anyone in this forum ever effected by "tennis elbow" ?

Yes, this is actually the second time I have had it. The first time I had it I kind of just tried to ignore it but it kept getting worse. So I got a "arm support thing" (not to sure what it is called, all it is is a velcro strap with a air pouch on it.) which gets rid of the pain while playing. I had to wear the support thing for about 2-3 months before my arm started feeling better because it was pretty bad. The second time, as soon as I started to feel the pain coming back I started wearing the support right away. It has been about 2-3 weeks now and my arm almost feels back to normal now. But my advice to you is to get some support type thing for your arm when you play and as soon as you start to feel pain in your arm you should stop playing because the last thing you want to do is make it worse or you could end up having it for quite along time.

 

i used to get this all the time but since i now hold the racket correctly it no longer bothers me. Also the trick is to relax the hand in between shots and to grasp the racket tightly ( to much of this will cause your soreness) just before making impact with the shuttle . After contact with the shuttle relax. You should only be grasping the racket tightly for no more than 1 second for every shot. If your not sure how to hold the racket correctly ask one of the senior players they should show you . this is a common problem when you first start out.

As far as rest goes well try icing the arm for 20 -30 mins after you play and stretch the surrounding area. you might need to keep up the ice and stetching and this should go away only if you hold your racket correctly. Once again ask the more experienced people because they have all been through this problem when they started out.

hope this solves your problem.

 

I've never had tennis elbow myself, but a fellow baddy player told me that tennis elbow is in part due to too much feedback from impact going back to your elbow.

In badminton, it's more common in people who are using a grip that is "too large", relative to their hand size-- because people with large grips cannot hold the racket as loosely as they would a smaller grip, there is more conduction of impact vibration, especially during hard drives and smashes, into the nearest joint... the elbow.

Alternatively, tennis elbow comes when there's a disbalance in your stroke technique that puts too much stress on the elbow-- a stroke should not just use the elbow joint-- Power should be generated with correct proportion of shoulder, wrist, hips, footwork, etc.

 

Are you feeling the pain on the outside of the elbow (lateral epicondylitis) or in the inside (medial epicondylitis)? The causes of each can be different. The lateral variety is probably due to backhand mechanics. If you train with weights it could be a result of too much tricep &/or chest exercises.

The medial variety is often due to overhead (including around-the-head) strokes (altho' it could be forehand strokes). Bicep curls can also cause this problem.

Tennis elbow is usually a result of overuse or improper stroke mechanics. Be sure that you are not gripping too tightly, your racket grip is the proper size, and you are using body rotation on many of your strokes (to take the stress off your elbow). Have your stroke mechanics analyzed by a coach to make sure that improper techniques are not causing your problem.

After playing, be sure to stretch you arm muscles and then ice the area as soon as you get a chance. Ice massages work very well for this. Anti-inflammatories (ibuprofen, naproxen, aspirin) can also be useful. Before you play, warm up the elbow with a heating pad or warming cream. Warm up your strokes slowly & then do some stretches. Continue warming up your strokes thoroughly before playing.

If you problem continue, you may have to lay off for a few weeks. Sometimes tennis players have to ease off for several months. Some ppl have had some luck with accupuncture.

 

There was a notice in the changing room at my club, showing exercises that will help avoid tennis elbow.

I think the one was to extend your arm, palm down, and then raise the hand (by bending the wrist) as far as you could. Then extend the arm, palm up and lowering the hand in the same way. (I think it said you could pull the fingers back with the other hand, but I'm not 100% sure)

The other one was to get an elastic band, and wrap it around all fingers and thumb of your racket hand, then spreading all the digits as far as you could and then relaxing them.

I think it recommended five reps of each exercise at a time.

 

I have had tennis elbow for over a year now. I've had physio and also at the beginning I had a 6 week lay off but it is really hard to shift and in the end I gave up and just played through it (with a strap).

It had improved until it was almost unnoticeable up until a few weeks ago when I decided to try a larger grip size. I normally play with the G3 with no overgrip and i tried putting one grip over the top of the standard one. This actually made my tennis elbow flare up to a degree worse than I had ever had it before so I guess that proves what Jinryu was saying above.

I think I got it through a number of reasons - poor technicque on smashing, gripping too hard and the racket itself. A while before I started getting the symptoms I had my racket restrung at a higher tension. It wasn't a very good racket to start with as it used to vibrate quite a bit but after the restring it felt like hitting the shuttle with a plank of wood, every shot sent a shock down my forearm. I believe this was a significant factor and changing the racket helped a lot. I'm not saying to change your racket but perhaps try someone elses for a while and see if it helps.

I also now concentrate on pronating properly when smashing and find that coupled with a more relaxed grip I can play without feeling the pain even though it's still there if I flex my wrist.

Icing for 20-30 min every night and after playing really helps - you can buy gel packs that can be heated or frozen which come with little velcro bags that can be strapped to your arm. I usually leave one of these in the freezer and strap it to my arm in the evenings.

If you use a strap and you have the pain on the outside of the elbow (like me) then make sure that you fit the strap correctly. Its purpose is not to put pressure on the muscle but to effectively shorten the muscle. A good strap will usually have a rubber (or high friction material) insert which you place on the top of your forarm. You would do the strap up so that the buckle is on the outside of your arm and you pull away from you to tighten it. This should rotate your forearm muscle towards the outside of your arm.

Anyhow, a strap designed for tennis elbow should come with good instructions.

Good luck
Pete

 

Inside/Outside:

Let your arms hang down by your sides with the palms of your hands facing forward (so that your L thumb is pointing Left & your R thumb is pointing R).

The part of your elbow (just below the joint) that is touching your body would be the INSIDE (medial) part where most ppl feel pain from forehands or overhead motions. The other side of the elbow (just below the joint) would then be the OUTSIDE (lateral) part where many ppl feel pain due to backhand strokes. If you feel the pain below the elbow joint (either inside or outside) as I just pointed out then you have tears in the tendons attached from your elbow to your forearm muscles.

Note that some ppl feel pain just above the joint (rather than below the joint). Assuming that the pain is in the back (if your arms are still hanging the way I described above), then you have tears in the tendons attached from your elbow to your tricep muscles. Again, pain on the outside is most likely associated with backhand strokes.

Are you feeling the pain in 1 of the 4 areas that I described? If so, which 1?

It is also possible that you might have tears in the tendons in the front part (just above the elbow). These would be tendons from your biceps to your elbow joint. However, this type of tear is not very common in tennis or badminton to my knowledge.

Tennis elbow is more common in tennis players than it is in badminton players. This is especially true for lateral (outside) epicondylitis which is oten caused by improper backhand mechanics. Medial (inside) epicondylitis is often known as Golfer's elbow.

Just as in badminton, you should not grip the tennis racket too tightly. Most of the time your grip should be fairly loose; it should be allowed to tighten up naturally (but still not too tight) as you accelerate the racket head (this should happen w/o conscious effort). Again, when you complete each stroke, make sure that your grip is, once again, loose.

If you let me know which area around the elbow that hurts the most, I might be able to make more suggestions regarding your tennis.

Tendinitis (such tennis elbow) is usually an overuse injury of the forearm (or tricep) muscles. Therefore, it would probably be a good idea to let it recover somewhat before attempting to build up theses msucles. You should identify which group of muscles (forearm or tricep) appears to be the weak link.

One more thing... I don't believe that we have any wrist muscles. However, there are other tendons that attach from the forearm muscles to the bones of the hand. Gripping too tightly will affect the tendons going from the hand to the forearm muscles.

malayali, if you have answers or more questions, reply to this message and ALSO send me a Private Message just to let me know that you've replied.

 

I was actually expecting you to say it was the Outside (rather than the Inside) since it is the more common ailment in tennis players (from poor backhand mechanics). Since you say Inside, it leads me to believe that it is either your forehand groundstrokes (&/or volleys) or your serve & overheads.

Did you hit a lot of off-center shots on your forehand or overhead shots?

Is it below the elbow joint (forearm tendons) or above the elbow (tricep tendons)? This makes a difference when you are ready to start strengthening your muscles to prevent future flare-ups of tennis elbow.

The fact that a tennis grip is larger than a badminton grip is probably not the reason for your tendinitis. The tennis grip should be larger since it is held in the palm of the hand whereas a badminton racket is much lighter & held higher in the hand...up in the fingers. However, if the tennis grip that you used was not the proper size for your hand, it could have certainly been a factor.

I suspect that the major problem with your tennis game was your mechanics. In tennis, it is very important to incorporate leg power (bending knees helps this) and body rotation in all (or nearly all) of your strokes. Tennis strokes use a kinetic chain consisting of a sequence of links to generate power. The 1st link is the feet and legs... weight distribution, weight shift, knee bend all provide a solid base & driving force from the legs (the strongest muscles in the body).

The next link in the (kinetic) chain is hip rotation which is shorly followed by torso (upper body) rotation. The last major link (and last in the sequence) for groundstrokes is the arm & racket link. The serve & overhead segments the arm motion so that we have additional links for these strokes.

Badminton strokes also employs a kinetic chain. However, the emphasis on various links is different for badm than it is for tennis. Some strokes in badminton do not always use some of the important links that are always present in tennis strokes. The legs & hips are not always used very much to generate power for many shots in badminton.

A powerful badminton smash will use often use the legs, body & arm in a manner that is similar to the tennis smash. In fact, the whole kinetic chain can be nearly identical for both sports when performing a smash. On the other hand, a powerful tennis serve usually requires more knee bend & bit more shoulder tilt & body rotation than a baddie smash.

There are many times in badminton when we simply don't have the time or the need to employ much of the lower body links when executing a stroke. Some badminton strokes are mostly forearm, wrist & fingers while others may also incorporate shoulder and maybe even upper body rotation.

When we try to hit tennis strokes with an incomplete badminton swing is where we often get in trouble. If we rely too much on forearm rotation & wipping the wrist on tennis strokes, foresaking leg power & body rotation, this will eventually lead to the tearing of overused tendons... tendinitis!

Does any of this sound familair?