Photo author credit:  https://traineracademy.org/

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual Meeting is held each year and brings together over 5000 scientists and doctors from all over the world who are experts in sports medicine and exercise science. This year the meeting was held in the home town of the ACSM – Indianapolis, Indiana. Unfortunately this year had very few tennis studies that were presented – only 3 presentations on tennis and 2 of them were case study examples. Fortunately hundreds of studies from around the world were presented on topics that have relevance to tennis athletes.  Below is a short summary providing some of the major highlights. If you are an iTPA member, please visit the Inner Circle Member site (http://www.itpamembers.org ) which has a much more detailed summary with abstracts of dozens of relevant studies for individuals who work with tennis athletes.

Effect of Competitive Match Play on Handgrip Strength in Division III Tennis Players

George L. Hoyt, III, Andrew L. Sykes. Methodist University, Fayetteville, NC.

A rather simple study was conducted looking at the effect of competitive matchplay on grip strength in In Division III male tennis players. The results of the study found that the athletes showed significant ratings of fatigue after the matchplay, but did not show any difference in grip strength. This study is interesting because it highlights that feelings of fatigue does not necessarily show a decrease in grip strength in the population measured.

The take-home is that subjective feelings of fatigue may not be always linked to actually a decrease in performance. It is important to understand that just because an athlete is fatigued, does not mean that they cannot continue to perform at a high level. Just be careful not to overdo this principle which can result in a situation of overtraining or a constant state of fatigue.

Here are some other take homes from research that was presented:

-       Functional Movement Screen (FMS) was shown to be a poor predictor of non-contact overuse injury in college athletes. However, performance on the lunge movement did show some promise in predicting injury.

-       An interesting study evaluating the walking/running mechanics of 2 and 3 year old children found that excellent runners vs inferior runners at that age had different mechanics. This may suggest the need to develop technique at a younger age than first thought.

-       A separate study also on 3 year old children found that children that took longer steps were able to throw a ball further. Also, children with higher motor abilities at that age (measured by scores on 7 different motor ability tests) could transfer muscular strength and power of lower limb to ball speed better than children with lower motor abilities.

-       In a baseball study focused on shoulder strength and power in high school baseball players, a six week training program focused on either:

1) controlled motion exercises (using bodyweight, dumbbells & tubing)

2) explosive motion exercises using constant air resistance machines

3) plyometrics (explosive motion exercises using 4-8lb medicine balls & tubing)

All three programs were effective in increasing shoulder strength & power. Group 1 was most effective in increasing shoulder strength, while groups 2 & 3 were most effective in increasing shoulder. Therefore, it would be acceptable to conclude that a combination of all three training programs would be beneficial for tennis athletes to improve strength and power in the shoulder region.

-       Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has inconsistent results in the literature and may not be a valuable tool to monitor overtraining

-       The Relative Age Effect (RAE) is attainment inequalities as a result of interactions between biological age and age-grouping procedures. In simple terms it is when an older kid (i.e. someone born in February is perceived to be more athletic than a younger kid (i.e. born in December) and chosen for teams or talent squads over the younger kid. A very good study found the influence of the RAE varies across age groups, but is most pronounced  between the ages 9-12. This is very important for coaches and parents to understand that during this time period, a 6-12 month difference in birth month can have a major impact on perceived sports competency.

-       When working with older adults higher speed resistance training (i.e. power training) improves peak power but also shifts the point at which peak power was produced to lower external resistances. This is beneficial for older populations.

-       In a different study also focused on power training in the older population, functional fitness is positively influenced by muscular power.

-       Consumption of leucine-enriched essential amino acids mixture suppressed exercise-induced muscle damage and muscle soreness (DOMS), and aided muscle recovery.

-       In college athletics the majority of the athletes use at least one dietary supplement. However, the overall nutrition and dietary supplement knowledge is inadequate.

-       A study looking at basketball camp found that parents descriptions of an optimal motivational environment involved focusing children on their effort, improvement and positive interactions with other campers and coaches.

Photo credit: https://traineracademy.org/

A Quick Tip from Dr. Ellen Rome Regarding The 10 and Under Tennis Athlete.

Dr. Ellen Rome, Head of the Center for Adolescent Medicine at The Cleveland Clinic, a member of the iTPA Certification Commission and a member of USTA Sport Science Committee.

Announcing an in-person 4-Hour Specialty Course FREE for iTPA and USPTA members. Speed, Agility & Quickness for Tennis: Creative Programming to Add Value To Your On-Court Training. Sunday, June 9th in Mt Kisco, NY from 4 - 8 PM EST. See details below and register today! (If you are an iTPA Member, email us to let us know you are attending).

Event Webpage:   www.itpa-tennis.org/agility-course

When:
Sunday, June 9, 2013
4:00 - 8:00 PM EST

Where:
Saw Mill Racket Club
77 Kensico Drive
Mt Kisco, NY 10549
(914) 241-0797

Price:
Complimentary for iTPA and USPTA Members
$50 for any individual not a member of iTPA or USPTA

*If you are an iTPA Member in good standing and will be attending, please
email us here so we can get an accurate head count.
You must send us an email in order to attend the event.

Worth 50 iTPA CPE credits

What:

This four hour specialty course will provide specific drills and exercises to develop tennis-specific speed, agility and quickness. Improving tennis-specific movement is paramount to success on the court at every level of the game. The format of the course is designed to allow the participant to learn the best methods and progressions and how to link these drills and exercises with strokes and strategy. The entire course will be on-court and in an interactive format to ensure a full understanding of how these drills and exercises can be implemented into your lesson plans.

Come and join your fellow professionals in a unique format that will allow significant interaction and case examples with scenarios that you encounter every day with your players. Worth 50 iTPA Continuing Professional Education Credits and 2 USPTA credits. NO refunds, even if you are not able to attend.

The USPTA Eastern is hosting it's annual TennisFest on June 9th and 10th. Information and registration here.

 “A growing epidemic of preventable sports injuries is dismantling the hopes and dreams of young athletes at an early age.” – Dr. James Andrews and the STOP (Sports Trauma and Overuse Prevention) Sport Injuries Organization.

As April is National Youth Sport Safety Month, it is important to evaluate the quality and quantity of training and competition that your young athletes are exposed to. Tennis is a sport that typically has a very high volume at a young age, and although tennis is an early initiation sport, it should be a late specialization sport. This means that to be highly successful (i.e. earning a college scholarship or dreams of playing professionally) in the sport an individual needs to be exposed to the sport at a young age – typically before 10 years of age. However, it is a late specialization sport. This means that it is important to learn the sport at a young age, but also participate in multiple sports to at least till 12-14 years of age. Over the past decade a number of studies in different sports have consistently shown that athletes that specialize in one sport from a very young age have a greater number of injuries. Some of the most recent research was presented at the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) meeting in San Diego in April. The study is titled “Risks of Specialized Training and Growth in Young Athletes: A Prospective Clinical Cohort Study” and was led by Dr. Neeru Jayanthi (iTPA Certification Commission member) http://www.itpa-tennis.org/certification-commission.html.

Below are some of the most relevant notes from the study :

• Between 2010 and 20103, Neeru Jayanthi (iTPA Certification Commission member) and colleagues at Loyola and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago enrolled 1,206 athletes ages 8 to 18 between who had come in for sports physicals or treatment for injuries.

• There were 859 total injuries, including 564 overuse injuries, in cases in which the clinical diagnosis was recorded. The overuse injuries included 139 serious injuries such as stress fractures in the back or limbs, elbow ligament injuries and osteochondral injuries (injuries to cartilage and underlying bone). Such serious injuries can force young athletes to the sidelines for one to six months or longer.

• Young athletes who spent more hours per week than their age playing one sport – such as a 12-year-old who plays tennis 13 or more hours a week – were 70 percent more likely to experience serious overuse injuries than other injuries.

• The study confirmed preliminary findings - that specializing in a single sport increases the risk of overall injury, even when controlling for an athlete’s age and hours per week of sports activity.

• Young athletes were more likely to be injured if they spent more than twice as much time playing organized sports as they spent in unorganized free play — for example, playing 11 hours of organized soccer each week, and only 5 hours of free play such as pick-up games.

• Athletes who suffered serious injuries spent an average of 21 hours per week in total physical activity (organized sports, gym and unorganized free play), including 13 hours in organized sports. By comparison, athletes who were not injured, participated in less activity – 17.6 hours per week in total physical activity, including only 9.4 hours in organized sports.

• Injured athletes scored 3.3 on researchers’ six-point sports-specialization scale. Uninjured athletes scored 2.7 on the specialization scale. (On the sports specialization scale, an athlete is given one point for each of the following:

1. Trains more than 75 percent of the time in one sport;
2. Trains to improve skill or misses time with friends;
3. Has quit other sports to focus on one sport;
4. Considers one sport more important than other sports;
5. Regularly travels out of state;
6. Trains more than eight months a year or competes more than six months per year.

Dr. Jayanthi offers the following tips to reduce the risk of injuries in young adults:

• Do not spend more than twice as much time playing organized sports as you spend in gym and unorganized play.
• Do not specialize in one sport before late adolescence.
• Do not play sports competitively year round. Take a break from competition for one-to-three months each year (not necessarily consecutively).
• Take at least one day off per week from training in sports

The iTPA Parent’s Guide To Basic Injury Prevention

The iTPA has created a Parent’s Guide To Basic Injury Prevention Course which is specifically designed to help the tennis parent to appropriately work with their junior players to help reduce the chance of injury through appropriate prevention exercises. The course comes with over one hour of practical video instruction showing detailed injury prevention exercises and tutorials, in addition to an 85-page color Workbook. Please see the webpage for a detailed description and sample videos of the course http://www.itpa-tennis.org/parentcourse.html

Perspective below from Dr. Ellen Rome, Head of the Center for Adolescent Medicine at The Cleveland Clinic and a Member of the iTPA Certification Commission (www.itpa-tennis.org/certification-commission) and a member of the USTA Sports Science Committee.

• How does the brain develop when an athlete is very young?
• Adolescent age and stage is important.
  
• Understanding the differences between the different stages is important for the Tennis Performance Trainer or Certified Tennis Performance Specialist.

AUDIO clip below:

The USTA Serves Special Report, More Than a Sport: Tennis, Education and Health

According to USTA Serves (the national charitable foundation of the USTA), this is the first nationwide study to analyze the educational, behavioral and health benefits for adolescents who participate in tennis. Below you will find the major take-homes from the research; all these points are beneficial to understand to help promote the benefits of tennis – especially to parents.

1) Tennis is a unique catalyst for educational advantage.

Compared to non-athletes as well as the top nine high school sports, tennis athletes devote more time each to homework, report higher grades and are more likely to attend a four-year university.
Remember that this highlights a correlation – not a causation. This means that just playing tennis alone will not cause better grades or going to a four year college. Socio-economic status, parental influence, geography, aptitude among many other factors contribute.

2) Tennis players reported significantly lower rates of suspension from school and other disciplinary measures than participants in other sports as well as non-athletes.

3) Educational advantages among tennis players occurred across and within all family and socioeconomic levels.

“Half of U.S. adolescent tennis participants come from families in which parents have less than high  school education, a high school degree only or some college—indicators of middle and lower socioeconomic levels. The perception that tennis is a “country club” sport benefiting only one segment of the population is at most only 50% correct. The educational and social advantages associated with tennis participation were strongest among adolescents from higher-socioeconomic-level families, but still present in families with middle and lower socioeconomic levels and often higher when compared to adolescents who participate in other high school sports or do not participate in sports at all.

4) Adolescent tennis players are well-rounded.

The research found that tennis players performed more extracurricular activities and volunteered in their communities at higher rates than other high school athletes and students who did not participate in sports.

5) Tennis contributes to improved adolescent health.

Participation in tennis was associated with lower rates of:

-    Cigarette smoking
-    Binge drinking
-    Marijuana use
-    Being overweight
-    Being obese

6) Adolescent participation:

•    Whites: 77%
•    Blacks: 9%
•    Hispanics: 14%
•    Male: 47%
•    Female: 53%
•    Live in the South: 33%
•    Live in the West: 26%
•    Live in the North Central States: 20%
•    Live in the Northeast: 20%

Here is the link for the executive summary of The USTA Serves Special Report, More Than a Sport: Tennis, Education and Health
http://assets.usta.com/assets/822/15/More_than_a_Sport_Executive_Summary-v7-web.pdf

Here is the link for the full report of the survey data of The USTA Serves Special Report, More Than a Sport: Tennis, Education and Health
http://assets.usta.com/assets/822/15/More_than_a_Sport_Full_Report_2.27.13.pdf

Short video featuring several basic injury prevention exercises for tennis players. Presented by iTPA Executive Director Dr. Mark Kovacs. Watch in HD!

2. Andy Murray's Blisters

After the hundreds of hours of pre-season work by Andy Murray, he came into the Australian Open in great physical shape and moved through the first few rounds of the Australian in devastating form. He came into the Open final looking good and played well in the first couple of sets. Then he called the trainer to work on a major blister on the inside of his left foot. As most of you are aware, bad blisters can be devastating for a tennis athlete due to the constant stop, start nature and the hundreds of movements that the athlete goes through in every match. Unfortunately, something as simple as blisters derailed Andy's chance of really contending at 100% for the last 2 sets of the final. This is an important lesson to everyone working with competitive athletes. The athlete is only as strong as his or her weakest link. Although every major factor was accounted for in Andy's training leading to the final, the one area that led to his downfall was something as simple as blisters. This is an important lesson to teach all athletes. Everything needs to be accounted for when preparing for a major tournament - including blisters.

3. Serena Williams Injury

Serena was a strong favorite going into the Australian Open this year; she was looking very strong in the lead up tournament in Sydney.  During her first round she rolled her right ankle 19 minutes into the match. On television it appeared to be rather severe, but she was able to still win her match 6-0 6-0 but with very little movement. Even though it was obvious that her movement was impeded, she continued to win through to the Quarterfinals where she faced the young American Sloane Stephens. Midway through the match while running for a short ball Serena aggravated a back injury which was noticeably painful. Although it is impossible to say with certainty,  the weakened ankle likely led to compensation up the leg and lower back, and this weakness and compensatory movements led her back to require movements that were atypical. This atypical movement likely was the cause of the back injury. This is an important concept to remember at any level of the game. It is important to take care of any injury (no matter how small) as an injury in the lower body can, at some point, have a deleterious effect on other parts of the body.

The Prone Scapula Retraction exercise is a very beneficial exercise for tennis athletes. The athlete faces the ground in a pushup position and slowly squeezes the shoulder blades together as demonstrated in the video. The purpose of this exercise is to help develop strength and stability in the muscles surrounding the scapula. These muscles are very important for tennis athletes to help in the prevention of shoulder related injuries. These smaller muscles that help to stabilize the scapula (shoulder blade) are very important because if they are not strong and stabilized, the smaller muscles of the rotator cuff become over active and end up performing more work than they can handle. Remember that the shoulder is a complex joint and to protect the shoulder it is important to work on improving strength, stability as well as the endurance of the muscles surrounding the joint.

For the beginner tennis player, 1-2 sets of 10 repetitions will be challenging. As the athlete develops more strength and stability this can be increased to 2-4 sets of 10-15 repetitions. It would be recommended to rest at least 60 seconds between sets.