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wimdledont


Challenger level

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Hi all,

 

I've been biting my lip on this for some time, and better start by clearly stating that I am not a medical practitioner, sports physiowhatchamacallit, tennis professional, or sober. Hence this damburst...

Has anybody else clocked the number of our players who have been incapacitated by a mechanical injury over the preceding twemonth? As i follow the women mainly, I can only hope to report accurately on that side...

Carreras, Moore, Christie, Swan, Robson, Cavaday, Taylor, Stephenson, Whybourn, Silva, Konoptseva, Boulter - that's a dozen - and I am sure to have forgotten/not known about some others. Around one third of our players who are in/around the WTA rankings.

So tennis is a tough sport, and I have no idea if this crocklist is particularly high or low by international standards. But I suspect that it's high; and that if it were lower, we would have more players contending to join our 3 fully fit players (JoKo, Watters, Broady) in the upper echelons; and, most controversially of all, that I, in my wisdom, know what the problem is...

Weights

Gotta be careful with weights. Doing weights, for a tennis player, makes you weaker.

Doing weights builds muscle, sure, and therefore makes you more powerful, and able to exert more force upon a tennis ball. But Newton.

Exert a force of x kiloJoules on a tennisball - not inconsiderable if it hits your doubles partner in the back - and an equal and opposite force travels down the racquet, through your hand, wrist, elbow, shoulder...

When you are doing weights, as a tennis player, you may be increasing the power of your muscles, but you are doing nothing to strengthen the sinews/tendons/ligaments that must absorb the violent shock of the impact of racquet and ball and, as such, you make yourself weaker and weaker - more and more vulnerable to self-inflicted damage.

Comments, please...

 

 



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The Optimist


ATP qualifying

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Well, I'm no physicist!  But I'm not sure I agree with you.  Whilst IMO the standard of strength and conditioning for tennis players is rather variable in this country, rarely does it consist of straight weight training.  It's usually a mix of cardio, strength training and flexibility.  And a good weights program should not be focussing solely on strength.  A large part of it will be about developing those muscles which protect and support those joints which take the stress in tennis.

But the girls do have a lot of injuries and I don't think we are worse than other countries in that regard.  I wonder, but have insufficient knowledge to back up the theory, whether it is because girls, much more than boys, play 'up' against older and more powerful players at a relatively young age whilst their bodies are still developing.  Last year I got to see one of our top under 12s hitting against a much older, fairly powerfully built opponent.  The youngster more than held her own and clearly had bags of talent.  However, during the whole session I couldn't take my eyes off her matchstick arms and tiny wrists absorbing a continual pounding.  Despite the lovely tennis on show I actually found it quite uncomfortable to watch.

 



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wimdledont


Challenger level

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This article from the Guardian is very well researched, and covers the recent wave of injury among the top WTA players...

www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/feb/18/wta-tour-tennis-injuries

Also some very interesting comments.

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EddietheEagle


County player

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Constant pounding on hard courts will have a lot to do with it. That and their relentless baseline-bashing gamestyles. Weights are essential for injury prevention, but only to a point.

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Coup Droit


Tennis legend

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Very interesting article, WimblyT

Not really just about the over-training itself, either, but illness, mental burn-out, being in the spotlight too suddenly, picking the wrong people .....

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philwrig


Hall of fame

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I think you've got to be very careful with how much weights you do with junior players, before their bodies are fully developed.

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