Tips for Tennis Elbow

If you suffer from tennis elbow here are some helpful tips for trying to aid recovery and prevent recurrence.

1. Choice of racquet is important – you need to consider grip size, weight of the racquet, tension in the strings and vibration through the racquet.

2. Technique is often a large contributory factor to tennis elbow. Common technique problems are:

– faulty backhand where wrist is dropping and elbow is leading hand;

– excessive forearm pronation whilst attempting topspin forehands;

– excessive wrist flicking in shots;

– hitting late, puts increased load on the forearm muscles as the person tries to generate power from the forearm instead of generating power via weight transfer behind the ball.

3. Ensure adequate warm up, involving a general build up of power in the shots to warm the forearm muscles up.

4. Regular forearm stretching and strengthening. Your physio will help to show you some stretches for the forearm musculature plus neural stretches. Also, a progressive resistance program to help the tendon heal is important.

5. Ensure you are not overplaying and that if you do have tennis elbow you are letting it have time to recover. Talk to your physio about a gradual return to tennis program.