Essay On Injuries In Tennis

Tennis Injuries

There are various types of injuries that occur in tennis. Tennis is a sport that consists of multiple motions including starting, stopping, sprinting, and motions that compress the spine such as the serve. Because the entire body is active in this sport, almost all of the body is susceptible to injury. The regions that will be mentioned in the following section are the upper extremities, the lower extremities, and the trunk region.

The upper extremities refers to the shoulder, arm, forearm, wrist and hand.

The lower extremities refers to the hips to the toes including the hip, knees, and ankle joints.

The trunk refers to the abdominal and thorax regions of the body. Most Common Tennis Injuries

Research conducted on collegiate athletes found that the most common types of injuries were “tendinitis…sprains…and strains” (Magtaiad et. al. 45). Figure 1 shows the common injuries in a bar chart.

Data used from the research by Magtaiad, Wisdom, and Narvasa, details the most common kinds of injuries reported in a group of college tennis players.

Tendinitis, the most common injury, usually appears in “the shoulders, elbows, knees and wrist” (Magtaiad et. al. 45). Sprains mostly occur in the ankles, but can happen to the wrist. Strains were most likely to

In fact, “perfect wrist functionality” is a necessity for any good tennis player (Tagliafico et. al. 761). Despite wrist injuries being rare, the most common kinds of wrist injuries in tennis players are “extensor or flexor tendinitis, ulnar carpal impingement, triangular fibrocartilage injuries, ligamentous tears, and fractures of the hook of hamate” (Tagliafico et. al. 761). Because there is such a wide variety of wrist injuries it can be difficult to discern what causes these injuries. Some researches believe that this could be due to the different playing styles (Tagliafico et. al.