For recreational players, tennis elbow major root causes are rushing long hours on the court without appropriate rest after a long tennis pause or wrong technique especially on one-handed backhand, backhand volley and slice backhand but more generally all shots with late body preparation.

How to avoid tennis elbow:

  • If you are back from a long tennis pause, just slow start
  • Don't overuse. Rest but never more than a week
  • Eat more fruits and vegetables. Zero alcohol. Drink a lot of water
  • Switch from one-handed to two hands backhand
  • Ask a tennis professional to help reduce the "muscling the ball" phenomen
  • Use a racket with 100in (645cm2) head size and not stiff racket. Recreational can choose Wilson Clash. Competitors should go with head auxetic 2.0 based rackets like speed which is the most versatile one
  • Play with multifilament string like the Tecnifibre TGV (gauge 16/1.30) or an hybrid setup with natural gut. Tension level for multi should be 23kgs or below. 25 kg for the natural gut. Lower tension will help the arm to be relaxed but you may loose precision in the shots
  • Play with vibration dampener
  • Play with fresh balls and fresh strings as much as possible
  • Invest in a vertical mouse if you are on the computer all day long

Recovery strategy:

  • Do not rush the process to be back on court
  • Follow an anti-inflammatory diet (add curcuma in all your meals)
  • Do your physioterapist exercices as first stage of recovery
  • Gradually introduce exercices involving wrist flex extensors and flexors like reverse wrist curl and use of a hand grip
  • Workout rehab must be no pain
  • Take the opportunity out of the court to improve your tennis IQ, cardio and legs fitness
  • Talk and review your tennis gear with a coach or a shop for an hardware update
  • Fix your technique when you are back on court

How to know when you can play again? Pinch, wrap and lock all five fingers with the other hand. Try to expand your fingers. If there is zero pain, i mean really zero, that's a win! Start gentle with 30 minutes session, wait few days, 1 hour, wait few days then go back to normal training rate. If there is any pain it must stay under control.