From learners to the professionals, accidents from enjoying tennis do occur, particularly within the wrist.
Whether it’s the serve, forehand, backhand or volley, tennis places numerous stress in your wrist.
“There are about 18 million tennis players in the United States. And when we talk about injuries in the upper extremity, about 30% in tennis players are wrist injuries. That’s a high number,” mentioned Dr. Sanj Kakar, a Mayo Clinic hand and wrist surgeon.
Many of these accidents are attributable to power overuse.
“In the average tennis match, there are over 1,000 ground strokes. Now if you’re practicing three, four times a week, for two, three hours, maybe not hit 1,000 shots. Maybe just practice on volleying,” Kakar mentioned.
How you grip the racket and hit the ball performs a significant function, too, which is why Mayo researchers not too long ago studied tennis gamers’ strokes in a movement evaluation lab.
“With our research, we’ve learned — just by looking at the various muscles and motion capture technology — we can really break it down to the millisecond to see which muscles are firing appropriately and which ones aren’t,” Kakar mentioned. “I’ve actually had patients who we’ve operated on, and they’ve gone through this program to see that actually, when they’re hitting a topspin, their wrist is in the wrong position. That can’t be picked up with the naked eye. And now they can work with their tennis professionals to improve their form to hopefully prevent further injury.”
— Tribune News Service
Source: www.bostonherald.com”