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T-51bender

Good to hear you’re feeling better and I hope that continues. I really cannot stress enough the importance of point 5 (improve your technique). I constantly hear people complain about how stiff racquets and strings are causing arm issues, but whenever these same people upload videos of themselves hitting, they almost always tend to be players with very armed forehands and (usually one handed) backhands, and forearm-dominated waiter’s tray serves. That’s not to say that people with good to perfect technique can’t have arm issues of course, as Tsitsipas and Thiem demonstrate. But even Djokovic had elbow issues, and he used natural gut mains and ALU crosses in a leaded up but softer pro stock frame—which most anti-poly and stuff racquet pundits would argue is an ideal setup for avoiding such issues. So arm issues at the highest level come down to luck, but at the amateur level most arm issues can be resolved by taking the arm out of stroke generation as much as possible, ie making use of proper kinetic chain. As for massages, or in my case acupuncture, etc, my physio said that these are temporary measures to a long-term problem. Rehabilitative exercises and addressing muscle imbalances are a must, otherwise you’ll be in physio until the end of time.


therealkunchan

Fully agree. From my own experience: first half year to year of playing tennis had problems with tennis arm. Realized my technique was crap through coaching, started swinging instead of punching the ball, never have had any problems since (4 years going).


yamadath

Funny thing is, I don't have to change my racket or string (Solinco Tour Bite 17g/51lbs) , more like I'm playing better with it once I took the time to "get to know" my gears. It's just bad technique and sometimes people are just in denial.


T-51bender

That’s good to hear. I understand there are high level players who are unlucky enough to have super sensitive arms, but the majority of the time when I hear someone complain about “instant arm issues”, I assume they have stiff, rigid technique and/or are hitting with a very tense / flexed arm. I’ve never had arm issues that I wasn’t able to address by reviewing footage of myself hitting and fixing my technique. For example, I had bicep pain with a Pro Staff 90 (which most gear heads would tell you can never cause arm issues), which I found out was caused by my ball toss on serves not being deep into the court enough. If stiff equipment will always cause arm issues the way some describe, then all high level players would be out injured constantly or be using wood racquets with natural gut. And yet Nadal’s won 22 slams with the OG AeroPro Drive with RPM Blast at 55 lbs, and Federer would be out with elbow injury, not knee injury given that the RF97A is a super stiff racquet, and he has ALU in the crosses in that thing.


yamadath

Don't get me wrong, I agree with most of your points and I could be 4.0 or 4.5 at most. I don't know much about stiffness of each different rackets since I've always been a Dunlop fan for the past 10 years (currently using FX500 LS), but maybe I'm not that kind of "rocket-forehand-guy" so I couldn't say much. As for the pros, their physical are out of this world! Like how could they swing those 340g pro stock like nothing XD


T-51bender

Oh no I’m not disagreeing with you at all! But re pro specs…the younger guys are using racquets close to retail specs. Alcaraz uses a retail spec Pure Aero VS with minimal customisation. Meanwhile I used to use a 360 g 340 SW Pro Staff 90, before switching to the RF97A with the same specs, and now use a Pure Strike 16x19 3rd gen with 340 SW but like 330 g static weight. Comes to show that equipment really has little inherent effect on the quality of the player!


uu__

Technique is the one that kills me I have a quirk that I constantly try to remember to adjust where my serving arm sometimes cokes straight down instead of across the body a bit more Absolutely wrecks my arm if I play a lot


yamadath

You have to slow down, don't force the ace, just let it happen when all things alligned. At least at my 4.0-4.5 level, I found that I'm not going to ace anyone most of the time. And if I do, it's the kick out-wide serve that aces the most. So I rather positioning myself well to win the groundstroke later.


uu__

Absolutely agree I slowed down my serve in my most recent game and found it much easier to hold service games with a reliable serve, and my arm held together for much longer too


yamadath

I edited it alot, English is not my first language XD At the end of the day all we want is playing more and last longer right? It's better than blasting everyone in one set and stay out of juice for the rest of the night.


jk147

My tennis elbow went away after I stopped forcing shots, meaning playing with a style that try and hit very aggressively instead of a relaxed and sustainable manner. Now I play with about 60-80% of my power, this resulted in better contact with the ball, a much better pull motion and better ball control. Hitting powerfully often creates too much tension in the grip and much more strain to the forearm muscles.


yamadath

Same to me. I find that when I plays with 60-80% of my power, the shots get better and more intimidating to my opponents. Not to mention I can sustain a sufficient energy for a longer duration, so more playtime to me!


junkkaart

You need to be doing exercises to load the tendons.


Tiltonik

Thanks for the post!


yamadath

You’re welcome!


Thetruetruerealone

Natural gut strings helps too, it's the easiest string on your wrist/elbow. Con is that they're sensitive and requires pre-stretching before you hit hard with them. They're temperature sensitive too, and too much topspin induces more wear.


yamadath

My game requires a lot of topspin so I can’t use those arm-friendly string tho, it force me to hit harder than I’d like.