Keep It Out In Front!
Sep 08 '00 (Updated Oct 08 '04)
The Bottom Line The best way to prevent tennis elbow is to hit the ball the right way. But once you have it, there are ways of managing it.
One of the biggest causes of "tennis elbow" is your contact point with the ball, especially on the backhand, more specifically, a one-handed backhand.
The contact point on your one-handed backhand should be out in front of your body, with your hitting elbow about six inches away from your body. This is true on both topspin and underspin shots. Because all of the stability is at the bottom of your grip on a one-hander, when your contact point is late (or farther back) the muscles in your forearm are straining more than they should be.
Tennis elbow isn't as big of a problem with a two-handed backhand for two reasons. First, because you have two hands on the grip, stability isn't as much of a problem. Second, with a two-hander, your contact point can be farther back, and actually has to be because of the second hand on the grip.
Now, am I telling you to switch from a one-handed backhand to a two-handed backhand if you have tennis elbow? NO! The best thing you can do is talk to your local certified tennis pro, and find out what you have to change. Most of the time it will be the contact point on the backhand.
There are some other causes for tennis elbow also. Using a lot of wrist on your strokes is another biggie. Tennis is a sport where you need to have a fixed wrist on all shots except the serve and the overhead. Racquet vibration is another cause. If you have an older racquet you may want to look into upgrading to a new frame (see my editorial in the racquet technology section). Titanium and Hyper Carbon are two materials used in frames today that have very little vibration. Again talk to your local pro for more information.
A quick note on Shock Absorbers and Vibration Dampeners. They do very little to stop vibration in your racquet. All they do is change the sound of the ball hitting your strings. If you have a lot of vibration in your racquet, try getting it re-strung. There is no scientific proof, but people who drop the tension of their strings while suffering from tennis elbow seem to see a decrease of pain in the affected area.
If you have tennis elbow, try using a brace. The ones made by Aircast with the air pouch are the best suited for your problem because you can adjust where the pressure is placed. Put the air pouch right over the spot where you feel the pain.
To help prevent tennis elbow first have a certified tennis professional look at your stroke techniques. Make any necessary changes to minimize your chances of getting it. Second try this exercise. With a 3-5 pound hand-weight, roll your wrist up like you are accelerating on a motorcycle. Go from all the way down with a limp wrist, to all the way up slowly. This will strengthen your forearm, and help prevent the most dreaded tennis injury. UPDATE 10/8/04: Since I wrote this opinion there have been two excellent racquet technologies developed to help players with tennis elbow. The first is Wilson's Triad technology which reduces vibration by separating the grip (where the vibration goes) from the head (where it comes from) of the racquet. I have written a couple of reviews on the technology, if you want more info I'll direct you there. The newest technology is Head's Protector racquets. They use an electronic dampening system controlled by an integrated microchip to reduce shock by more than 50%. Once Epinions updates the tennis section I'll write a review for these racquets.
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