Tennis

Overuse injuries of the wrist, shoulders, spine, legs, and feet, along with acute injuries, are common in tennis due to the quick, multidirectional, explosive nature of the sport. Tennis elbow (outer elbow pain) is the most widely known due to improper racket grip, tension, and poor technique. Other types of shoulder, wrist, and elbow tendinitis are also quite common. Core muscle sprains and tears can occur, along with back pain due to lumbar sprain, sacroilliitis, and disc problems. Tennis leg, calf muscle tears, Achilles tendinitis, and plantar fasciitis is also quite common. Ankle sprains occur frequently. Turf toe and tennis toe can also occur.

To prevent tennis injuries: Shoulder and wrist strengthening should be done three times weekly in the frequent tennis player. Calf and leg stretching after a short warmup is recommended before play. Balance drills prevent ankle sprains; core strengthening prevents abdominal muscle and back injuries. Equipment should also be appropriate; shoes should provide adequate cushioning and multidirectional support. Racket grip and string tension should be appropriate, particularly in players prone to tennis elbow. Correct technique and form, including hitting the ball in front of the body and minimizing wrist use, will prevent overuse injuries in the arm and shoulder.

Common injuries:

'Tennis elbow' - This is a typical chronic overuse injury, due to a strength imbalance between the muscles on either side of the wrist. It is also associated with poor technique, relying on too much arm power to make the shots rather than body rotation. This arm-dominant technique places too much stress on the elbow and wrist joints and hence the injury. This technique-related cause is most common in recreational players.

Shoulder tendinitis - another overuse injury. This is often an impingement injury caused by repeated overhead and inward rotation movements of the arm. This again leads to a muscle imbalance and a relative weakening of the rotator cuff in rear-shoulder girdle muscles. Mechanically this leads to an increasingly unstable and weak positioning of the shoulder joint, which stresses the tendons.

Back injuries - For recreational players, poor posture and insufficient core stability may lead to back problems when they play tennis. In this case, though, tennis would not be the primary cause of the injury but simply the activity that sets off symptoms.

Other injuries in tennis are knee and ankle sprains - These are acute-accident injuries which are hard to avoid. However it makes sense that a strong, well balanced and agile player is at less risk than a weak, poorly coordinated player.