With the Australian Tennis Open starting tomorrow, many people will have a taste for tennis and will head to their local tennis courts to join emulate their favourite player. In the latest surveys from Ausplay, over 900,000 Australians played tennisand tennis is ranked as Australia’s 7th most played sport.
Tennis is a sport that you can play at various intensity levels and you will still obtain great fitness benefits. As a sport that challenges speed, strength, agility, balance and endurance, there is a wide range of injuries that can been seen in players of all levels.
Tennis is a very agile sport, requiring movement across the court in all directions and quick accelerations or decelerations. As a result, acute and overuse injuries to the legs are very common. Back injuries are frequently seen in tennis due to the rotational forces developed during ground strokes and over-extension in serving. Injuries to the shoulder, elbow and wrist are common in tennis as a result of the repetition and impact forces that come with hitting the ball.
According to www.tennis.com.au common tennis injuries include:
- Tennis Elbow (see previous news article on tennis elbow)
- Rotating cuff tendinitis (shoulder blade)
- Wrist Strains
- Back pain
- Knee painCalf & Achilles tendon
- Tennis toe
Each of these injuries can need specialist treatment. Contact our team to discuss or have your injury professionally assessed then treated.
Some tips to help protect yourself from unwanted niggles and aches:
- Ensure you warm up appropriately prior to training or playing a game of tennis. Your warm-up should include some stretches to the back, arms and legs; and some low intensity footwork and hitting practice before increasing the power of your hits and sharpness of your footwork.
- Make sure that your footwear is supportive and not old and worn
- Play within your fitness capabilities. If you haven’t played tennis for years, don’t aim to play several times a week for a couple of hours but instead plan to gradually increase your playing time.
- If you are interested in playing tennis on a regular basis, booking yourself in for some tennis lessons will help to optimise your game and help protect you from overuse injuries you can develop from poor technique.
Summer is a great time to enjoy an outdoor sport like Tennis, so don’t let injury interfere with your fun. If you have any concerns regarding pre-existing injuries or you pull up sore from having a hit, contact our team to help you get back onto the court sooner.
For further information, please refer to:
Source: Tennis.com.au
Title: Tennis Ranks in Top10 Most Participated Sports in Australia
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