How To Improve Tennis Elbow
By David Henry on Feb 07, 2011 with Comments 4
Learn how to improve tennis elbow – through strings and stringing. In this video, I discuss three simple tips that you (or your stringer) can employ in order to help heal tennis elbow. Of course, outside of strings and stringing, there are medical/physical therapy methods that can help as well, but I am not a medical doctor (or doctor of any kind, for that matter), so I’ll steer clear of any medical recommendations.
Thanks for checking in.
DH
Hi David, I used to string my racquet with luxilon alupower 16L (53lb) for last 5 years. But, currently, I just started to face some tennis elbow. So I switched to technifibre x one biphase 17 at 55lb. But, I have a question that many people seem to string their racquets with extremely high tension (at least over 60) with this string from technifibre. Could you explain why you need to string harder when you use multifilament strings?
Multifilaments (based on their material and construction) are often more powerful strings – definitely more powerful than a co-poly like Alu. Therefore, having a low tension on a powerful string can kind of turn your stringbed into a rocket launcher. Therefore, to compensate for the more powerful string, players tend to increase the tension – to tame the power. If you string a co-poly like Alu at the same tension as a multi like X-One (and assuming you don’t alter your strokes), you will very likely be sailing the balls long. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have further questions. Take care.
DH
Thanks for your reply David. How much tension you think I need to increase then? But, I am a bit afraid to increase the tension due to my elbow problem.
Hmm… Let me share this…
The general rule-of-thumb for going the other direction (from a multi, gut, or syn gut) to a co-poly is to reduce the tension by 10%. When I first switched from some high-end multis to Luxilon Alu Power Rough (co-poly), I reduced the tension from 65 lbs. to 62 lbs. Then from there, I decreased it in 1 lb. increments until I finally settled in at 57 lbs.
So in theory, you could just do the opposite. With your elbow probs, however, I suggest increasing 2 lbs. at first to see how you like it. Then you can tweak the tension up from there if there power is too much AND if your elbow isn’t hurting. I know testing and tweaking can be expensvie with high end multis, but it is really about the only way to settle in on the perfect tension for your game.
Take care.
DH