Injuries may go deeper than expected

Have you ever wondered if the injuries that players pick up are more to do with court conditions than fitness regimes ?

If a player has taken a few years to fine tune his game and technique, its stands to reason that his body will evolve to those practices.

If the events suddenly change their direction and slow/speed up courts and/or change the size and weight of the ball, this will initiate the player having to change his style/technique.

The question is, can the body evolve quick enough to sync with the changes. If not, does this comparative difference provide a catalyst to injuries ?

It must be very difficult for many top players to constantly tweak their shot making skills to accommodate these changes in court and equipment conditions. I wonder if this is adding more than a fair share to the injury list we see on a monthly basis. Its hard enough trying to change from different court surfaces on tour, let alone their, what is now, seemingly unfamiliar conditions that are becoming more difficult to predict than ever before.

I think it's more fitness than conditions. Conditions have been same more or less, hard courts are hard courts however slow or fast.

Physicality of the game is what's killing the bodies at the moment. There's only so much a body can take before snapping.

Hard court surfaces have changed dramatically over the last 20 years.

Take The Ozzie open, it was a Rebound Ace surface until 2008, then it was changed to Plexicushion Prestige. The old surface was hot and had less bounce. The new surface is cooler and thinner, giving the ball a higher bounce and faster through speed. Add into the equation, different levels of sand and different thicknesses of the acrylic layer, and you have a different ball game altogether.

I understand your point about fitness levels, but I don't actually buy into the theory that its killing the bodies, many top athletes are more fitter and stronger than their predecessors, but you do not see the same intensity or frequency of injuries on the track and field as you see in tennis.

Hard courts are unforgiving at the best of times, the longer a point goes on, the more treacherous the match can become and in this I think the courts play a big part in breaking the body down and pushing what would be small injuries into worse ones.

Good post, Jubba, I would really like to see some statistical evidence here if any exists that shows that we have more injuries now on tour than we had in the past. Lets remember the courts have been slowed down and the new balls have been around for about a decade. To me this is the best and least explored argument of those bemoaning slow conditions. Yet, I haven't seen anything beyond anectodal evidence that careers are being shortened or that injuries have increased. I mean inside the top 10 Soderling is the only one out long term and that because of mono which has nothing to do with the courts. Novak for all the tough matches he has had has basically averaged 80 matches a year for 5 years running. Roger has had great health for the length of his career. And outside a niggle here and there murray has pretty much played straight through the last few years as well. Ferrer, another grinder who plays a heavy schedule and has enjoyed pretty good health over his career, Roddick the same.

So I haven't yet seen a firm statistical argument for an increase in injuries due to the slower conditions we have witnessed over the last decade.

Good point socal, I'm not sure either on the "facts" or stats relating to injury V career over the last 20 years.

But on memory alone, I feel that the niggling injuries we used to see, have blossomed into more persistent ones and I again feel that the courts are more to blame for this than fitness regimes alone or may even be held more accountable than we think.

I base this solely on the fact that players today have to tweak their games far more frequently than they had to do in the past. Most surfaces then were more consistent, and there were two grass slams up until 1988 (I think!) which allowed players less strain on their bodies.

To have to change your swing at every tournie you play must have some effect on the transition of muscle memory to the new conditions, tendons are placed under different tensions and from slightly different angles. Direction of swing planes need to be altered to accommodate the different heights, yes, they have all had to do that from surface to surface way back in time, but Concrete and Asphalt was a common surface to play on years ago and grass had similar conditions between the UK and Oz, although the speeds were different. It seems to me that only a few decades ago, the players had less conditions to evolve their game to, and this today, to me, contributes more to injury than ever before.

Well, Jubba interestingly the big complaint is not that the players have to adjust to different conditions. Most of those criticizing the conditions argue that the conditions are the same and all lead to a grinding type of play. Certainly, the dominance of hardcourt events does result in more injuries. Playing on clay and grass you don't get that impact beating you take from running and cutting on hardcourt. I would love to see the tour really commit to more grass court events and cut back some hardcourt events. I think that would certainly help. So again we are left wondering because we don't know if there are more injuries, and then if there are more injuries are these injuries as a result of too much hardcourt play or just heavier balls and slower conditions? Would really be interested in seeing some evidence or stats on these points. It is just hard to make a determination on anecdotal or observational evidence.

I'm not talking explicitly about the pounding of the surface on the body, more the physical adjustments players have to make in their week to week tour of the world.

The position of the shot eg: the height and angle that the racquet takes and how the players positions his body relative to the shot, may take its toll in the long run. Try asking a track athlete to change his technique at every event they enter and you may see some change in the amount of injuries they sustain, if this is done on a regular basis.

That may be an obscure example, but the only one I can think right now, but I'm still in favour of the opinion that making small adjustments on a regular basis can hide the impact they make on the body. I suppose if you ask a weight lifter to pull up with pressure more to one side than the other, the effect will be a pulled muscle on the opposite side, if you see what I mean.

I am researching MTOs and injury withdrawals. Anecdotal evidence indicates the higher physicality of the game, as Laver noted yesterday - during the ESPN Federer-Del Potro match, does point to higher incidence of injuries. He made a point of mentioning the AO 2012 final.

My research may be slow, though.

Fitness regimes are driven by court conditions which are driven by fitness regimes, it is a circular and hence evolutionary and progressive condition, much akin to technology, overall as well as specific to Tennis.

I can't deny that physicality has contributed to injuries, but I don't think it is the only reason that players seem to be injured for longer periods than in the past.

If fitness regimes are driven by court conditions, then it seems acceptable to assume that any differentiation between those conditions is going to adversely affect those regimes. Nobody can train to be 100% accustomed to every condition and to be honest, there are many deviations between event surfaces around the globe.