Another disclaimer: As I said, I’m a Level E player, what do I know? This is just my experience.

Sometimes it’s unbelievable how thick some people can be. A year and a half ago I developed tennis elbow. I had a one handed backhand and I was hitting the ball too late – my elbow was leading my racket. Essentially I was pushing the ball instead of launching the racket at it.

A year and a half later, I have tennis elbow again. It’s not my backhand, I switched to a two hander. This time it’s my forehand. I tracked down the same physical therapist who rescued me before, Andy Choi at Vert Therapy, and here’s what he found.

As far as I can tell, the most important thing in tennis is to get the ball over the net and into the other court. To do this, I changed my stroke to get topspin on the ball so that it would go higher over the net but also dip down and stay inside the court when it gets there. I added a loop in my backswing so that I could get under the ball more and lift it. Big mistake.

I think the biggest problem contributing to tennis elbow is the mistaken idea that you swing at the ball with your arm. O.k., it’s pretty hard to swing at the ball without your arm but it’s actually your trunk that does the twisting and swinging. Your backswing is actually a trunk twist. Your racket goes back because you twist in that direction. Your racket moves forward because you step forward and twist in that direction. At the end of the step and twist, your racket’s momentum is going to carry it beyond the twist but it’s your trunk providing most of the firepower.

I should have figured this out, my gym sessions consist of endless twisting exercises. Twists while bent over a ball, twists while straddling a ball, twists while pulling a cable, twists while hugging a medicine ball. Still, it takes an injury to sink in.

These are the errors I introduced by changing my swing:

1. I was taking my trunk twist out of the backswing by putting the loop
   in it.
2. I was hitting the ball with an open racket face to get more lift thereby exposing my elbow to extra strain.
3. I was dropping my racket and therefore my wrist to get under the ball which put my wrist in a weak position.
4. Oh yeah, and I was still hitting the ball late.

These are the changes I have to make:

1. Twist my trunk on my back and forward swing.
2. Bend my knees as I hit the ball in front of me with a neutral wrist position and closed racket face.
3. Swing through and brush up the ball instead of just brush up.
4. Catch my racket at the end of my swing to avoid overtwisting my forearm.

Twist, bend, hit, swing and catch. Twist, bend, hit, swing and catch. Twist, bend, hit, swing and catch. Twist, bend, hit, swing and catch. My new mantra.