Wheelchair Tennis Elbow Tips

Video Transcript

"Most of us have been injured or something. That's why we play wheelchair tennis, so we don't need further injuries. One of the common injuries in tennis is something you've heard of called tennis elbow. I played an intense three set tie breaker against a good buddy in a wheelchair, last May, and my elbow is still hurting me a year later. I've had shots, I've had therapy, so I don't want you to have the same problems. So one thing I'd recommend, we use our arms a lot, we live with our arms. Pushing with the chair obviously pushing with the chair, you're gripping your wheelchair, so we're using this motion [demonstrating grip] a lot. So we want to make sure that we don't put a death grip on our racket. Especially when we hit a nice shot, we're in position, maybe take a second to, you know, spin your racket, or loosen your grip, or just relax your fingers a little bit. So it's not always like you're gripping your racket and you're gripping your chair and everything's all intense. Relax your shoulders, your grip, your forearms and wait for the actual stroke to re-tighten the grip, so you don't get injuries like that, like I've had in the last year. So my forehand, and I'm more back here which I guess is an eastern grip and then on my slice I'll go back closer to a continental grip, either forehand slice or backhand slice."