Category Archives: tennis

How to Avoid Arm Injuries in Baseball and Other Throwing Sports (Part I)

Shoulder joint. By the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
Shoulder joint. By the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.

It’s no news to anyone watching the Major League Baseball playoffs that pitchers’ arms tire out pretty fast.

But just how much harm pitchers and other throwers may be doing to themselves is just now becoming clear. Not only does throwing too much damage muscles, ligaments and tendons, it can actually prevent a pitcher’s bones from developing normally. Continue reading How to Avoid Arm Injuries in Baseball and Other Throwing Sports (Part I)

How to Play Tennis Without Injury (We Think)

So you want to play tennis and not get injured doing it. Sounds simple enough, but research shows that for every thousand hours of the sport, up to 3 injuries occur.

You’ll get to a thousand hours in less than four years if you play a few sets each week.

Researchers are beginning to figure out how you can prevent these problems. But we still have a ways to go.

Kei Nishikori. Photo by Angela N. Some rights reserved.
Kei Nishikori. Photo by Angela N. Some rights reserved.

Kei Nishikori, who lost the U.S. Open final yesterday, is a case in point, according to Sports Illustrated:

His injury woes started with a right-elbow issue that required surgery and sidelined him for all but three months in 2009 and most of the first three months of 2010. He’s also struggled with back, knee, abdominal and toe injuries. In May, Nishikori led Nadal by a set and a break in the Madrid Open final before eventually retiring with back pain.

Of course, Nadal himself has struggled with injury, including a wrist problem so serious it kept him out of the U.S. Open this year.

52 Sportsmetrics Exercises That Might Help

So what can you do to reduce your risk? Continue reading How to Play Tennis Without Injury (We Think)

How Tennis Players Get Hurt

Heat. Fatigue. A strained thigh. Eugenie Bouchard had plenty of reasons to explain her defeat in the fourth-round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament yesterday. And anyone who plays tennis regularly can sympathize. Even though you don’t have the opportunity to crash into another player the way you do in a team sports, you can easily get hurt.

Eugenie Bouchard in 2013. Photo by Carine 06. Some rights reserved.
Eugenie Bouchard in 2013. Photo by Carine 06. Some rights reserved.

Of course every vigorous sport takes its toll. But researchers are beginning to pinpoint the biggest risks for each and figure out how to prevent them.  While they’re not as far along as soccer researchers,  tennis experts have already scored some important points. Continue reading How Tennis Players Get Hurt