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5 Prevention Tips to Avoid Tennis Injuries
5 Prevention Tips to Avoid Tennis Injuries (by Sportsperformance Physiotherapy)
Are you watching Wimbledon? As we introduced some common tennis injuries previously. Let's learn about some prevention tips to avoid injuries, from proper warm-ups to court-smart strategies.
1. Correcting the technique – will make you use the correct muscle groups to generate more power and not overloading the same one. This will decrease the chances of an injury as there will be less stress and tension on muscles, tendons and ligaments. A good tennis coach will be able to help and guide you through the technical changes and ultimately improve your game.
2. A good warm up and cool down before and after a game – lower the chances of getting an injury. Warming up increases the cardiovascular system, increasing body temperature and allows blood to flow to the muscles enabling more oxygen to reach them. This prepares the muscles to be ready for those fast twitch movements. Cooling down allows for a gradual decrease in heart rate, helps to remove waste products from the muscles and allows the muscles to return to their original length.
3. Have a good strengthening and conditioning exercise program can help prevent muscle injuries
4. Have the correct gear – having the correct footwear and rackets are extremely important. The correct footwear will increase ankle support and decrease the likelihood for ankle sprains as well as stress fractures. Pick out a racket that is right for you. Correct grip size, string tension, racket size and weight will help prevent straining the tendons in your wrist when you swing your racket. If the tension in the racket is too high, you will need to put more effort into striking the ball causing unnecessary strain on the elbow and shoulder.
5. Intermittent breaks – allows the body and mind to rest and recover. As fatigue leads to unknowing changes in technique and can lead to unnecessary stresses and strains on the body, more prone to get injury.
The above information is for reference only. If you experience any sport-related injuries, you should make an appointment to seek advice from a professional physiotherapist or medical expert to obtain a proper diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
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