How to Avoid Injuries in Tennis (In-Depth Guide)

Why is it Important to Know How to Avoid Injuries? 

Tennis injuries often manifest from repetitive strain on very particular parts of the body. Key areas that often sustain minor injuries on the tennis court are the shoulders (specifically the rotator cuff), knees, wrists, and elbows. 

Whilst tennis is not a contact sport, small injuries that progress into bigger ones are actually quite common for lifeline tennis players. Most people won’t sustain an injury when playing once per week, as the impact on the body from playing a light game of tennis is relatively low. 

However, for recreational players that like to enjoy the sport more regularly, repetitive strain-related injuries are pretty common. They don’t come on immediately so it can be quite hard to predict, which is one of the reasons why learning how to prevent them in the first place is so important.  

Injuries like tennis elbow can cause discomfort, hamper your enjoyment of playing tennis and even lead to more serious harm.

How to Avoid Injuries in Tennis: 6 Tips for Stress-free Playing

So, let’s dive into exactly what preventative steps recreational and competing tennis players can take to reduce the risks of developing tennis injuries and continue to enjoy the game they love.

Warm Up Properly

The first step towards avoiding tennis injuries is an often overlooked one by recreational tennis players, and that is to warm up properly. 

Whilst it may seem boring and tedious to warm up properly every time you step onto a tennis court, this is a crucial part of warming up your muscles and priming the key areas of the body for the impact of the game. 

Getting the blood flowing through your muscles prior to playing tennis will help reduce the risk of pulling or straining any muscles or tendons, especially if you are preparing for a more intense tennis session. 

Here is a list of some of the best tennis warm-up exercises to get your heart pumping and feet moving: 

• Jumping rope
• Wall sits
• Shuttle runs
• Light jogging
• Throwing a football
• Cross over steps
• Lunges
• Shadow swings. 

Use a combination of these exercises to get yourself warmed up before your next game of tennis and you’ll be sure to avoid some of the most common tennis injuries.

Use the Right Tennis Equipment 

The next step to take toward preventing tennis injuries is using the right tennis equipment. Rackets, strings, and shoes all play into your level of comfort on the court, which of course make a huge difference to your chance of sustaining an injury. 

Using a racket that is too light or too heavy could lead to you developing tennis elbow. Similarly, using strings at the wrong tension or made from a material that doesn’t suit your playing style can force you to overcompensate with your technique and again lead to injury. 

If you are struggling to find the perfect tennis racket for you, then checking out our custom fitting service could be a real help. We take all the stress and hassle out of finding your next stick. Simply fill out our detailed questionnaire and we will recommend to you a number of racket, string, and tension options specifically tailored to suit your game. 

Wearing comfortable tennis shoes that fit well can reduce your risk of knee pain, which is a very common symptom of repetitive strain among tennis players.

Strength Training

Another great way to reduce the risk of most tennis-related injuries is to use strength training to build your muscles. Tennis is a sport that requires strength, speed, flexibility, and endurance, so there are many areas of physical fitness that require your attention. 

However, strength training in the key areas of the body that are most used in tennis will help you build a robust physique and reduce the risk of these body parts becoming injured from repetitive strain. 

The legs, shoulders, and hips are particularly important areas of the body in tennis as there are a lot of dynamic movements that require a change in direction. 

Doing strength training exercises like overhead presses and lateral raises for shoulder strength, along with squads, deadlifts, lunges, and calf raises to build up leg strength will help improve your muscular endurance and output. Then, when you are in the final stages of a long, intense tennis match, you’ll have a better chance of maintaining a high level of play and not falling victim to fatigue-induced injuries.

Learning Proper Tennis Technique

One of the most underrated ways to reduce your risk of injury when playing tennis is to try and perfect your technique.

Of course, we can’t all be smooth and silky like the great Roger Federer, but we can all try to improve our technique and be more relaxed on the court.

The reason to try and improve your technique is that smoothness and relaxation will reduce your risk of injury, as you will be placing less strain on your joints and tendons when you play. 

Playing tennis with very jerky technique or sudden, unnatural movements will increase your risk of an acute injury over time. Therefore, trying to smooth out your technique so you can stay relaxed when you play will help you avoid pain when you swing. 

The serve is a shot that can be notoriously difficult to master, and therefore lead to injuries.

This is a repetitive shot that requires the use of many different areas of the body but also places particular strain on the shoulder joints. 

Improving your serving technique, along with how to use tactics to take your game to the next level are things we will teach you in our Secrets of the Serve online course. We have worked with master performance coach Dave Ireland, who has experience playing on the ATP world tour and has coached international-level junior players, to bring you a comprehensive serve course that you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home. 

You’ll learn how to improve the mechanics of your serving technique, place your ball toss more effectively, and use a variety of speeds, spins, and placements to win more points and more matches. 

So, check out our Secrets of the Serve course today.

Understand Footwork Patterns

Another easy way to avoid injuries in tennis is to improve your footwork on the court. Firstly, this will reduce your risk of tripping and falling on the court, but also this will help you twist and turn more effectively without damaging your knees, hips, or ankles. 

Using side steps, lunges and cross-over steps rather than just running around the court will help you cover more ground more quickly and also help you decelerate more effectively. Diagonal movements are also very common in tennis, so training your body to get used to diagonal lunges will also help a lot. 

Tennis is a game of stopping and starting.

If you have to run and then stop quickly and don’t know how to do this the right way, you could easily put a lot of unnecessary strain on your joints. 

Check out our online course, the On Your Toes Footwork Guide, to take your on-court movement to the next level. 

Focus on Tennis Specific Body Parts

Finally, a great way to reduce your risk of injury on the tennis court is to focus on the specific body parts that often cause the most pain for tennis players. 

The forearms, elbows, knees, shoulders, and hips are particularly at risk of injury when playing tennis, due to the repetitive strain that is placed on them from swinging the racket and running around the court. 

Performing exercises like face pulls, wall sits, leg extensions, weighted lunges, and overhead presses will help improve your strength and reduce your risk of injury.

Once You’ve Learned How to Avoid Injuries, the Next Step is to Work On Footwork! 

Once you have taken your injury prevention game to the next level, you’ll want to start moving around the tennis court more efficiently. This will help you expend less energy, cover more ground and improve your chances of tracking down that last shot to make your opponent play one more ball. 

Our On Your Toes Footwork Guide is your perfect companion for understanding the different tennis footwork patterns for specific shots, stances to hit your shots from, and how to move around the court from different positions.

Simple Guide to Avoiding Injuries in Tennis

Overall, learning how to avoid tennis injuries will improve your longevity and enjoyment on the tennis court, whilst also helping you lead a happier and healthier life overall. 

Using techniques like strength training, effective warm-ups, and focusing on making areas of the body at particular risk of acute injury more robust are all great ways to avoid injuries on the tennis court. 

For more free tennis-related content, check out these articles below: 

• Best Tennis Rackets for Tennis Elbow
• Most Arm Friendly and Flexible Tennis Rackets
• Tennis Warm Up Games