Serve causing arm pain

[rosooki]

Anyone have any tips for helping with arm pain being caused by the serve? If I serve a lot of balls in practice I experience a lot of pain in my bicep. I also have some pain on the outside of my arm, and a little on my tricep. It feels like it is all in the muscles, with no pain in the elbow.

It leaves my arm weak, and unable to hit any balls for a few days. If I rest a few days it is fine again. Is this a lack of proper pronation problem?

[ochi]

Rosooki, sore biceps is a mystery to me -- my rudimentary understanding is that you should be using your triceps to propel serves.

I am rather old, and avoid all arm and shoulder sorenesses by spending a mere 5-10 minutes using dumbells and a tube, plus breaking sweat, before going out to practice serving 50 or more balls. I have to, because I cannot get myself to start off really easy, which must be the best way to begin. It sounds dumb, but I can't swing easy.

Twenty years ago, I arrived early for a doubles match, and my favorite instructor showed up before his lesson, on the next court. Let's hit some, he said. I'm not warmed up, I said. "You should have warmed up in your car on the way here!" he said. (Like how?) So I banged away, trying hard to hit a few winners against that finely tuned tennis machine. A day or two later, my cuff was bad, and it took months to get over it.

The following year, he walked funny. He had failed to warm up before a match, and had pulled his groin, which took a year to heal completely. Ever since, I do a few sideways groin stretches before playing.

So, I think the answer is, prepare yourself for your practices, and every day between practices.

John's website includes good advice on this. I bet that not many subscribers read it.

Something else -- wear a forearm band as a preventative, and do not use a light racquet. Try a soft string such as Tecnifibre Multifeel 17G. A local instructor who has suffered from tennis elbow for the last year or so now uses it, and so do I. It's easy on the arm. Avoid polyester.

[rosooki]

Re: Serve causing arm pain

Ochi, thanks for your reply. I warm up pretty well. I usually hit about 500 groundstrokes of various types from the ball machine before even serving one ball. I'm a good hour to hour and half into my workout before attempting to serve. After the ground strokes my arm feels fine - no problems. Once I start serving, however, it is all downhill from there.

I do swing hard, though. I serve pretty hard with a eastern grip and continental grip. Afterward, I have a dull pain in my arm like I've just pitched 15 innings. Most of the pain is in my bicep.

[ochi]

If half of those groundies are forehands, you work your biceps hard. Maybe you should practice serving before you have hit so many?

Also, try any over-the-counter sports creme containing 10% trolamine salicylate. Aspercreme is one. There are several enexpensive chain house brands. A pharmacist told me long ago, when there was only Myoflex, that it was the only thing that actually penetrates the muscles. I assume he was right, because it has worked for me, and friends I've given tubes to say they've had good results.

[carrerakent]

shouldn't be working your bicep on forehands if you are using your legs and body to hit the ball, so we shouldn't make an assumption that bicep pain comes from that.

is your arm reaching full extension on the serve. if not, the bicep which is acting eccentrically against the tricep would experience bicep pressure would be involved in that case.

is your bicep tendon sore. underneath the anterior deltoid?

[carrerakent]

do let the soreness go away and serve without tons of forehands so that you can possibly eliminate a forehand technique error as the culprit.

[ochi]

Kent, I don't get it. No matter how I try (how many ways are there?), I can cannot eliminate biceps action. What is the trick?

And, I guess you still mean that everyone who uses double-bend, or semi-double-bend, or imperfect straight-arm, has it wrong, including the Paris finalists, Djokovich and Monfils, this morning, Nov. 15. Rosooki, which technique(s) do you use?

How does one relax the biceps to the point of non-involvment, non-interference, and would this not throw the balance of biceps/triceps interplay out of kilter?

Once again, I request that you submit a video, so that I and everyone else at this forum can see it. And have you wired a player with perfect straight-arm to prove the passivity of the biceps?

I am a striving convert to straight-arm, not due to your fervent lecturing, but to the forehands of two of my best-ever over-55 partners, who whip groundies -- one of them mostly on ROS, the other at will. I have seen it, therefore I attempt to do what they do.

When will your mentor and you produce a DVD?

[ThoughtsOnDemand]

I'm about to buy a new racquet because I developed Golfer’s Elbow (once again)

I never had a problem playing with Babolat (Aeropro Drive 2013), but when I change my racquet to Babolat Pure Aero with a smaller grip size and strung with Luxilon Alu power, immediately feel pain in my wrist and elbow.

After 6 months of recovery, I get back to my old Aeropro Drive 2013, and every two or three weeks, my elbow started to hurt again (Only Golfer’s Elbow pain)

I get recommended to string with soft poly’s or multifilament, but if it is possible I want to stay with poly strings because I play with a lot of spins and break string very often (2 or three weeks)

Here my list of soft poly string:

head lynx 18
head sonic pro 17/16
luxilon element 16
Babolat pro hurricane 18

And about racquets, the seller’s in my country give me these options:

– Babolat Pure Aero Tour (strung at low 50’s)
– Head Graphene Touch Instinct MP (adding lead tape at 3-9 and strung at 50lb)
– Head Graphene Touch Speed Pro (strung at 50lb)
– Head Graphene Touch Speed MP (adding lead tape at 3-9 and strung at 50lb)
– Prince Textreme Warrior 100 (strung at 53lb)

What about these options you recommend to me for tennis elbow?

Thanks in advance!

[doctorhl]

My two cents: Some of the Biceps pain may be coming from its attempt to decelerate at follow through on serve. Same with rotator cuffs that decelerate the arm. This may require a long term change in attitude. The technique you choose must give you the feeling of little vibration in the neck, shoulder, elbow or wrist at any point. Then you know you are using legs and sequencing correctly to alleviate possible injury. Federer is a perfect example to view and emulate as a he has had a very low injury rate in his career. Groundstrokes require the same thing, although vibrationless deceleration will be difficult to achieve with out prior, correct positioning. We all associate increased ball speed with muscle effort. The trick is to try to increase ball speed with less muscular effort. Put a speed gun on your shots. You may be surprised that the last 5- 10% of extra muscular effort on a serve or groundie does not average out enough increased speed to offset possible injury, especially over the course of 3 sets. A Nadal type swing of seemingly near maximal effort for 4 hours takes incredible technique and fitness developed over a lifetime.

[jimlosaltos]

I'm about to buy a new racquet because I developed Golfer’s Elbow (once again)

I never had a problem playing with Babolat (Aeropro Drive 2013), but when I change my racquet to Babolat Pure Aero with a smaller grip size and strung with Luxilon Alu power, immediately feel pain in my wrist and elbow.

After 6 months of recovery, I get back to my old Aeropro Drive 2013, and every two or three weeks, my elbow started to hurt again (Only Golfer’s Elbow pain)

I get recommended to string with soft poly’s or multifilament, but if it is possible I want to stay with poly strings because I play with a lot of spins and break string very often (2 or three weeks)

Here my list of soft poly string:

head lynx 18
head sonic pro 17/16
luxilon element 16
Babolat pro hurricane 18

And about racquets, the seller’s in my country give me these options:

– Babolat Pure Aero Tour (strung at low 50’s)
– Head Graphene Touch Instinct MP (adding lead tape at 3-9 and strung at 50lb)
– Head Graphene Touch Speed Pro (strung at 50lb)
– Head Graphene Touch Speed MP (adding lead tape at 3-9 and strung at 50lb)
– Prince Textreme Warrior 100 (strung at 53lb)

What about these options you recommend to me for tennis elbow?

Thanks in advance!

No expert, but you might consider hybrid stringing. Still get spin, but can get a softer combo.

Might try Luxilon's gut in the mains. It's coated like co-poly and slides, although people that like gut think it's stiff (all relative).

Good luck.

[luv_all]

In my experience, any pain that I’ve felt has been due to improper form. I’ve had everything from wrist pain, elbow pain, to even collar bone pain. However I’ve been able to eliminate all of these with proper form. Not sure what level you play at (I’m about 3.5 so you might blow me out of the water), but some of the biggest issues I see with my peers, even those who are better than me, is improper form by overusing the arm.

With the serve (and forehand and backhand) your shoulders need to be pulling your arm. The arm is really just a conduit to transfer power generated by your body to the ball. Yes, some degree of spin has to be generated by arm action, but if you’re overdoing it to the point of pain you can afford to dial it back and still play acceptably well.

When it comes to different racket/string configurations my conclusion is that it’s just a bandaid fix. Some let you get away with a little more than others with poor form, that’s really it. When I finally broke the habit of using my arm for my strokes I even stopped using vibration dampeners and still was pain free.

TLDR: the elephant in the room is likely form; racket/string combination is a minor detail.

[stroke]

I think almost everyone hoping to diminish their chance of arm problems should use a racquet(strung) that is at minimum 11.9 to 12.0 ounces strung. And headlight.