Abstract

This retrospective analysis of injuries incurred by young tennis players shows a dominance of lower limb injuries. Factors considered important include inadequate lower limb conditioning programs, playing on hard all-weather rubberised non-slip surfaces (in terms of shock absorption and sliding capacity) and high training loads on young players. This preliminary data collected at the AIS suggests that adequate prevention and management of injuries requires comprehensive preparticipation conditioning of lower and upper limbs, an awareness of the variation of surfaces on which tennis is played and design of appropriate foot-wear. Early management of all injuries with subsequent corrective programs and exercise prescription appears to lessen the incidence of those lower limb injuries, particularly where non-slip (rubberised) playing surfaces are involved. It is recognised that, in order to make adequate comparisons of the actual incidence of injuries, the number of injuries should be expressed per man/woman hours played. However in a retrospective study of this type the data was not available to permit such comparisons. Verf.-Referat