Racket Sports

Tennis may be considered a static and dynamic form of exercise with many well-demonstrated health benefits. Tennis has similar rates of injury to other individual recreational sports and junior competitive sports, without the catastrophic risk of contact/collision sports. Classifying tennis players into junior and elite categories versus adult recreational players may help in outlining volume of play recommendations, exposure risk, and types of injuries. Junior and elite players tend to tolerate higher volumes, have more acute and lower extremity injuries, and have more serious overuse stress injuries. Adult recreational players tend to tolerate lower volumes, have more overuse and upper extremity injuries, and more conditions that are degenerative. Many tennis players also develop asymmetric musculoskeletal adaptations, which may increase risk of specific injury. Tennis-specific evaluations may identify these at-risk segments, help guide preventive strategies including technical errors, and assist in developing return-to-play recommendations. Other racket sports such as squash, badminton, and racquetball have less data available but report both acute and traumatic injuries less commonly seen in tennis.