Improving Shoulder Health for the Tennis Athlete

Shoulder health is of great importance for a tennis player. “Of all the major joints in the body, the shoulder has the greatest range of motion. In overhead sport athletes such as baseball and tennis there are a variety of injuries that can occur due to poor mechanics and/or range of motion. A decreased range of motion can lead to a variety challenges for athletes from limiting performance, change in biomechanical patterns and potential increase in injuries etc.
The baseball pitching motion like the serve in tennis is a total kinetic chain activity that uses both the upper and lower extremities to produce the force and velocity needed to produce the motion. If there is a lack of synchronization throughout the motion (the right timing of force and energy transfer from the lower body, through the core muscles and into the upper body muscles) then extra stress can be placed on the shoulder joint. In tennis players who play consistently (> than one time per week), there is a decreased internal rotation range of motion seen in the short term (immediately following one training session or match) as well as over the longer term (weeks, months, years). Over the course of a three hour match we have seen consistent decreases in internal shoulder rotation range of motion between 5-10%. Much of this loss in range motion is returned over the subsequent hours/days, but it does result in a residual reduction in range of motion of time.

Research has shown that adding self-myofascial release (foam rolling, manual therapies and other similar techniques) can increase shoulder internal rotation range of motion while maintaining serve speed and accuracy. This can be accomplished through manual therapy techniques by a trained professional (CTPS, MTPS, PT, ATC etc), or the “self” aspect involves using massage sticks, foam rollers, lacrosse balls or other devices that can help.

The Shoulder is one of the most injured areas of the body in competitive tennis players. Improving your shoulder health will allow you to limit your risk as you enjoy our great game – Mark Kovacs Click To Tweet

With this knowledge in our hands it is important to focus on strengthening the shoulder joint.
There are a wide variety of exercises to strengthen the muscles around the shoulder. Below are a few must do exercises for tennis players and all overhead athletes.

• 90/90 External Rotation Strengthening Drill With Resistance Tubing: This is a very useful exercise that many times is not always performed correctly. Here is a short video to help you better perform one of the most used shoulder strengthening exercises by professional tennis players.

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• 90/90 Shoulder Reverse Slam Towel Series: This is a rather advanced exercise to develop strength and power in the muscles involved external https://youtu.be/rcXrWWzQvNU . This exercise is just one of dozens of exercises and training plans provided in our Institute’s course titled BulletProof Arm (A Practical Arm Care Training Program for Tennis and Racket Sports)

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http://kovacsinstitute.com/bulletproofarm.html

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• Sleeper Stretch: – The goal of the exercise is improve internal rotation range of motion.

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• Chest Stretch: In order to help release the tension and improve range of motion towards the front of the shoulder and chest muscles. By doing this exercise it will slowly release the tight fascia allowing for improved alignment and recruitment of the rotator cuff area when the shoulder does need to be used during tennis play.

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• External Rotation with a Resistance Band – Tie a resistance band to a post or fence. Once external rotation has been reached then return to the start point of the arm at 90 degrees next to the body. Always keep the arm bent. Here is a good video that highlight this exercise .
  

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Here is a great 8 minute video by Todd Ellenbecker highlighting an entire series of shoulder exercises that can significantly help the tennis athlete

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We have hundreds of hours of content at our Kovacs Institute Academy site www.kovacsacademy.com . If you are looking for quality information from Dr. Mark Kovacs and the entire team at the Institute, please consider joining us as continue to educate and share quality information for tennis players and coaches at all levels of the game.

This has taken over 10 years of development with quality content on all aspects of tennis specific education, sport science, fitness and injury prevention for players, coaches and all racket sports enthusiasts.

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