OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I had a severe bout of tennis elbow some years ago mainly due to ignoring the first symptoms and playing on. My physio used a combination of fingers massage in the pain area and acupuncture. This certainlly helped in my case. In addition she also advised wearing a support which prevents a full extension of the arm. She also spotted that my grip was a factor due a bent wrist action. My grip is still the same but I stretch the wrist in the opposite direction after sessions.
It has recently made a minor comeback possibly because I been careless with the support and also long sessions. Being a bit wiser I have taken action to prevent
it becoming major.

I've got tennis elbow, now, too. I took a TT camp and the past couple months I've been trying to get a lot more backspin on my chops, and that seems to have caused it, because at the end of each chop, my elbow/arm are fully extended, and that's when it hurts.

So, what should I do? Stretch, play and exercise? Rest for weeks, then stretch and exercise? I'm trying to figure out what I need to do?

I tried 2 braces so far and neither helped. I ordered another off the net, but it will be next week before it arrives. I also ordered the Thera-Band Flexbar to try to exercise it back to strength, but I need to know the sequence of things to do.

If someone could tell me what instructions they got that worked it would help a lot.

thanks

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--- Push/Chop or Attack ---
USATT 1684 left, Lost it all by playing sick and hurt.
No legs left, no more backing up, just smash it!
Blade: TTPiet OFF-/ALL custom
FH: Spinlord Waran Short Pips
BH: Joola Badman Reloaded 0X

Make sure you're not confusing tennis elbow (epicondylitis) with a hyper-extended elbow. Based on your description it sounds like you're describing the latter (I've suffered from both). For me, my professionally-diagnosed lateral epicondylitis causes pain and weakness on the top of my forearm at the point where my forearm's diameter is greatest. Hyper-extension, on the other hand, hurts me right in the bone joint of the elbow and I'm very careful not to hyper-extend, though it does happen 3-4X per year. If your normal chopping motion is causing bone joint hyper-extension pain you should alter your stroke ASAP as it's my hunch that repetitive hyper-extension of the elbow is more damaging than repetitive epicondylitis-inducing motions (bone injury vs soft tissue injury), BUT.. "I'm not a medical professional so see your doctor for proper advice."

The pain is from the tendons, not the joint, but I'll be careful. I'm going to start doing the exercises, wear a brace, and cut back to playing 4 days a week, too.

_________________
--- Push/Chop or Attack ---
USATT 1684 left, Lost it all by playing sick and hurt.
No legs left, no more backing up, just smash it!
Blade: TTPiet OFF-/ALL custom
FH: Spinlord Waran Short Pips
BH: Joola Badman Reloaded 0X

The first step is to rest it. How long will depend upon the pain you feel when playing. In my case it was so bad I did not play seriously for 2-3 months mainly because I ignored the symptoms and carried on playing. My main area of pain was in the middle of the forearm in the muscley part. It sounds that yours is not as bad and you may be able to play to some extent. I would strongly advise a visit to a good physio (sometimes hard to find). Ask around. I like ones who get hands on. My physio got her fingers into the pain area and massaged for about 15-20 minutes. I think this gets the blood flowing into that point which helps repair. She also used acupuncture but I think the massage was the main driver. She gave me some arm exercises to carry out and advised using an elbow strap. I had about 4-5 sessions. This was about four years ago. Recently I felt it coming back but by taken a break between sessions and being careful it has settled down.
I find an ice pack applied for 15-20 minutes after your session followed by a heat pack for the same time is good therapy if you feel some pain. In summary rest and find a good physio.
All the best.

Well, I broke down and went to a Dr yesterday. No medical insurance, here, so that's a major decision. The Dr I went to was quite familiar with the problem, having had it himself in the past, so that was a major comfort.

Anyway, I found out today that I need to take a break from playing for a few days and yesterday he gave me 4 exercises, not the same as any posted here, to do every other day, and wear a strap and wrist splint at night when sleeping, and wear a strap when playing, and its ok to use the over the counter anti inflammatory pills (ie aspirin, ibuprofen, naprosyn) and topical pain creams, and then ice the affected area for 15 min within 30 min after playing, and hopefully the muscles will get stronger within a couple weeks, and the pain will go away.

Thanks for the suggestions. I hope to be back to full strength within a few weeks.

_________________
--- Push/Chop or Attack ---
USATT 1684 left, Lost it all by playing sick and hurt.
No legs left, no more backing up, just smash it!
Blade: TTPiet OFF-/ALL custom
FH: Spinlord Waran Short Pips
BH: Joola Badman Reloaded 0X

Sounds to me that you have an enlightened doctor there, who appreciates the importance of physiotherapy. That bodes well, too many docs here prescribe rest and medication, for many things my first port of call is a physiotherapist. I could tell many stories (mostly relating to my athletics days) but for me, physio is usually the way to go.

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Timo Boll ALC ST
FH Tibhar Evolution MX-P Max
BH Tibhar Evolution FX-S 1.8
185g

Well, I took 4 days off the first time, and then tried playing at a club and reinjured it. So then I took 10 days off, tried playing at a club and reinjured it again.

After another rest, I tried playing again this week, but can't be playing matches because I'll just reinjure it again if I do. The backhand chop is the worst, followed by my forehand smash. That would be classified as very "not good" considering my normal style of play. So it looks like the only thing I can do is practice drills that avoid the shots that hurt. I'm also going to change rubber on both side because there isn't much point worrying about how good the forehand rubber is for smashing, or how good the backhand rubber is at chopping when I can't do those strokes anyway. I will go back to chopping or flipping the ball to someplace difficult to get to instead of smashing, and am going to try learning to block with the pips instead of chopping.

My guess at this point is that it will be at least another month before its better, and I can't play at the clubs because you need to play matches because that's ho they work, and so its very difficult to avoid it.

_________________
--- Push/Chop or Attack ---
USATT 1684 left, Lost it all by playing sick and hurt.
No legs left, no more backing up, just smash it!
Blade: TTPiet OFF-/ALL custom
FH: Spinlord Waran Short Pips
BH: Joola Badman Reloaded 0X

Sorry to hear about your tennis elbow. With respect I am assuming it took many years of playing to damage your elbow so you may have to "bite the bullet" and allow a longer recovery period. In my case 2 to 3 months. Keep the exercises going and try using your other arm for routine tasks. I am pretty good now using my left hand for lifting objects and computer mouse operation. You can try using your other arm in table tennis. I was fortunate to have a robot to hit against. Be positive and do not lose heart. It will get better and you will be smarter the next time. All the best.

No, I've only been playing a couple years recently, but what happened was I went to a camp and they helped me get more backspin on my chops, but as it turned out, chopping a lot harder and faster was hard on the tendon. Out of necessity, I'm using the other hand as much as possible, but it doesn't have good control. I'll keep at it. Unfortunately though, this is the only sport I have any fun playing. Luckily iI don't need to be playing matches for it to be fun for me.

_________________
--- Push/Chop or Attack ---
USATT 1684 left, Lost it all by playing sick and hurt.
No legs left, no more backing up, just smash it!
Blade: TTPiet OFF-/ALL custom
FH: Spinlord Waran Short Pips
BH: Joola Badman Reloaded 0X

Old man southpaw said.
I've only been playing a couple years recently, but what happened was I went to a camp and they helped me get more backspin on my chops, but as it turned out, chopping a lot harder and faster was hard on the tendon. Out of necessity, I'm using the other hand as much as possible, but it doesn't have good control. I'll keep at it. Unfortunately though, this is the only sport I have any fun playing. Luckily iI don't need to be playing matches for it to be fun for me.


That sounds good. You may have just overdone a new technique. With rest I think that should settle down fine. I found a good vigorous rub for 30s approx in the pain area several times a day helped and naprosyn is one of the best anti-inflamatory pills. All the best.

Yup, I overdid it. I was probably playing about 25 hrs a week, too, usually playing pretty hard.

I am now generally avoiding making it hurt, and wearing an elbow brace most of the time and doing stretches for it a couple times a day, followed by exercises for it every other day, or practice the other days. I massage it across the tendon for a few minutes when I get that hurt or burning feeling, and then ice it till any burning sensation is gone. At night, I'm wearing both the brace and wrist splint, and using a warm heating pad. I would say its definitely improving, but the backhand chop (which really hurts) was my best shot, and my forehand smash, when I could get it to land, was always the most fun way to win a point.

So I'm now to where I can at least hit the ball (and hit it fairly hard) a few times a week and not having too much pain. I've been trying the ibuprofen or naprosyn or aspirin, but to be honest I wish I didn't need to. I was using pain rubs before, but have stopped because I think if I had listened to my body telling me it was hurting and taken action to stop the hurting back then, instead of using the rubs to dull and mask the pain, it wouldn't have gotten this bad in the first place.

I'm hoping to get back to being able to play hard everyday, but I guess time will tell.

_________________
--- Push/Chop or Attack ---
USATT 1684 left, Lost it all by playing sick and hurt.
No legs left, no more backing up, just smash it!
Blade: TTPiet OFF-/ALL custom
FH: Spinlord Waran Short Pips
BH: Joola Badman Reloaded 0X

Yes it makes sense to stop the pills soonest. The good news is that you are just at the start of your career in table tennis terms and therfore unlikely to have a chronic problem. Also you now know what severe tennis elbow pain feels like and can take steps to avoid it in the future. Mines is a chronic condition after thirty years playing and if I feel "twinges" I just stop for a period. It sounds that you can use your other arm to some extent and that could be a challenge and useful diversion. Take care and listen to your "elbow"

Very interesting post nathanso... just took me a while to see it I've still got what I think is an tennis elbow, having the pain only just in the joint, which sounds very much like the "Hyper-extension" that you describe. I did see a GP, but he did not really check me at all... he simply suggested a cortisone injection.
I've been leaving that as a last resort, but since neither "rest" or acupuncture seems to be able to resolve my issue, I'm seriously considering the injection option...

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Hi haggisv,
this suggestion may be coming to you a little late, on masatennisi.com there are two very good articles on treating injuries, 1)Elbow, 2)Shoulder, showing diagrams of the joints in both cases and lengthy explanations enabling you to be involved in extensive excercises for a long term rehab and cure.... best of luck....

Ozzie Rooster....

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