Tennis training: trunk rotation, shoulder and elbow

The shoulder starts nagging on the serve, the forehand loses pace somewhere in the third set, and the elbow speaks up the morning after a match. Those are the three complaints club players bring up most often, and none of them is usually fixed by working on the arm itself.

Racket speed does not come from the arm

On a decent forehand or serve the order never changes: the foot pushes into the ground, the hip opens, the trunk rotates, and the arm simply delivers what has already arrived from below. The racket is the last link in the chain, not the engine.

The consequence is practical. If the hips are stiff or the trunk fails to transmit force, the arm has to make up the difference, and the shoulder and elbow end up doing a job they were not built for. That is where most of the pain starts.

So tennis training begins with leg strength and trunk control, not with forearm stretches. The same chain shows up in every rotational sport — it is even more obvious in throwing for baseball, where hip and shoulder are visibly linked.

Trunk rotation: mobile above, quiet below

The rotation tennis actually runs on comes mostly from the thoracic spine and the hips. The lower back is not designed to twist much; its job is to stay still while everything above and below turns.

That gives rotation training two halves. The first is thoracic mobility: open-book or kneeling rotations, 2 sets of 8 per side, no swinging, with a two-second hold at the end range.

The second is resisting rotation. A Pallof press with a band or cable, 3 sets of 10 per side or 3 holds of 25 seconds, teaches the trunk to refuse to turn. That is the quality that keeps you steady when you have to hit off the wrong foot or on the run.

Speed comes last. Side throws with a medicine ball into a wall, 2 to 4 kg, 4 to 5 sets of 5 per side, with a full minute and a half of rest. Do them fresh, at the start of a session — the target is speed of movement, not fatigue.

The shoulder that takes the serve

Serving drives the shoulder into end-range external rotation hundreds of times a week. Play three times a week and that is easily several thousand repetitions a month, always in the same direction and always on the same side.

Over time a familiar pattern appears: plenty of external rotation, less internal rotation, and a shoulder blade that lags behind the arm. The evidence is strongest for strengthening the external rotators and the muscles that control the scapula, rather than stretching a joint that is already loose.

Twice a week is enough: banded external rotation with the elbow at the side, 3 sets of 12 to 15 with light resistance and a slow return; bent-over rows or face pulls, 3 sets of 10; and something for the serratus, such as a wall press or push-up plus, 2 sets of 12.

You do not need heavy overhead lifting to have a strong shoulder. Control and endurance matter more here than a single maximal press. The reasoning is much the same for the volleyball shoulder that absorbs every spike.

The elbow: why it flares and what genuinely helps

Pain on the outside of the elbow usually comes from the wrist extensor tendons. They get overloaded when contact is late, when the ball is met outside the hitting zone, or when the arm is doing work the trunk should have done. A single-handed backhand and a tired forearm late in a match is the classic combination.

Tendons generally want load, not rest. Slow eccentric wrist extension with 1 to 2 kg, 3 sets of 15 with a 3 to 4 second lowering phase, three or four times a week, is one of the better supported approaches. Progress is measured in weeks, not days.

Add grip work: ball or gripper squeezes, 3 sets of 30 seconds, and loaded carries, 3 sets of 30 metres. A stronger forearm tolerates the vibration that comes back up the handle.

Equipment is not the main culprit, but it is not irrelevant either. A grip that fits your hand and strings that are not cranked to the maximum usually reduce what reaches the elbow. Change one thing at a time and give it two to three weeks before deciding whether it helped.

Fitting it into a week

For a club player on court two or three times a week, two gym sessions of 45 to 60 minutes are enough, placed on non-match days or straight after an easy hitting session.

Legs and hips form the backbone. Split squats or back squats, 3 sets of 6 to 8, plus one hamstring exercise for 3 sets of 8. If your squat technique is shaky, sort that before adding weight — squatting from scratch covers the sequence.

Footwork and braking go first, short and fresh: lateral shuffles, direction changes and hard stops, 6 to 8 reps per drill. The same principle applies in squash, where changing direction is what taxes the knee.

Shoulder and elbow prehab takes 10 to 12 minutes and can run three times a week, including before you go on court. If fatigue keeps stacking up, sleep gets worse and your racket speed drops despite rest days, those are signs of overtraining worth taking seriously.

When to see a doctor

See a doctor if shoulder or elbow pain lasts more than six to eight weeks despite reduced load and consistent rehab work, if the pain wakes you at night, if the arm feels weak or goes numb, or if the pain came on suddenly with a snap or a tearing sensation.

The same goes for a shoulder you cannot lift overhead at all, or a joint that is swollen and warm. Most other cases settle with patient loading and a look at technique.

The short version

• Shot power comes from the legs, hips and trunk; the shoulder and elbow only transmit it.
• Train rotation both ways: thoracic mobility and anti-rotation strength first, medicine ball throws for speed after.
• The shoulder needs external rotator and scapular strength twice a week, not more stretching.
• An irritable elbow settles with slow eccentric loading and stronger grip work over several weeks.
• Two gym sessions a week plus 10 minutes of prehab before court beats any single exercise.