without seeing how you've been serving. Check out hi-techtennis.com It's a pretty cool site where you can really pick up some pointers and correct your strokes. Maybe you're just hitting your serve too much with your racquet only meaning you tend to forget to coil your body to load energy.
Hey Tennismastery
I have been dealing with some bad tennis elbow and I think you are right on with using a more eastern grip on the backhand and hitting earlier. I used to use a continental grip on the one hand topspin backhand and I think this was the main culprit in my TE.
I have spoken to a friend of mine who met some guys who had tennis elbow and thier Doctors told them that in alot of cases that the tennis elbow is caused by the serve and in fact not the one hand backhand. To also clarify, I am talking tennis elbow (w/o getting technical, pain on the outside of the elbow) and not golfers elbow. Do you have any insight on what technique on the serve would cause tennis elbow?
Thanks
Acer
mark rodgers
Rookie
I've seen plenty of people suffer with golfer's elbow and from what I see, it is due to people not understand the correct technique in serving. I'm seeing people use more of a "hammering" or "tomahawk" motion. They generally bend the knees and arch the back and throw themselves straight into the swing and hyperextend the elbow. If they used more of a throwing motion by using a loose grip, body rotation with full supination, racquet drop along the side of the body and then a proper pronation, injuries could be prevented. The hard part is training your muscles to do the technique proper. Hi-techtennis dot com has a good serve training section.
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