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Tennis Injuries Can Do You Good

Fatso Tennis Posted on by
Last August I did about 1000 kick serves without pain or injury or even thinking anything about it. By mid september my entire right arm was numb down to the wrist and an MRI of my spine showed that I had a bulging disc . . . I think they said around the C5 vertibrae.

I could practice ground strokes with no problem, but serves were definitely out of the question. By December when I was due to shoot our training DVD I was able to hit very easy serves….at least enough to get my video done.

So what is good about this?

The injury really brought to light the fact that I was muscling my serves and that fact probably contributed heavily to my injury. As I very slowly started serving again I was forced to concentrate on a smooth and fluid service motion. I found that by just standing there i.e., no jumping into the serve, I could hit it just as fast as I could when I tensed up and really cranked it.

Also, during that recovery period I was forced to work on placement of the serve. This has also improved greatly.

One other thing I changed just yesterday while I was practicing on Easter Sunday. I changed my grip slightly toward an eastern backhand grip. Since I’m not hitting as hard as I was pre-injury, I figured I need to put some more action on the ball. This slight change of grip helped me do that.

The Eastern Backhand Grip gives me more action on the serve and more net clearance too.

So, you can see. Sometimes an injury can bring to light changes you need to make in your technique. Yes, it’s a shame when you are injured, but if you take the time to evaluate what happened to you, you just might become a better tennis player. 

Check out our training DVD at http://www.FatsoTennis.com/dvd

Comments

Tennis Injuries Can Do You Good — 2 Comments

  1. Hi Tom, I’m a customer, bought your dvd and loved it, very practical tips. Thanks for your blog too. I’m not a fatso but I’m not getting any younger so everything helps. I had a question about your injury as I’m experiencing a similar thing. I was diagnosed with a disc protrusion below my neck and have some pain in my shoulder, upper arm and sometimes down my whole arm to the hand. Also my upper back and neck. And I haven’t played in a month. Serving and a windshield wiper topspin forehand hurt. Doctor said just rest and I can play in 2 weeks. What did you do to treat it? Just rest? Thanks in advance, and best regards, Lane

  2. Hello Lane:
    I’m sorry you are suffering with that injury. I did a lot of research on the Internet about the disc problem and most of the things I found said that it would improve on its own over time. I quit serving at all for about 2 and 1/2 months and only served very easy just to get my video done. Then I quit serving for another month. In the mean time I got some physical therapy that pretty much centered on getting my back and shoulder muscles stronger or at least as strong as my chest muscles. There was an imbalance that apparently caused the entire problem (not counting hitting 1000 kick serves without the proper training.)

    Throughout the entire recovery I was hitting forehands and backhands and any other shot except overheads and felt no pain whatsoever. Of course, your doctor and you have the final say on this, but you might take the time to practice other strokes or work on the mental and strategic game more while giving your neck a break.

    As I think back I was fully recovered in about 4 months.
    I hope you get over this quickly so you can get on with improving your serve and forehand, but like I said above . . . there are probably other things you can work on .
    Nice to meet you.
    TA

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