Author: blogger

In general, any pain along the outer side of your elbow can be classified as tennis elbow. It is often associated with muscle strain as a leading cause.

The term can be misleading, however, because there are three distinct kinds of pain along three different areas of your arm and elbow. For example, if the discomfort specifically runs along the inner side of your elbow, then this is referred to as golfer’s elbow. When the feeling emanates from back and under, that’s an ailment known as bursitis for you! And like we said, when its on the exterior, that’s most likely to be some tennis elbow pain.

Trivial and unusual as this pain may sound, it can also be debilitating. In severe cases, you would find difficulty in grasping an object as heavy as a hammer or even one as light as a cup and saucer.

Actually, it isn’t the bone of your elbow which aches but the muscles and nerves surrounding it. Even the ligaments and tendons which attach it could be strained. After all, this condition is the result of a motion injury.

To describe this uncomfortable sensation, it radiates from the arm down to the wrist. The discomfort can last from as short as six weeks to as long as 3 months. During this time, you would find it painful to bend your arm as well as difficult to straighten and stretch it.

While you’re recovering, it would be unadvisable to perform any strenuous work or to do any lifting of weights. For any sports buff, you would have to refrain from using the racket or playing tennis for as long as it’s recommended. Thus, you should see your doctor once you encounter this kind of pain. Since pain and inflammation seems to be the problem, pain relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs would be the medications prescribed for you.

Aside from using medications, the condition can be relieved by some practical home remedies. An ice pack would be a good suggestion. Just fill a zip-lock bag with some ice and apply to the site for around 10-15 minutes.

If the pain is severe and recurrent, you can do this application 3-4 times a day. Do keep in mind to leave an hour’s interval between applications. For any bit of soreness or tenderness, you can also use a frozen pack of vegetables such as peas. The important thing is to control the inflammation and allow it to subside.

Once your arm feels better, you can exercise it with some short and quick stretches. Palms up, see first how fully you can extend your forearm without any discomfort. Repeat the movements but don’t overstrain or overdo.

Take it easy and explore your range of motion gradually if you’ve just come from an injury. You could undo the healing and cause more damage to those inflamed muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Complete healing from muscle wear and tear takes time, so you must allow your body to recover at its pace.

If you want to improve your tennis game, learn to watch the ball. Don’t be distracted by the movements of the player beyond the net, don’t worry about what they’re doing that might indicate how they plan to deliver their next swing. And don’t look at their side of the court to decide where you want to send the ball back to them. Focus on the ball itself so you don’t lose sight of it once it passes the net, as most players do. Practice with a friend or a machine so you can return several balls without pause and practice watching the ball until it hits your tennis racket. If you take your eyes off the ball too soon, it’s going to be difficult to make sure it hits the center of your tennis racket, which is a clean hit in tennis and the most desirable way to return a ball.

Watching the ball can prevent hits that go off in unexpected directions because your tennis racquet has turned in your hand. It’s often not a grip problem (though this can be an issue, too) but because you’re not focused on the ball, you can’t tilt the tennis racquet properly to ensure that the ball hits in the center and that the tennis racquet is angled properly. If you’re looking at the ball just before it hits the tennis racquet, you can quickly changed the tilt of the racquet to make the shot you intended.

The more you learn to watch the ball, the better you’ll be able to return it from the center of the tennis racquet. You’ll also find you’re a much better judge of the speed and likely drop spot of the ball if you watch it until it hits the racket, rather than taking your eyes off it feet before it reaches you.

Unless your opponent is up close to the net as well, don’t return the ball too close to the net. If you do and they return from the back of the court, the ball will likely sail past your outstretched tennis racquet because you’ve had no time to move back into position to return it. If they’re close, though, it’s a great opportunity to do that to them.

Concentrate on staying in the center of the court. This is the best position to be in to quickly reach almost any ball. And don’t get so caught up in watching your return ball fly that you’re caught off guard by your opponent’s next move.

Study your mistakes and learn from them. If you’re always hitting the ball out of bounds, practice reigning in your swing. If the ball constantly ends up in the net, adjust the angle of your tennis racket and your swing to get it over the net more often. Letting yourself get frustrated over these errors will only cause you to make other small miscalculations. Look at them as opportunities to improve your tennis game and have even more fun.

After working with several junior tennis players on their mental game, Ive noticed that players limit their success when they focus on opponent rankings or tournament seeding. As you might already know, comparing your tennis skills to an opponent is a mental game no-no in my book.

When you make comparisons to your opponents, you are essentially saying to yourself that they are better than you! When you look at the draws to find out who you are playing, do you focus on seeding or player ranking?

Whats the mental game of tennis danger in comparing your ranking to your opponents ranking? You make too many assumptions (or generalizations) about who should win and who should lose the match. It may seem logical that the number one seed should beat the number two seed right? You know this is not always the case and this type of thinking can cause a poor mind game for tennis.

Why? If you are losing the match to a higher seeded player (that you think should win the match), how will you react? Yes, youll confirm your pre-determined expectations about who should win the match and then tank it. You wont be willing to fight back after losing the first set. Youll engage with the here I go again syndrome.

I know its hard to not pay attention to who you are playing and your opponents ranking or number of wins. I also realize that you can prepare your game depending on the style of your opponents game. So you could argue that knowing who you are playing can be an advantage. However, in most cases its not helpful to your mental game when you compare your ranking to other players in the tournament.

Then to compound the matter, players feel expectations from others to win if they are the better player or have a higher ranking. Your expectations about winning can turn into added pressure to win and fear of failure about losing.

Youre tennis psychology tip for today: Dont focus on your opponents ranking or the tournament seeding. Focus on your strengths instead of comparing yourself to other players. Think about how you can perform your best no matter the level of the opposition.