Maintain Performance With Tennis Elbow
With 13 years of tennis experience and time spent on the tramlines due to the affects of tennis elbow, I feel like I am in a position to write an article on the issue and how to not become bored and disillusioned with the time out with your injury. Personally I spent a lot of time working on my fitness that would benefit me when I returned to action. Luckily with tennis fitness drills they can never become monotonous, let your imagination run when designing drills and you will have a great time as well as a great workout.
As anyone who has ever experienced tennis elbow will know, the pain, while not being excruciating does have a negative effect on performance. Tennis elbow is caused by tiny tears in the tendon connecting the elbow to the muscles in the lower arm. So how do we keep performance high during our time away from the practice court? This article will answer this question and allow you to return to action feeling fitter and just as confident in your game as before you were injured.
As I have spent time nursing this particular injury I have needed to keep my tennis fitness levels high. I did this by developing my speed, rotational power and movement around the court, all of which I will touch upon in this article. Working on these aspects of fitness helped me deal with the frustration of not being able to actually play and benefited me greatly in the long run.
Being away from the practice court is no excuse to completely forget about your tennis development. As with all sports injury situations, try and find a positive out of this negative set back. In the case of having tennis elbow the positive is the ability to completely focus on your tennis specific fitness for the period of time that you are unable to play. Thankfully the injury will not get in the way of exercises that are specific to the game. At this time I recommend developing:
• Speed
• Rotational Power
• Movement Around The Court
This will improve your fitness levels and most importantly will benefit your game when you return to the court like a new-born Federer. Luckily this is very easy to do and will not risk further harm to your tennis elbow.
Speed around the court can be improved by short sprints incorporating sharp changes in direction. This can be achieved by laying out cones in a star pattern with one cone in the centre. You will sprint to each cone, change direction and sprint back to the cone in the middle until all cones have been touched. This will develop tennis related speed with the stopping, changing of direction and short sprints.
Rotational power will need to be improved to help your game when returning to the court properly. An exercise that will improve this area of fitness is the wood chop. The wood chop can be performed using Therabands, cable machines or medicine balls. The movement involves bringing one arm diagonally across the body, left to right for the right arm, and right to left for the left arm. For all you Travoltas out there imagine Saturday night fever but in a controlled movement, hips face forward at all times and your stomach is pulled in to brace the core muscles.
As tennis players spend a lot of time during the points in a bent knee position, your time with tennis elbow will be perfect for developing endurance in your leg muscles, exercises like squats and lunges are perfect for this and mimic the planes of movement that you will use during your practices and matches.
Rehab exercises should be performed that will help strengthen the area around the elbow to prevent the same injury in the future. Again this is very easy to do, one exercise that can be performed is just squeezing a tennis ball 25 times 3 times a day. Flexing the wrist up and down whilst holding a light weight will also strengthen the area around the elbow, which will help you return to action
Suffering from tennis elbow need not be an excuse to forget about the game completely. Have a positive outlook on the situation and use the time wisely to up your fitness levels and hopefully prevent injury in the future.
Jordan McLellan
18/11/09
As anyone who has ever experienced tennis elbow will know, the pain, while not being excruciating does have a negative effect on performance. Tennis elbow is caused by tiny tears in the tendon connecting the elbow to the muscles in the lower arm. So how do we keep performance high during our time away from the practice court? This article will answer this question and allow you to return to action feeling fitter and just as confident in your game as before you were injured.
As I have spent time nursing this particular injury I have needed to keep my tennis fitness levels high. I did this by developing my speed, rotational power and movement around the court, all of which I will touch upon in this article. Working on these aspects of fitness helped me deal with the frustration of not being able to actually play and benefited me greatly in the long run.
Being away from the practice court is no excuse to completely forget about your tennis development. As with all sports injury situations, try and find a positive out of this negative set back. In the case of having tennis elbow the positive is the ability to completely focus on your tennis specific fitness for the period of time that you are unable to play. Thankfully the injury will not get in the way of exercises that are specific to the game. At this time I recommend developing:
• Speed
• Rotational Power
• Movement Around The Court
This will improve your fitness levels and most importantly will benefit your game when you return to the court like a new-born Federer. Luckily this is very easy to do and will not risk further harm to your tennis elbow.
Speed around the court can be improved by short sprints incorporating sharp changes in direction. This can be achieved by laying out cones in a star pattern with one cone in the centre. You will sprint to each cone, change direction and sprint back to the cone in the middle until all cones have been touched. This will develop tennis related speed with the stopping, changing of direction and short sprints.
Rotational power will need to be improved to help your game when returning to the court properly. An exercise that will improve this area of fitness is the wood chop. The wood chop can be performed using Therabands, cable machines or medicine balls. The movement involves bringing one arm diagonally across the body, left to right for the right arm, and right to left for the left arm. For all you Travoltas out there imagine Saturday night fever but in a controlled movement, hips face forward at all times and your stomach is pulled in to brace the core muscles.
As tennis players spend a lot of time during the points in a bent knee position, your time with tennis elbow will be perfect for developing endurance in your leg muscles, exercises like squats and lunges are perfect for this and mimic the planes of movement that you will use during your practices and matches.
Rehab exercises should be performed that will help strengthen the area around the elbow to prevent the same injury in the future. Again this is very easy to do, one exercise that can be performed is just squeezing a tennis ball 25 times 3 times a day. Flexing the wrist up and down whilst holding a light weight will also strengthen the area around the elbow, which will help you return to action
Suffering from tennis elbow need not be an excuse to forget about the game completely. Have a positive outlook on the situation and use the time wisely to up your fitness levels and hopefully prevent injury in the future.
Jordan McLellan
18/11/09
For personalised tennis fitness training programmes contact Jordan McLellan by e-mail at jordan_mclelllan91@hotmail.com for more information and prices. This could also include nutrition tips if you require this.
Even if you are not a budding tennis player I also create programmes for general all round fitness and good health.
Even if you are not a budding tennis player I also create programmes for general all round fitness and good health.
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my site : http://www.saad6.com/t15335.html
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