As a tennis player in Melbourne, you’ve probably felt that dreaded niggle in your shoulder – the kind that starts as a subtle tightness during warm-ups but escalates into a sore, pulled sensation mid-match. Maybe your serve felt off during that last game, or you’ve been struggling with worsen pain throughout a match leaving you with that feeling of, “my shoulder’s gone”.
It’s frustrating when you lose power on your serve, turning what should be a weapon into a liability. If you’re an injured tennis player dealing with these issues, you’re not alone. At Shannon Clinic, your trusted tennis injury chiropractor Melbourune, we specialize in helping athletes like you get back on the court stronger and pain-free.
Shoulder pain in tennis often stems from overuse, especially when training loads aren’t managed properly. Whether you’re a weekend warrior or a competitive player navigating Melbourne’s vibrant tennis scene, understanding load management can be a game-changer. Let’s dive into how to handle it, drawing on proven principles to keep you playing without the constant worry of injury flare-ups.
The Basics of Load Management: Keeping Your Shoulder in the Game
Load management is all about balancing how much stress you put on your body during training and matches. It’s not just about hitting fewer balls; it’s about smart progression to avoid those spikes that lead to soreness and pain. A key tool here is the Acute Chronic Workload Ratio (ACWR), a simple way to track if your playing load is within a safe range, or is it putting you at risk of an injury.
Understanding the Acute Chronic Worload Ratio
Think of ACWR like this: Your “acute” load is the total training volume for the current week (our preferred metric is minutes spent on court, rather than games, sets or matches played, which vary in time length). Your “chronic” load is the average load across the previous four weeks. The ratio is acute divided by chronic. If it’s between 0.8 and 1.3, you’re in a safe zone – your body is adapting well. But if it jumps above 1.5, you’re at higher risk of injury because the sudden increase in load leads to tissue breakdown as a result of inadequate rest and recovery time for the tissues to adapt and strengthen.
For tennis players, this isn’t just theory. Research on junior tennis players shows that those with an ACWR of 1.5 or higher had about 1.5 times more training load in the past week compared to the prior 4 weeks, before injury. In a study specifically examining shoulder complaints and injury in competitive adolescent tennis players, they found acute load spikes lead to an increase in shoulder complaints and injury.
Another analysis of high-performance players found that ratios over 1.3 increased injury risk by 1.6 times, with even higher spikes (like 1.5+) doubling the risk. These findings highlight when players start feeling like they are “losing power on their serve” after an intensive week or two of training and matches, that it is overload to the tendons that are likely the problem.
As your Melbourne city chiropractor, we at Shannon Clinic emphasize monitoring loads to prevent these issues. It’s especially crucial for shoulders, which bear the brunt of repetitive overhead motions in tennis.
👉 Would you like to understand load management in more detail? We have you covered.
Comprehending Tendinopathy: Why Your Shoulder Hurts Without a Major Tear
Shoulder pain in tennis isn’t always from a traumatic injury like a labrum or rotator cuff tear, which in reality seldomly occur acutely in elite players. Often, it’s tendinopathy – a condition where tendon pain, swelling and tissue breakdown occurs due to mismanaged loads. To make sense of this, let’s look at the tendon continuum model by expert physiotherapist Jill Cook. This model stages tendinopathy into 3 stages, helping explain why some pains hit suddenly while others linger.
3 Stage of the Tendinopathy Continuum
- Reactive Tendinopathy: This is the early stage, triggered by a sharp spike in load. Imagine cramming extra serve drills into a short week – your tendon reacts with pain, non-inflammatory swelling and increased stiffness. The tendon has the ability to revert back to a normal tendon if the load reduces or there is sufficient recovery time between loading sessions. For players, this might show up as pain after an acute overload, like a tournament weekend without proper preparation. With subsequent stiffness which resolves early in the warm up.
- Tendon Dysrepair: This state occurs after reactive tendinopathy and can be difficult to clinically differentiate from a reactive tendon. It occurs as the reactive tendon tries to repair, however consistent loading insult to the tendon results in a more substantial breakdown of the tendon architecture as compared to reactive tendinopathy.
- Degenerative (or Chronic) Tendinopathy: If loads stay high or inconsistent over time, the tendon moves into degeneration. Here, there is more extensive cellular breakdown down , leading to intermittent pain that’s been nagging for weeks or months. It’s common in players who’ve pushed through niggles without rest, resulting in struggling serves and reduced power.
According to Cook’s model, reactive tendinopathy is a short-term response to overload, while the degenerative stage involves long-term changes like collagen disorganization and cellular breakdown. That is, the building blocks of the tendon degrade meaning they are unable to tolerate the loads placed on them.
In tennis, load spikes directly link to this, causing shoulder pain even without structural damage such as a cuff tear. That “pulled” feeling? It can stem from these changes, weakening the tendon and slashing serve speed – hence players use phrases like “lost power on serve” or “shoulder’s gone.”
Mitigating Risks: Practical Tips for Load Management and Recovery
The good news? Managing loads can slash your injury risks and keep shoulder pain at bay. Start simple: Use a stopwatch app on your phone to log minutes spent on court each session. Set up a serve counter during practice to monitor your serve count. Track weekly totals and calculate your ACWR. In our book on injury prevention in tennis we provide an easy to use spreadsheet example of how to manage court and serve loads. Aim to gradually increase loads by no more than 10-15% per week to avoid spikes.
Don’t forget off-court work. Strength and conditioning builds healthy shoulder strength and balances range of motion, countering the asymmetries from one-sided tennis strokes. As weakness and imbalances around the shoulder are associated with an increased risk of a shoulder injury. Focus on rotator cuff and scapular stability exercises, core stability, and mobility drills – these fortify your tendons against overload.
Know when to seek help. If pain persists beyond a few days, is sharp during serves, or you are noticing a drop in speed and/or accuracy, it’s time for a professional assessment. As a leading Melbourne sports chiropractor, Shannon Clinic offers tailored evaluations to identify tendinopathy, assess for cuff and scapular weakness and imbalances, in addition to creating recovery programs. Early intervention from a chiropractor in Melbourne can prevent minor niggles from becoming chronic issues.
Final Serve: Empower Yourself with Knowledge
Managing shoulder loads isn’t about playing less – it’s about playing smarter to stay injury-free. By tracking your ACWR, respecting the tendon continuum, and incorporating strength work, you can reclaim that powerful serve without the pain.
Dr. Shannon and Carlos E. Martinez comprehensively cover load management and much more in their book on injury prevention in tennis. Buy your copy here: Injury Prevention for Tennis Players: A Comprehensive Guide to Staying Injury-Free on the Court.
Ready to tackle your shoulder pain? Book an appointment at Shannon Clinic, your go-to Melbourne city chiropractor, and let’s get you back swinging with confidence.
